Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

byline: Beth JoJack

CACI strikes $1.27B deal to buy RF electronics provider

CACI International has entered into a $1.275 billion definitive agreement to acquire Azure Summit Technology, the Reston-based Fortune 1000 government contractor announced Monday.

Based in Fairfax and founded in 2007, Azure Summit develops high-performance radio frequency (RF) hardware and software for the U.S. Department of Defense. 

Pending regulatory approval, the all-cash deal is expected to close in the second quarter of FY 2025.

The purchase expands CACI’s offerings in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare and signals intelligence, CACI President and CEO John Mengucci explained in a statement.  

“For our shareholders, the acquisition of Azure Summit is compelling both strategically and financially,”  Mengucci stated. “It not only enhances our offerings in areas of enduring national security priorities but also brings with it an installed base of fielded, mature technology. And, from a financial standpoint, it will be immediately accretive across multiple financial metrics.”

Founded in 1962, CACI has 24,000 employees and reported $7.7 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue.

Cannabis authority chooses Shenandoah Valley provider

On Thursday morning, the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority selected AYR Virginia, a wholly owned subsidiary of AYR Wellness, a cannabis operator in eight states, as the winner of a conditional approval that puts it on the path to become the sole licensed pharmaceutical processor of medical cannabis for a region of Virginia that includes the entire Shenandoah Valley, as well as the cities of Charlottesville and Fredericksburg and the counties of Spotsylvania and Stafford.

If AYR Virginia goes on to successfully meet requirements necessary to obtain a pharmaceutical processor permit, the company will be free to engage in “vertically integrated operations,” which includes cultivating cannabis plants, producing marijuana products and selling to qualified medical marijuana patients.

Virginia has issued four pharmaceutical processor permits to serve other areas of the state. Ownership of the companies holding those permits are tied to three out-of-state companies.

A request asking AYR Wellness for comment was not immediately returned Thursday. According to a CCA news release, AYR Virginia plans to open a medical cannabis facility in Clear Brook, north of Winchester.

Thirty-three applicants tied in scoring determined by a CCA committee. The CCA then conducted a lottery with a random-number generating website to select the winner, which was AYR Virginia. The lottery is posted on YouTube.

Tanner Johnson, CEO of Pure Virginia, which applied for the conditional approval, issued this statement Thursday:  “It has been clear for some time that there were problems with the CCA process and evaluation and we are even more concerned by what we heard today.”

Pure Virginia, which is connected to Pure Shenandoah, an Elkton-based, family-run CBD and hemp products business, invested more than $500,000 in preparations to win the conditional permit, according to Johnson.

The CCA received 41 complete applications from companies eager to be granted the sole permit to serve medical marijuana customers in the state’s health service area 1 (HSA 1). Each company paid an $18,000 fee to be considered.

The HSA 1 region has not had a licensed medical marijuana dispensary available since the state began issuing pharmaceutical processor licenses in 2018.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by Virginia Business, the CCA named Brianna Bonat, Bette Brand, Wendy Hupp, Jeremy Preiss and Anthony D. Williams as members of the committee that scored the applications. Brand and Williams sit on the CCA board and Preiss is the authority’s acting head and chief officer, while Bonat is its health policy and data manager and Hupp is its finance director.

In April, Preiss said the state authority planned to announce which company had been selected by the end of June. However, at a June CCA board meeting, Shawn Casey, deputy chief of CCA’s regulatory, policy and external affairs office, said CCA staff and legal counsel needed more time to study the scoring of the applications and to ensure the authority’s choice complies with all regulatory requirements.

At a virtual meeting of the CCA board held Thursday, Preiss recommended that the winner of the lottery, AYR Virginia, receive the conditional approval. The board members approved this recommendation.

Eric Postow, a Fairfax County-based managing partner for Holon Law Partners, said he wasn’t surprised that several applications received high rankings, noting that Virginia has a number of professionals able to put together quality applications for companies who want to operate as a pharmaceutical processor of medical marijuana.

“Like five years ago, there was only a handful of folks that could do sophisticated application work and really think through all those issues,” he says. “Now [there are] just dozens of folks that can.”

AYR Virginia will have a year to meet all requirements necessary to obtain the permit, including completing required background checks.

The competition for the conditional permit reflects the lucrative nature of the license. Virginia patients paid an average $14 per gram for medical cannabis flower at dispensaries, compared with $10 in Florida and Pennsylvania, according to a November 2023 market study conducted for the CCA. While the authority doesn’t currently track sales revenues, the state’s dispensaries made 3.4 million medical cannabis dispensations in 2023, according to a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health Professions.  The Virginia Board of Pharmacy oversaw the state’s medical marijuana program until January of this year, when the CCA took over that responsibility.

Medical marijuana patients in HSA 1 have had to travel to access the product since Virginia granted five regional permits to produce medical marijuana in 2018. Preiss has been vocal about wanting to fill that gap.

The processor initially given a conditional permit for HSA 1 in 2018 was PharmaCann Virginia, originally a subsidiary of Illinois-based PharmaCann. However, that permit was revoked in 2020 after the company failed to build a facility by the December 2019 deadline.

PharmaCann Virginia filed suit against the Virginia Board of Pharmacy in Henrico County Circuit Court in September 2020. In April 2023, Virginia’s Court of Appeals agreed with the circuit court, which rejected PharmaCann Virginia’s argument that the Board of Pharmacy treated it differently than the four other pharmaceutical processors in the state. In February, the CCA issued a notice of applications to solicit applications for a permit to operate a pharmaceutical processor.

“Establishing a medical cannabis operator in HSA 1 is overdue,” John Keohane, chairman of the CCA Board, said in a statement. “Patients in this area have waited far too long to have access to the medical cannabis products they need. AYR Virginia’s entry into the market will make a significant difference in their lives.”

AYR Wellness reported revenue of $463.6 million for fiscal 2023.

Mike Tabor, CEO of Integra Vertical, an Albemarle County company that applied to be considered as the HSA 1 provider, said he was disappointed his company wasn’t selected but added, “We are happy to see the process finally moving forward for the benefit of the patients.”

The 33 applicants that tied with the highest scores were:

  • AYR Virginia
  • Bear River Cannabis
  • Blue Ridge Cannabis
  • Blue Ridge Medical
  • CLVA
  • Curaleaf Compassionate Care VA
  • Green Circle Virginia
  • Green Plus Virginia
  • Green Power Virginia
  • Green Square Virginia
  • Greenridge Medicinal
  • Growth Circle Virginia
  • Growth Plus Virginia
  • Growth Power Virginia
  • Growth Square Virginia
  • H.I. Virginia
  • Health Circle Virginia
  • Health Plus Virginia
  • Health Power Virginia
  • Health Square Virginia
  • Medical Circle Virginia
  • Medical Plus Virginia
  • Medical Power Virginia
  • Medical Square Virginia
  • Pure Virginia
  • TheraTrue Virginia
  • True Circle Virginia
  • True Plus Virginia
  • True Power Virginia
  • True Square Virginia
  • Trulieve VA
  • Verano Virginia
  • VMCC Wellness

BWX Technologies names Nuclear Operations Group head

BWX Technologies has tapped Gary D. Camper to be president of BWXT Nuclear Operations Group, according to a Tuesday announcement.

Based in Lynchburg, Camper will lead more than 5,000 employees at five sites across four states, all of whom are manufacturing nuclear reactor components and fuel for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers.

Camper has worked for four decades at BWXT, according to a company spokesperson. Previously, he served as vice president of contracts and procurement and as chief operating officer of the Nuclear Operations Group.

“Gary’s unparalleled knowledge of our business and customers positions him well to lead us into the future,” Kevin McCoy, president of BWXT Government Operations, stated in a news release.

Camper earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Old Dominion University. He sits on the industrial advisory board of the ODU engineering department and is co-chair of the executive committee for the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program in Danville.

Ranking No. 999 on the 2024 Fortune 1000 list, BWXT has roughly 7,800 employees and 14 major operating sites across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Electra.aero names new CEO

Electra.aero has named B. Marc Allen its new CEO, succeeding founder John S. Langford, who will remain chairman, the Manassas-based aviation startup announced Thursday.

Allen spent the bulk of his career, nearly two decades, at Boeing, which is headquartered in Arlington County. Since 2020, he served as chief strategy officer and senior vice president for strategy and corporate development. In that role, he was responsible for overarching strategy, including long-term planning, global business and corporate development and strategic investments, acquisitions and divestitures.

In 2014, Allen was appointed to Boeing’s executive council and later became president of subsidiary Boeing International. He stepped down as chief strategy officer at the end of 2023, part of a reorganization of Boeing’s strategy arm that eliminated the job. In January, a Boeing jet experienced a midair blowout of a 4-foot wall panel while passengers were on an Alaska Airlines flight. The incident led to a C-suite shakeup and federal fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as declining orders and sales.

Allen earned a degree in political theory at Princeton University and finished law school at Yale. Early in his career, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Backed by Lockheed Martin Ventures, Electra builds hybrid-electric Ultra Short airplanes that fly people and cargo without airports, emissions or noise. The company has more than 2,000 orders from more than 50 commercial clients, as of January, and in November 2023, Electra’s hybrid prototype aircraft, the EL-2 Goldfinch, took off for the first time at the Manassas airport.

Langford, an aerospace entrepreneur who previously founded Aurora Flight Sciences, which develops air vehicles and technology, and Athena Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of control and navigation solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles, launched Electra in 2020. Since then he has served as both chairman and CEO. With Allen’s appointment, Langford will continue on as chairman, focusing on long-term strategy and innovation.

“I am not going anywhere; I’m just splitting my job,” Langford wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

Langford built a friendship with Allen when Aurora Flight Sciences was acquired by Boeing in November 2017, he noted in the post.

“Marc’s exceptional background in global business and strategic leadership makes him the ideal choice to guide Electra into its next phase of growth,” Langford stated in a news release.

Electra has about 45 employees, according to a spokesperson. In 2023, the company received a Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. Commonwealth Commercialization Fund grant, as well as an investment from VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners.

Portsmouth business owner pleads guilty to $1.3M Medicaid fraud

The owner of a Portsmouth home health care and mental health care services business with a location in Chesapeake pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from illegally receiving more than $1.32 million through Medicaid fraud, the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday. 

Whitteney Guyton pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and six counts of making false statements; she owned and operated Synergy Health Systems, according to an indictment filed March 22, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth M. Yusi and Clayton D. LaForge are prosecuting the case. 

Guyton has more than 23,000 followers on TikTok, where she describes herself as a “mother, wife, owner of consulting firm, real estate, restaurant and fashion line,” and sometimes discusses building wealth. In addition to Synergy, Guyton is CEO of We Buy the Block, a real estate investment group, and was a co-owner of a Hampton brewing company that closed in 2023. In 2022, Guyton was included in a Virginia Business list of 100 People to Meet in 2023. 

From June 2016 through October 2018, Guyton engaged in a scheme to defraud the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), which administers Medicaid in the state, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged. Guyton billed Medicaid for services she claimed Synergy provided; however, the company’s records were “falsified, incomplete, failed to comply with basic Medicaid requirements, and included inflated time,” according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Medicaid requires assessments by a registered nurse for personal care and by a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) for mental health services. Guyton had a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) contractor from 2016 to July 2017, but did not have another LMHP to conduct assessments or reassessments until October 2018. 

“Guyton instructed her staff to forge the original LCSW’s signature on assessments and certifications,” the release noted. “Guyton and Synergy submitted documents to DMAS for authorization for [mental health support services] for over 35 patients that contained forged signatures and authorizations, fraudulently billing and receiving over $740,000 from DMAS.”

Additionally, Guyton and Synergy forged signatures of a registered nurse and fraudulently billed over $50,000 from DMAS, and Synergy billed an additional $480,000 for patients in hospitals or health care facilities or for patients who didn’t have documentation of assessments being performed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 10, 2025, Guyton faces up to 10 years in prison. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Smithfield separates from European arm

Smithfield Foods announced Tuesday that its European operations have been carved into an independent subsidiary. The action takes place a little over a month after Smithfield’s Chinese parent company, WH Group, which has its headquarters in Hong Kong, announced plans to take the company public in the United States. 

Smithfield Europe, now to be called Morliny Foods, will operate as a subsidiary of the WH Group, like Virginia-based Smithfield Foods. 

“It’s the right time to establish our North American and European operations as stand-alone businesses empowered to execute distinct strategies addressing different market environments and opportunities,” Smithfield Foods President and CEO Shane Smith stated in a news release. “In doing so, we provide our respective management teams with increased decision-making agility, optimizing the performance and prospects for each business.”

A spokesperson for Smithfield declined to comment beyond the press release Tuesday. 

Smithfield Foods was delisted on the New York Stock Exchange after WH Group purchased the company in 2013 for $4.7 billion. On July 14, the parent company announced that Smithfield Foods businesses operated in the United States and Mexico would be listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. 

S&P Global Ratings released a research update Tuesday that stated Smithfield Foods’ credit profile has been unaffected by the European carveout and that WH Group is likely to remain in charge of the business.

“While we are aware of WH Group’s proposal to list Smithfield on a U.S. stock exchange, we currently believe the parent would maintain a substantial long-term majority stake in the business,” the credit reporting agency said. “As such, we continue to believe Smithfield remains important to the group’s long-term strategies and is unlikely to be sold.” 

The largest pork producer in the United States, Smithfield has about 35,000 employees nationwide, according to a company spokesperson.

In January 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made headlines for taking the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill out of the running for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. electric vehicle battery factory over concerns about a project partner’s ties to the Chinese government. The same year, he signed a bill prohibiting foreign adversaries of the United States from “acquiring or transferring any interest in agricultural land.”

In March 2023, Smith told the Wall Street Journal that Smithfield Foods is “as American today as we were in 2013.”

Roanoke-area pediatrician is suspended over alleged sexual, profane comments

Following complaints from co-workers and patients’ parents over sexual and profane comments, the Virginia Board of Medicine suspended the medical license of Roanoke-area pediatrician Dr. Dalton M. Renick on Aug. 22, stating that “a substantial danger to public health or safety” warranted Renick’s summary suspension.

The board’s Notice of Formal Hearing included allegations that Renick, who formerly worked for Carilion Clinic in Roanoke County and New Beginnings Pediatrics in Blacksburg, used sexual and profane language with some patients and their guardians, including comparing syringe feeding a newborn to oral sex and stating that the smell of newborns makes him “want to f**k them.”

In a statement posted on Facebook, New Beginnings noted that Renick “is no longer employed or has any association with New Beginnings Pediatric.” Carilion Clinic issued a statement noting that Renick was terminated by the health system on Feb. 8 and that Carilion is cooperating with the state Board of Medicine’s inquiry. “The claims contained in the Board of Medicine Notice of Hearing are concerning to us, and we take such allegations very seriously,” Carilion Clinic said in the statement. 

While state medicine board documents do not mention where Renick worked for Carilion, the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System’s Provider Identifier Registry connects Renick with the address of Carilion’s Postal Drive pediatrics office in Roanoke County. 

The Board of Medicine’s order noted that a hearing will be set “within a reasonable time” to hear evidence and act on allegations against Renick, who could not be reached for comment Monday.

The board’s notice notes an interview with a Carilion senior director of outpatient pediatrics who reported hearing about behavioral issues with Renick, “mostly related to the use of foul language,” shortly after he was hired by Carilion in August 2021. These included “dropping the ‘f-bomb’ in front of children who were old enough to repeat the language.” After being coached on his behavior, it improved “a bit,” including to the director.  

Additionally, the notice includes allegations that Renick made inappropriate comments about Black, Asian and intellectually disabled people. Another section of the notice includes an interview with a section chief of general pediatrics who stated that Renick had said that “people don’t get my sense of humor.”

New Beginnings Pediatrics in Blacksburg did not return a request for comment. In the Facebook post, the medical office stated that its leadership learned about the allegations against Renick on Aug. 22. “This was not made accessible to the public, including us, until then, and we have responded as fast as possible,” New Beginnings Pediatrics stated.

The post also stated that the office has not received any complaints about Renick. “We remain committed to providing the best care possible to our families and will protect our patients and their families at all costs,” it added. 

On a Roanoke section of the social network and discussion forum Reddit, one poster mentioned Renick had been recommended for neurodivergent patients. Another poster on the site described taking their three children to see Renick at Carilion and that he “was the only … [pediatrician] who listened to [me] about my oldest’s behaviors/delays and got us the referrals we’d desperately needed. We never had encounters of this nature.”

Another Reddit poster on the site thanked “every single employee who came forward and spoke out against him and brought this to light,” noting that Renick was a popular pediatrician in Roanoke. 

 

Martinsville industrial property sells for $2.35M

An entity connected to Time Equities, a New York diversified investment, development, asset and property management and alternative energy company, purchased a 99,500-square-foot industrial building in Martinsville currently leased by Atlas Molded Products on Aug. 14 for $2.35 million, according to real estate records and a Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer news release. 

Time Equities will use the facility at 445 Industrial Park Drive, which sits on 6.8 acres, as an investment, according to Barry Ward, first vice president at Thalhimer.

Tri-State Foam Products began manufacturing expanded polystyrene for commercial building industries at 445 Industrial Park Dr. in 1984, according to Thalhimer leasing materials. “That product has been made in that building for a very long time,” said Ward. 

In 2012, what was then Atlas EPS, a division of Georgia-based Atlas Roofing Corp., purchased Tri-State Foam Products, according to the company’s website. In 2019, Atlas Roofing Corp. changed the name of its EPS division to Atlas Molded Products.

“It’s a strategic location for Atlas, for sure, and [Time Equities] felt really good about the purchase because of Atlas historical work in the market,” said Ward. 

Ward and Clay Taylor of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled negotiations on behalf of the seller, EJS Co., an entity with a Florida address. Price Gutshall of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented the purchaser.

Virginia Housing board elects officers

Members of the Virginia Housing Development Authority’s Board of Commissioners elected Sarah Barrie Stedfast chair, the organization announced last week. 

Stedfast is venture president at Norfolk’s RW Towne Mortgage, a subsidiary of TowneBank Mortgage, and is active in the Virginia and Tidewater mortgage bankers associations. She has a degree in business finance from Virginia Tech. 

William C. Shelton of Charlottesville was tapped to be vice chair. Shelton, with his family, owns Vintage Virginia Apples, an orchard and fruit tree catalog, and Albemarle CiderWorks, a cidery with a tasting room in North Garden. He served as the director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development for two decades before retiring in 2015, and is a founding board member at Locus, formerly known as Virginia Community Capital, a community development bank. 

New board members Robinson Development Group Vice President Dare Ruffin and 4th Generation Home Builders Senior Vice President Michael Olivieri, both of Virginia Beach, and Matthew Fields, Buchanan County’s director of economic development and tourism, were welcomed at the August meeting. Board members are appointed by the governor.

Virginia Housing is a nonprofit that provides mortgages, primarily for first-time homebuyers, and financing for rental developments and neighborhood revitalization efforts. The organization raises money in capital markets to fund the loans. 

Inventory grew in Va. housing market in July

Inventory grew for Virginia’s housing market in July, according to Virginia Realtors data released Aug. 21. 

At the end of July, there were 19,162 active listings in the state, which was 4,223 more listings than in July 2023 — a 28.3% increase. Of those listings, 12,439 came onto the market in July, a 13.6% increase from the same time last year. 

“Virginia’s inventory of active listings has been expanding every month so far in 2024,” Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors, stated in a news release. “Even with more listings, the overall supply level remains tight and continues to favor sellers with the average sold-to-list price ratio above 100%.”

In July, 9,947 homes sold in Virginia, up 962 sales, or 10.7%, from July 2023.

The statewide median sales price in July was $426,000. That’s $26,000 higher than the median price last July, a 6.5% increase.

“Because demand still far outweighs supply in Virginia’s housing market, it’s likely that these conditions will continue putting upward pressure on prices as we approach the fall market,” Tom Campbell, president of Virginia Realtors, said in a statement. 

Homes in Virginia stayed on the market for a median of ten days in July, three days longer than in July 2023. 

The statewide housing market had 8,643 pending sales last month, which is 326 more than in July 2023, a 3.9% increase. 

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on Aug. 22 was 6.46%, according to Freddie Mac data. 

“Amid a competitive market, one welcome piece of news is that mortgage rates have been trending downward,” Virginia Realtors CEO Terrie Suit said in a statement. “If this trend continues, it is likely to bring more buyers and also sellers into the market.”