Global enterprise software company IFS announced last week that it had agreed to buy Axios Systems PLC, a Scottish IT company whose North American headquarters is located in Herndon. Terms of the acquisition, expected to be complete in the second quarter, were undisclosed.
IFS said March 22 that its acquisition of Axios, which provides cloud-based enterprise service management software, would help it continue to grow its service management business, which it said grew more than 100% last year.
Axios CEO and founder Tasos Symeonides said the deal would help current customers, which include Aviva, KPMG and FedEx, and build new ones. “In IFS we found the ideal strategic partner and are now playing a role in helping IFS extend its leadership in enterprise service management,” he said in the announcement.
IFS CEO Darren Roos called it a “significant” acquisition in a statement: “The ability to monetize service creates a competitive edge. Today customers want service: reliably and consistently, but there is a missing piece; companies need to be able to leverage customers, people and assets and not only articulate the true value but also ‘design for serviceability.’”
Arlington-based Accenture Federal Services has won a $453 million contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize and improve G.I. Bill claims processing for veterans, service members and their families, announced March 29.
The seven-month contract, which includes nine one-year options, is part of legislation intended to improve the speed and accuracy of processing education claims for the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration.
Accenture Federal Services will lead a team of 12 subcontractors on the project.
“Accenture is excited to support VA in transforming its Digital G.I. Bill program — from the time a veteran, service member or their dependent applies for a certificate of eligibility to when they graduate and search for meaningful employment,” Shawn Roman, managing director at Accenture Federal Services and client account lead for VA, said in a statement. “Through the Digital GI Bill Delivery Program, we will help VA reduce its claims processing times through increased automation, enabling VA administrators and employees to focus on serving veterans and providing a more productive veteran experience.”
Arlington-based defense contractor BAE Systems Inc. has hired Kirk Johnson as general manager of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, effective March 29.
Johnson comes to the position with seven years of experience at Lubrizol Corp., a Berkshire Hathaway specialty chemicals company, where he served as managing director for specialty and industrial additives and then as vice president of manufacturing for its Chemtool division.
He’s a graduate of Auburn University and completed executive courses at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
In addition to his role as general manager for the Radford-based ammunitions manufacturer, Johnson will join the senior leadership team of BAE Systems Inc.’s Ordnance Systems Inc. (OSI) division.
“Kirk’s strong background in manufacturing and quality program management will add great value to the leadership team,” Brian Gathright, vice president and general manager of OSI, said in a statement.
Johnson’s predecessor, Mike Bocek, is joining BAE Systems’ Combat Missions Systems division as part of a planned rotation.
BAE Systems has served as operating contractor for the Radford plant since 2012.
Heading into 2020, plenty of signs pointed to sunny skies ahead for Leidos Holdings Inc.
A few years earlier, the Reston-based science, engineering and technology company had become an IT behemoth. It doubled in size after its 2016 acquisition of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business segment.
And Leidos continued that trend of growth and acquisition with its $1.65 billion,all-cash acquisition of Dynetics Inc. in January 2020. The move expanded its reach in research and national security solutions, including the aerospace sector. Just days later, Leidos announced it would acquire the security detection and automation businesses of L3Harris Technologies for $1 billion in another all-cash transaction.
The acquisition announcements followed a banner year for the publicly traded company (LDOS on the New York Stock Exchange), which won a $1 billion, 15-year flight services contract from the Federal Aviation Administration in December 2019.
The company was prepping for a March 2020 move into its new, 276,000- square-foot, 17-story headquarters building at Reston Town Center.
And capping off the good news, Leidos reported that its fiscal 2019 earnings of $11.9 billion were up 8.8% from the previous year.
Roger Krone. Photos courtesy Leidos Holdings Inc.
“I am confident that we are growing the company with the right talent, the right capabilities and the right strategy to continue to drive value for our customers, employees and shareholders,” Leidos Chairman and CEO Roger Krone said in a February 2020 statement.
The company’s 2020 outlook projected yearly revenue growing to $12.6 billion to $13 billion.
Then 24 days after Krone’s statement was issued, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in response to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
But this isn’t the story you might be expecting. It isn’t one of the many tales about the pandemic stunting a company’s growth or dashing its projections.
Yes, Leidos had adjustments to make and new kinds of business to explore. And maybe all those square feet in its new headquarters weren’t teeming with employees.
Despite the international disruptions and economic upheavals of the last year, Leidos has emerged a year later with muscles to flex. With 38,000 employees worldwide, it is one of Virginia’s biggest companies and most powerful defense contractors. Leidos ranked No. 289 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list and continues to win contracts, make hires and plan new growth. The company made yet another major acquisition in early 2021: 1901 Group LLC.
In a November 2020 report citing Leidos’ competitive advantages and big contract wins, analysts with Stifel Financial Corp. evaluated the company’s fundamental outlook over the next 12 to 24 months as “similar-to/better-than it was in 2019.”
Not everyone has such a sunny take on Leidos. New York-based investment firm Spruce Point Capital Management LLC released a scathing Feb. 16 report about Leidos, alleging potential mismanagement and concerns about its security products. Issuing a “strong sell” opinion, Spruce Point called for the termination of Krone and other top Leidos managers. It also said that Leidos “wasted $1 billion” acquiring L3Harris’ airport security business in January 2020, given the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on air travel. Leidos did not respond to requests for a response to the report.
Speaking at the virtual Cowen Aerospace/Defense & Industrials Conference on Feb. 11, Krone said in mid-February that the company would continue chasing mergers and acquisitions, with an eye on competing for large federal IT contracts. “For us,” he said, “now is not a time to become risk-adverse.”
‘Almost invisible’
While some of its federal contracting business was deemed essential and thus was exempt from pandemic concerns, another reason Leidos has held its own may be its wide reach and depth of talent. When it was renamed in 2013, the name Leidos was derived from the word “kaleidoscope.” It was intended, the company says, “to express its ability to solve difficult problems by applying different perspectives and unlocking new insight.”
Leidos offers a market focus based on brainpower rather than a specific product, says defense analyst Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute. The company’s size, diverse customers and range of technological solutions reduce risks, he says.
That scale gives it a competitive advantage in how it can invest and bid on work, says Joseph W. DeNardi, managing director at Stifel Financial Corp. “The way that I think about Leidos in terms of what makes them different,” he says, “is that they’ve had tremendous success capturing business that previously was done by some of their competitors.”
Leidos organizes its business into five groups: defense, civil, intelligence, health and an aerospace division, Huntsville, Alabama-based Dynetics. Leidos’ financial reports refine these groups to three: defense solutions, which accounted for about half of its revenue in 2019; civil, which brought in about a third; and health, which earned about 20%.
Leidos headquarters
“Leidos is well on its way to becoming the most important service provider to the federal government,” Thompson says. “Everywhere you look, you find them.” But because much of its work is in the background, in high-end technical services and systems integration, he adds, “it’s almost invisible.”
The company provides data analytics, defense logistics and hardware and software integration. Jobs can involve the digital modernization of health care records, tracking how passengers proceed through an airport, helping manage the Strategic National Stockpile or working on designs for NASA’s next lunar mission.
“Unlike the big defense hardware companies,” Thompson says, “I think Leidos is further down the road in being a true information-age enterprise.”
Thompson attributes that strategy to its CEO.
Krone graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 1978. He headed for another large Reston-based defense contractor, General Dynamics Corp., where he worked in program management, engineering and finance for 14 years.
During that time, he earned his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and his MBA from Harvard. (In February, Krone was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the profession’s highest honors.)
A pilot, Krone went on to serve as vice president and treasurer for McDonnell Douglas. He was there during its 1997 acquisition by The Boeing Co. and served as Boeing’s president of Network & Space Systems from 1997 to 2014.
Leidos hired him as its CEO in July 2014.
“Roger is an understated, engaging person who had a different idea of how to organize a 21st-century federal contractor,” Thompson says. “He figured out that the internet and other new technologies had made a different kind of enterprise possible. And that’s what he is transforming Leidos into.”
Krone sees Leidos’ people as its primary company asset, Thompson says, and prefers that the business be viewed not as a business of services, but of solutions and missions: “His main idea is that there are competencies that span seemingly different fields, and that it is possible to achieve critical mass while having a role in many different markets.”
Healthy outlook
As the pandemic dominated 2020, Leidos looked at its $2 billion health group with a fresh perspective. In August 2020, the company promoted Elizabeth “Liz”Porter, its acting health group president since March, to fill the position permanently.
Porter, whose main background is in IT, logistics and engineering, says it’s been an exciting time to apply technology to the life sciences.
“It just was so fascinating,” she says, “and at a time when we knew we could help with the pandemic, [it] kind of made it easy to learn.”
A graduate of Villanova University, Porter has family members connected to the health care space. Her grandfather was a dentist, her father worked for Merck & Co., and her younger sister is a speech language pathologist.
Porter oversees more than 7,500 employees in Leidos’ health group — with plans to add 2,000-plus hires in the works, she says. During the pandemic, Porter continued to go into the Reston office, though most of her employees had shifted to teleworking.
The business world’s new reliance on remote working has opened some eyes to the possibilities of telemedicine in the health space, she says. Citing virtual care solutions and other ways technology helps people interact with the health system, she says, the pandemic situation “actually has sped up some of the capabilities where technology will be able to be applied.”
One example of innovation is how Leidos helps the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs perform disability exams, she says. Typically, hearing exams are conducted in an enclosed room. But now a Bose headset can be sent to a patient to allow auditory tests to be performed remotely.
This year will see a continuation of those kinds of innovations, Porter says, as well as “expansion on some … capabilities.”
Leidos also serves as a partner in the rollout of the Department of Defense’s Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization program, which is digitizing federal health records. In November 2020, Leidos won an $82 million contract from the Naval Medical Logistics Command to study warfighter performance and operational medicine. Other large contracts are on the horizon for this year.
Porter’s charge is to merge managed services and modernization to be more of a “health care solution provider,” she says. “The company looks to us to expand in that health space in a very structured way.”
Among other areas, the company’s medical exam business saw some negative financial impact when clinics had to temporarily close during the early stages of the pandemic. In the third-quarter conference call, Leidos Chief Financial Officer James Reagan told investors the company was able “to both reopen and ramp the medical exam business back to pre-COVID levels faster than previously forecasted.” In October 2020, analysts with JPMorgan Chase & Co. said that Leidos’ health group appeared “to have recovered almost fully,” allaying concerns it previously had with the segment.
And in February, Leidos Health Group snagged a $2 billion contract to provide nonmedical counseling to military service members and their families through the Department of Defense’s Military and Family Life Counseling (MFLC) program.
It’s one of several recent successes for Leidos, including landing what DeNardi refers to as one of its “elephants,” the U.S. Navy’s $7.7 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network Re-Compete Service Management, Integration and Transport (NGEN-R SMIT) contract. The IT services contract “was one of the largest awarded in the past couple of years,” he says. Leidos prevailed over a legal challenge from Chantilly-based competitor Perspecta Inc. to secure the contract in December 2020.
In January, Leidos announced its $215 million, all-cash acquisition of 1901 Group, a growing Reston-based IT company founded in 2009. Leidos says the new subsidiary will bulk up its technical talent, adding 400 “IT, cloud and cyber specialists.”
And Leidos isn’t stopping there. The company is literally shooting for the moon, with its Dynetics division competing against Blue Origin and SpaceX to build the human lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis moonshot program.
Like many companies, Leidos faced challenges in fiscal 2020, but its trajectory appears to be trending upward. Overall, Leidos’ third-quarter fiscal 2020 revenue, reported in November 2020, was up 14.4% from the previous year.
“Adjusting for acquisitions and divestiture activity,” Krone said during the quarterly conference call, “organic revenue grew by almost 2%, demonstrating the declining effects of COVID-19 as our teams diligently executed their recovery plans. For the quarter, COVID-19 impacts to the overall business were approximately $109 million in revenue and $23 million in operating income, representing a significant decline from the prior quarter’s impact of $223 million and $78 million, respectively.”
Leidos was scheduled to announce its fiscal 2020 annual revenue in late February, after press time for the issue. In November 2020, the company was predicting its 2020 annual revenue would come in between $12.3 billion and $12.5 billion, about $500 million less than projected before the pandemic but still an increase of 4% to 6% over 2019 revenues.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, DiNardi says, Leidos stock was considered “one of the highest-quality assets in the industry.” As the pandemic subsides, he says, he’s optimistic that that Leidos will emerge as “the fastest-growing government services company in the industry.”
After a turbulent business year, accountants are bracing for a tax season filled with increased uncertainty, complexity and the looming reality that, eventually, 2020 taxes will be due and books must be reconciled.
Businesses navigating the pandemic — from entrepreneurs launching their first ventures to corporations with experienced CFOs — face new questions and challenges in preparing their 2020 taxes.
There is the potential for shifting tax deadlines. Virginia state and federal tax guidelines don’t align. And there are pandemic-specific financial issues such as relief loans and grants, layoffs, unexpected losses and remote workers.
That’s not to mention preparing for 2021 taxes, says Courtney Arrington, an accountant in the alternative assets group at Richmond-based Genworth Financial Inc. who also independently provides accounting and bookkeeping services. One big question her clients ask, Arrington says, is “how they can plan for this upcoming year.”
However, clients could be forgiven for not yet thinking about 2021 — after all, so much still seems stuck in 2020. Waiting on vaccines. Waiting on relief funding. Waiting on tax returns, in some cases. One of the business owners Arrington works with had yet to receive a return from a 2019 filing as of December 2020. “It’s literally just been a waiting game,” she says.
In helping businesses work through answers to these challenges, CPAs and accounting firms find themselves in a sort of time warp. They must follow some traditional deadlines while other deadlines change, and wait on clarifications from the IRS, Congress and the Virginia General Assembly about various rules and regulations.
As of mid-January, no decisions had yet been made about possible postponement of federal and state tax return deadlines this year, but delays are unlikely, “assuming no major shutdowns,” says Gary Thomson with Richmond-based Thomson Consulting, which advises CPA and professional services firms.
The unique situation also has seen an evolution of the roles accountants play for clients.
“It’s gone beyond traditional tax advice and consulting,” says Stephen Kimberlin, a senior tax manager based in Richmond with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP (DHG). Accounting firms have become “more of a true adviser to our clients,” he says.
Accountants have been taking a more active role in advising clients since the pandemic began, says Stephen Kimberlin with accounting firm Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
And it isn’t all about mopping up after a doom-and-gloom year. Many businesses, such as those focused on e-commerce, trucking or other essential services, have performed well during the pandemic, Kimberlin says, and accountants are helping those clients with financial planning to maintain that momentum.
For companies that have struggled, such as those in the hospitality or real estate industries, he says, the focus shifts to helping them navigate operational, budgeting and planning challenges. “We’re trying to help them emerge stronger,” he says.
Conformity woes
One major wrinkle for Virginia CPAs preparing 2020 taxes is the commonwealth’s status as a static conformity (or fixed date) state for tax purposes. Virginia is one of about 20 states that freeze conformity of state tax rules with federal tax code as of a particular date. Currently, Virginia’s state tax laws conform with pre-pandemic IRS code as it existed on Dec. 31, 2019.
The Virginia General Assembly is considering legislation this session (HB 1935, SB 1146) that would make 2020 state tax rules conform with the latest IRS code, carving out some exceptions including provisions of the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act related to the net operating loss limitation and carryback.
Whenever Virginia doesn’t conform with federal tax laws, “it adds complexity” for accountants and CPAs, says Emily Walker, vice president of advocacy for the Virginia Society of CPAs.
Usually this is handled with the early passage of emergency legislation that can go into effect as soon as the governor signs it, she says. But conforming with federal tax laws this year would represent a loss of up to $500 million in state tax revenues over the next two years. And that makes it a lot less clear whether lawmakers will support it during a tight time for revenues, Walker adds, though most of that $500 million would stay in the coffers of businesses operating in Virginia if the legislature chooses to conform this year.
Another issue that falls under tax conformity is how Virginia will handle forgivable loans businesses received through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
In its December 2020 stimulus package, Congress stipulated that PPP funds would be exempt from federal corporate taxes and also allowed businesses to deduct expenses paid with PPP funds. Typically with forgivable loans, either the loan is tax exempt or deductions are allowed, but not both, Walker says. The Northam administration is opposed to allowing corporate tax deductions for business expenses paid with PPP funds. On Jan. 18, the House Finance Committee voted that Virginia’s conformity policy should not include PPP expense deductions for businesses. As of press time for this issue, it was unclear how the legislature would ultimately decide on these conformity issues.
A variety of factors related to the pandemic and economic downturn are creating complexity for accountants this tax season, says Emily Walker, vice president of advocacy for the Virginia Society of CPAs. Photo by Caroline Martin
“The more Virginia deviates from federal tax code, the more complex tax returns get” for accountants, Walker says.
Adding to that intricacy is the fact that unlike federal PPP loans, not all relief funds may be tax exempt or allow for tax deductible expenses.
Across Virginia, accountants are working with clients who received various federal, state, local and private loans and grants to keep their businesses afloat.
And that’s a situation that accounting firms are also experiencing when reconciling their own corporate finances. More than 6,600 U.S. accounting firms received PPP loans, potentially saving more than 210,000 jobs, according to CPA Trendlines Research. A Bloomberg Tax analysis showed almost 38,000 CPA firms had applied for PPP loans.
“This whole situation creates complexity across the board,” Walker says.
Working from home
Another challenge facing taxpayers and their CPAs this year is dealing with the new landscape of closed offices, stay-at-home orders and people hunkering down in locations that may have been outside of the state in which their offices are located.
In Virginia, this is a normal situation for people in the northern area of the state who may work in Washington, D.C., or Maryland — or in Bristol, where someone might live in Virginia but work across the street in Tennessee, where there are no state taxes.
Typically, payroll taxes are paid in the state where employees reside.
For D.C., Maryland and Virginia, there are commuter-based agreements in place that typically cover such cross-state situations, Walker says. But this wasn’t necessarily the scenario during the pandemic, when people may have relocated farther away for long stretches of time — sometimes longer than the typical six months that could make one eligible for permanent residency in another state.
And that brings up new questions: Do employees owe taxes in more than one state? And where should employers pay the payroll taxes?
CPAs must iron it out. There’s an attempt at the federal level for greater clarity and consistent guidelines across the country, but as of January, Walker says, “Virginia’s law hasn’t changed on this front.”
Accounting firms also dealt with their own work-from-home issues, among them the lack of face-to-face time with colleagues, adjusting to new workflows and home offices, and the technology needed to maintain confidentiality while passing client information among their staff.
Nevertheless, by December 2020, 81% of more than 220 U.S. accounting firms planned a moderate to significant increase in teleworking following the pandemic, according to 2020 Anytime, Anywhere Work Survey by leadership and management consulting firm ConvergenceCoaching.
The switch to teleworking went smoothly at DHG, which closed its offices March 15, Kimberlin says. Once teams finished up deadlines in the office, they headed home. The firm already operated in a paperless environment, he says, so employees were prepared with remote access to servers and the necessary equipment to telework. “It wasn’t too bad,” he says.
Strengthening approaches
With so much change, accounting firms sought new ways of working with clients. Sharpening and increasing communication was key for DHG, Kimberlin says, noting the firm’s outreach efforts with educational webinars, blogs and articles, and reaching out directly to clients as needed.
In normal times, CPAs have a good understanding of tax rules before they advise clients. But the pandemic has required them to stay on top of ever-shifting tax forgiveness updates, deadlines and federal guidance. “We’ve had to digest that information quicker,” he says.
In addition to its in-house experts, Kimberlin says, DHG kept up with resources provided by governing bodies within the industry and networked with colleagues at other firms.
For Arrington, who also runs a blog and YouTube channel called “The Accounting Struggle,” outreach included educating new business owners. During the pandemic she saw an uptick in people getting more serious about side hustles such as e-commerce stores, catering companies and social media influencing.
In addition to helping fledgling entrepreneurs understand this new territory, she’s working with them to plan for various if-then scenarios. That way, they will be prepared if certain legislation goes through, or not.
One strength for accountants, who tend to dislike unclear rules and regulations, is that they are “calm, rational people,” Thomson says. “While we like order and process, we equally aren’t people that overreact.”
That means they’re more likely to provide stability for clients by thinking through challenges and waiting things out, rather than making assumptions that could backfire in the face of uncertainty.
However, what’s new for many professionals is learning to offer advice and calmness “with limited information,” Thomson says. “And we just haven’t had to do it that way for clients” in past years.
Kimberlin says accountants have it in them to help clients make the best decisions for their businesses, regardless of the trying circumstances. “We’ll get through it,” he says. “We always do.”
Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster and Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.
As we prepare to enter a fresh calendar year marked by our new normal of remote work, Zoom meetings, face masks and social distancing, our need for connectedness and socializing remains as strong as ever. But because it may still be a while before we return to rubber-chicken dinners, networking receptions and cocktail parties, let Virginia Business do the work for you and introduce you to 100 Virginians who make the commonwealth a more interesting and innovative place to live and work.
Some of the folks you’ll meet in the following pages are people who made significant impressions on us, like Richmond native Henry Coleman III, a freshman basketball player at Duke University who made a powerful speech during this summer’s racial justice protests. Others, like Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver, became regular presences, helping us navigate the thorny world of COVID-19.
Unlike our annual Virginia 500 issue, this list isn’t meant to reflect the most influential or powerful people in the state. Instead, it’s simply a list of people we’ve enjoyed meeting and/or hearing about during the past year and we think you will too.
So, fire up your webcam, bang out an email or ask for a face-mask-to-face-mask meeting to introduce yourself. As always, “I saw you in Virginia Business!” is a great conversation starter.
Whether saving lives, speaking truth to power or using their wealth for the greater good, these Virginians make the commonwealth a better place through their passion, dedication and sacrifice.
Head of research, enrollment services, EAB, Richmond
Richmonders can see the artistic legacy of philanthropist Pam Royall and her late husband, Bill, on prominent display in the form of “Rumors of War.” A striking 27-foot-tall monument of a modern-day Black warrior on horseback, it was installed in front of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Richmond’s Arthur Ashe Boulevard in December 2019. “We made a commitment to bring that sculpture to Richmond,” she says. The Royalls met the statue’s creator, celebrated visual artist Kehinde Wiley, about a decade ago, and Pam Royall owns several of Wiley’s paintings. She has been busy this year with work at EAB, formerly Royall & Co., a direct marketing and recruitment firm for higher education that Bill founded 31 years ago. Amid the pandemic, colleges’ demand for information on students’ enrollment plans has never been higher. “It’s almost a life-or-death scenario for small colleges,” Pam Royall says.
Dr. Danny Avula
Dr. Danny Avula
Director, Richmond and Henrico County health departments Richmond
Richmond-area residents got to know public health physician Danny Avula well in 2020. “Dr. Fauci played that role for the country,” explains Avula, the joint director of the Richmond and Henrico health departments since 2009. A University of Virginia and VCU School of Medicine alumnus, Avula has regularly updated Central Virginia on COVID-19 outbreaks and expects to focus on vaccination once it is available. From June through October, Avula’s health departments hired 120 people, some of whom have made inroads into Richmond’s Latino demographic, which has borne much of the virus’ brunt, along with Black residents. Aside from testing and providing protective gear, Avula says he and his colleagues often have to counter historical trauma and distrust in minority communities: “Public communication during a crisis is important.”
Lucy Beadnell
Lucy Beadnell
Director of advocacy, The Arc of Northern Virginia Falls Church
Lucy Beadnell advocates for Northern Virginia’s 39,000 people with developmental disabilities, and next year she plans to dive deeper into her passion project of providing resources for those people within the justice system. In 2021, she says, she’ll be working with first responder and legal offices in Arlington to set up Disability Response Teams, which will “reactively work to respond to cases when people with developmental disabilities are arrested to come up with solutions that really acknowledge and address the disability at hand.” Beadnell also remains focused on supported decision making (SDM), a best practice that moves away from the guardianship model for those with disabilities and closer to a model that allows for more independence and skill growth.
Henry Coleman III
Henry Coleman III
Freshman basketball player, Duke University Richmond
Trinity Episcopal School alum Henry Coleman III is a 6-foot-7 power forward on one of the nation’s elite NCAA men’s basketball teams. He’s also following in the footsteps of other athletes with racial justice ideals such as NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and NBA star LeBron James. This summer, a short yet powerful speech Coleman made during a protest at Duke was caught on video. “This country has had its knee on the neck of African Americans for too long. … I’m tired of it,” the 18-year-old said somberly. The video received thousands of views on Facebook. Speaking in October, Coleman says he wants people of other races to “just be open” to listening to Black people’s concerns.
Paul Manning
Paul Manning
Chairman and CEO, PBM Capital Group Charlottesville
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, businessman, investor and philanthropist Paul Manning donated $1 million to the University of Virginia to establish The Manning Fund for COVID-19 Research to support the university’s efforts to commercialize coronavirus-related research projects. With Manning’s fund, U.Va. will have the resources to complete research into testing, therapies, vaccines and reopening strategies amid the pandemic. The longtime university donor has also served on the U.Va. Strategic Planning Committee, the U.Va. Health Foundation, the U.Va. President’s Advisory Committee and the university’s Honor the Future campaign executive committee. He also founded Charlottesville-based PBM Capital, a health care-focused investment firm that invests in pharmaceutical and life sciences companies.
Dr. Norman Oliver
Dr. Norman Oliver
State health commissioner, Virginia Department of Health Richmond
A reluctant COVID-19 celebrity, Dr. Norman Oliver has been Virginia’s voice of calm advice during the pandemic. Speaking in October, eight months into the pandemic, Oliver says that he’s learned “the most important thing … is to tell people as honestly as you can what it is you know and what it is you don’t know, and what your plans are to close that gap.” He’s made special efforts to emphasize the toll of the virus on Black, Latino, elderly and disabled Virginians, and Oliver and his colleagues have started an advisory council to assist a vaccination campaign once a COVID vaccine is approved. He predicts that vaccines will be available to the larger population by summer 2021.
Dr. Vikas Pathak
Dr. Vikas Pathak
Pulmonologist, clinical protocol committee chairman, Riverside Medical Group Newport News
One of Virginia’s front-line medical workers, Dr. Vikas Pathak worked 14-hour days at the start of the pandemic, checking on patients, determining how fast Riverside’s hospitals were going through personal protective equipment and deciding where overflow patients could go. At home, he had to quarantine himself from his family. A native of Nepal, Pathak completed his internal medicine residency at a hospital in the Bronx. He recognizes that Virginia was relatively fortunate in that doctors here were able to learn from their counterparts in Washington state, Oregon and New York, which were hit harder and earlier. “We learned from other people’s experiences,” he said this summer. “We were blessed to get a late start.”
Dr. Lilian Peake
Dr. Lilian Peake
State epidemiologist, Virginia Department of Health Richmond
Dr. Norman Oliver is the public face of Virginia’s coronavirus fight, but Dr. Lilian Peake is the data scientist gathering information. She’s worked in public health for 20 years but notes, “The magnitude of this pandemic is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” If there’s been one bright spot from the pandemic, it’s that people in charge of the state’s budget now recognize how underfunded Virginia’s public health sector is, says Peake. “There’s a lot of demand for public information” about the pandemic, and that was especially true in the early days. Peake worked up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week without a break until June. In 2021, her hope is to spend more time improving quality and analyzing data collected this year.
Dr. Sandy Simons. Photo by Cade Martin
Dr. Sandy Simons
Emergency medicine specialist, Bon Secours-Richmond Community Hospital Richmond
In March 2020, Dr. Sandy Simons found herself thrust into the national debate over the pandemic after she wrote a moving first-person essay for Politico about her coronavirus worries as an emergency room doctor. Simons has remained busy, especially since regular patient volume picked up without a corresponding staffing increase this summer. She’s often the only ER doctor on night duty, and her hospital is frequently the closest place for homeless people with special needs to seek help. An outspoken presence on Twitter and a columnist for Emergency Medicine News magazine, Simons says that a COVID-19 vaccine — when approved and available — will “make life so much easier.” Taking surgical masks, gowns and other protective gear on and off is time-consuming, and it’s been hard limiting family members who want to visit. In 2021, Simons says, “I’ll need to start writing my book.”
Pete Snyder
Pete Snyder
CEO, Disruptor Capital; co-founder, Virginia 30 Day Fund Charlottesville
A serial entrepreneur turned angel investor, Pete Snyder has also become a lifeline for small businesses drowning in unexpected debt from the pandemic. Snyder, the former Republican Party of Virginia finance chairman, and his wife, Burson, launched the Virginia 30 Day Fund, which makes forgivable $3,000 loans to small businesses. “Like the [coronavirus], the economic disease that has hit our Main Street knows no bounds,” Snyder told Virginia Business this spring. Snyder is also the CEO of Charlottesville-based angel capital investment company Disruptor Capital. In 2013, Snyder lost a Republican primary convention bid to become the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor — but he’s said to be eyeing a potential 2021 run for governor.
As the Las Vegas-born son of Liberace’s music arranger, Justin Ayars got a fabulous start in life. However, he chose law over showbiz, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from William & Mary and a law degree from George Mason University. As the former chair of the Virginia Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, he’s been an advocate for the state’s LGBTQ citizens, and founded Q Media, the publisher of a “nonpartisan, family-friendly” gay magazine with a targeted upscale audience. His latest company, Equality Rewards, has launched a pioneering telehealth portal that helps LGBTQ patients find inclusive doctors. “There’s a mistrust of the medical community. Many LGBTQ people don’t get checkups,” he says. “In the time of COVID, that’s concerning.”
Melissa Baker
Melissa Baker
Director, Virginia State Parks Richmond
Can the state’s main custodian of public land do her work from home? “For the most part, yes, but one perk of the job is going outdoors,” says Melissa Baker, who became Virginia’s first female director of its system of 38 state parks in January. “We’ve been busy,” she adds. “The parks have had increased visitation ince we reopened.” Previously North Dakota’s parks director, Baker also helped to run Montana State Parks and Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources, earning her master’s in outdoor recreation management from Southern Illinois University and a doctorate in forestry, recreation management and protected area planning from the University of Montana. Everywhere she’s served, Baker has been a trailblazer. “There are other female directors,” she says, “but it is a male-dominated field.”
Robert Gray
Robert Gray
Chief, Pamunkey Indian Tribe King William
Pamunkey Indian Tribe chief since 2015, Robert Gray thinks that his tribe’s planned 13.4-acre, $500 million Norfolk resort casino will be a jackpot for everyone. “I truly believe that we will help the city and they will help us,” he told Virginia Business last year. Norfolk is projected to receive $50 million annually for public school construction through the project, as well as $30 million a year in gaming and sales taxes. Gray, a retired U.S. Air Force chief master sergeant and former Philadelphian, says that, with casino revenue, he will bring more Pamunkey Indians back to their Virginia homeland and institute much-needed upgrades for reservation infrastructure, including broadband. He’s also rolling the dice on another potential casino project, this time a $350 million project planned for Richmond and slated for consideration in 2021.
Brian Huseman
Brian Huseman
Vice president of public policy, Amazon.com Inc. Arlington
In a widely circulated May blog post, Brian Huseman called on Congress to pass a federal price-gouging law to combat unfair pricing of face masks and other medical equipment during the pandemic. A former Department of Justice attorney and a Federal Trade Commission general counsel before joining Amazon eight years ago, Huseman says the company is still lobbying Congress for a national law, as well as working closely with attorneys general across the country, including Virginia’s Mark Herring. The Oklahoma native also has his hands full overseeing public policy issues connected to Amazon’s $2.5 billion HQ2 project, now in its second phase of development. So far, hiring, permits and construction are still on target, Huseman says, with the $14 million renovation of Metropolitan Park approved and set to be finished in 2023, and interviews for 500 Arlington-based positions taking place this fall.
Through their outreach, expertise, marketing and incentives, these are the professionals who attract and grow businesses, adding to the commonwealth’s wealth.
Defense affairs program manager, Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce Charlottesville
When you think of the Charlottesville area, military-related business may not spring to mind. If so, Lettie Bien says, “You’re not alone.” But Albemarle County’s fifth-largest employer is the U.S. Department of Defense. There’s also Rivanna Station, home to the U.S. Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center. Additionally, the University of Virginia has ROTC, defense contracts and the U.S. Army’s JAG Legal Center and School, she notes. That’s not to mention area military retirees. To support and leverage those connections, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber partnered with local economic development interests to hire Bien in July. “What they saw was this was a huge economic engine that they could not afford to ignore,” Bien says. A combat veteran and lawyer, Bien holds a master’s degree in public policy and serves as an Army Reserve Ambassador.
Corrie Bobe. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Corrie Bobe
Director, Danville Office of Economic Development Danville
A national search led Danville back to one of its own. The city tapped native Corrie Bobe to lead its office of economic development in July. A Virginia Tech graduate, Bobe has worked for the office since November 2009 and served as interim director since January. The pandemic forced her team to focus on existing business support, she says — offering grant programs, marketing materials, PPE access, e-commerce support and a retail consultant who advised businesses on adjusting spaces to meet new pandemic safety guidelines. Despite the downturn, prospect activity remains strong, she says: “I feel our region will see new corporate partners added over the coming year.” She also plans to hire a tourism manager by the end of the year to bring that industry into focus for 2021.
Jared Chalk
Jared Chalk
Director of economic development, Norfolk; executive director, Norfolk Economic Development Authority Norfolk
Jared Chalk was named Norfolk’s economic development director less than six months ago, but he isn’t a new face in Hampton Roads. Chalk has been with Norfolk since 2005, and he has served as interim director of economic development and executive director of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority since November 2018. A Bridgewater College graduate, Chalk also earned a certificate in real estate finance and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Projects on his plate for 2021, he says, include the Norfolk hotel and casino resort and turning the former Military Circle Mall into a commercial district, “one of the largest commercial redevelopment projects in this area.”
Nancy L. Grden
Nancy L. Grden
Executive director, Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth & Innovation; Special assistant to the president for maritime initiatives, associate vice president, Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Old Dominion University Norfolk
Preparing to launch in 2021, the Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth & Innovation aims to bolster the region’s maritime industry. This is the moment in time for such an effort, says Nancy Grden, the umbrella organization’s first executive director. “We have an amazing set of opportunities and assets that are right in front of our face,” she says, “and we tend to shy away from them.” She cites shipbuilding, the military, offshore wind, transatlantic cables and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion. A Pittsburgh native and former bank executive, Grden says the collaborative will be “action-oriented,” working to coordinate diverse initiatives and seeking to inject more innovation and entrepreneurship into the region’s maritime sector. “The cool thing is really bringing all that together,” she says.
JB Holston
JB Holston
CEO, Greater Washington Partnership Washington, D.C.
To become the fastest-growing, most successful region in the country, JB Holston says, the Capital Region, stretching from Baltimore to Richmond, needs to have the most inclusive economy. That leads him to an area of work he intends to explore in the next year: “Inclusive growth.” Holston, whose career includes senior executive positions at GE and NBC, moved to D.C. from Colorado, where he was dean of the University of Denver’s school of computer science and engineering. He took the helm of the partnership in September, leading the alliance that represents businesses employing more than 250,000 people in the region.
Kathryn “Kate” E. Keller
Kathryn “Kate” E. Keller
President, The Harvest Foundation Martinsville/Henry County
Kate Keller was named president of The Harvest Foundation in July, after more than 20 years working for Interact for Health, a foundation in Greater Cincinnati. It was a fortuitous background to have in the midst of a pandemic. About 65,000 people live in the Martinsville and Henry County region, which saw a downturn in its furniture and textile industries in the ’90s. “They sort of lost their sense of who they were when that happened,” says Keller. But efforts to restore that energy in the last 10 years have paid off. A recent win was landing Poland-based Press Glass as the first tenant of a key industrial park. Up next is more funding for affordable housing, Keller says, and a campaign to become more accessible and inclusive for the whole community.
Ross Koenig
Ross Koenig
Program manager, Virginia Values Veterans (V3) Program Richmond
In late October, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the Virginia Values Veterans (V3) Program surpassed its goal of hiring 65,000 Virginia military veterans by the end of his administration. Ross Koenig played a major role in the success of the initiative administered by the state Department of Veterans Services. Its goal is to connect Virginia veterans to the workforce by assisting with recruiting, hiring, training and retaining military veterans in civilian jobs. In other milestones, V3 in February certified its 1,000th employer committed to hiring veterans. Koenig has been working with the V3 team since the program’s 2012 inception, starting as its regional manager for Central and Southwest Virginia until his promotion to program manager in 2017.
Kristie Helmick Proctor
Kristie Helmick Proctor
Executive director, Virginia Rural Center Richmond
Like other events forced to adjust to the pandemic, the annual Governor’s Summit on Rural Prosperity went virtual in October. It’s fitting that the summit’s host, the Virginia Rural Center, advocates for broadband access across the state. Half a million Virginians have no access to it — and they don’t necessarily live in the middle of nowhere. Kristie Proctor, for one, lives in Hanover County, where her family’s house has a well, a septic system and no broadband. In addition to connectivity, the organization works to promote economic prosperity in rural areas. In 2021, Proctor will oversee the launch of the Virginia Rural Leaders Institute. Its goal is to attract, develop and retain leaders in the state’s rural communities, where they’ll create tangible results via community impact projects.
Beth D. Rhinehart
Beth D. Rhinehart
President and CEO, Bristol Chamber of Commerce Bristol
A literal line down State Street in downtown Bristol divides Tennessee and Virginia. It’s a unique challenge for a chamber serving a community with two governments, two school systems, “two everything,” Beth Rhinehart says. A Bristol native, she sees opportunity in working as a united front, such as with the chamber’s tourism initiative, Discover Bristol. The recently approved $400 million Hard Rock casino will boost that effort. But another key will be diversifying the economy, she says, along with developing the workforce and making it an attractive location for the area’s young people. She also promotes Bristol as a magnet for remote workers. A GO Virginia Region 1 council member, Rhinehart was selected this year for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Business Leads Fellowship Program.
Michelle Rogers
Michelle Rogers
Director of workforce development, Virginia’s Gateway Region/Community College Workforce Alliance Colonial Heights
In her newly created dual position, Michelle Rogers is charged with finding better ways of connecting businesses with the worlds of workforce development and higher education. Rogers was an Air Force brat before landing in York County for high school. She worked in state economic development for almost 15 years before starting her new role in July. It’s the first position of its kind in Virginia, she says, a partnership between Virginia’s Gateway Region and the Community College Workforce Alliance. She’ll work as a liaison, helping to identify the region’s business needs and develop the educational programs and support to meet those needs.
They might be new to the Old Dominion or just new to their positions, but all of them bring decades of expertise and new vantage points. Here’s a sampling of people — some fresh faces, others familiar — who have recently taken on significant new leadership roles.
Growing up in Northern Mexico, Devaki Baker supported herself through college at the University of Texas El Paso, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. In 2015, she founded Team Verso, where she developed software-as-a-service offerings, working with toll road operator Transurban. In June, she brought this knowledge to her new position as CEO for VeriToll, which markets a software-as-a-service platform that allows users to report problems with tolling systems that cause state transportation departments to lose revenue and drivers to be erroneously billed — and also offers an alternative, touchless option for users to pay tolls. “There couldn’t be a better time for a solution like VeriToll,” Baker says. “VeriToll, along with our network of strategic partnerships, want to utilize technology to create a tolling industry that works for all.” This November, VeriToll moved its California headquarters to Ashburn.
Curtis Brown
Curtis Brown
State coordinator of emergency management, Virginia Department of Emergency Management Richmond
Curtis Brown took over the state’s head emergency management position during one of the largest public health crises in living memory — the COVID-19 pandemic. After four years as the chief deputy state coordinator for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, he was promoted in June and is the first Black person to hold the post. “A critical priority … has been to focus on the disproportionate impact of the disaster on people of color … and others in at-risk populations,” he said in a speech at his alma mater, Radford University, in September. Hailing from Prince George’s County, Maryland, which has a highly educated, majority Black population, Brown also founded the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, a global nonprofit focused on empowering marginalized communities during the disaster management cycle. “I grew up in a place where Black excellence and the influence of public leadership were ubiquitous,” Brown told Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, where he earned his master’s degree.
When Abingdon’s Barter Theatre — the nation’s oldest Actors’ Equity Association theater — closed the curtain on its spring season in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Katy Brown was there to make sure the show goes on. In October 2019, after 13 years serving as associate artistic director, she became the first woman to run the theater and the fourth artistic director since its founding during the Great Depression. She likes to note that the theater was established during hard times, and it will survive the coronavirus. This year, Brown oversaw the transition of traditional theater performances to drive-in and online streaming options. “It’s been an incredible way for our audience to have an experience together, but safely distanced,” she says.
Fabricio Drummond
Fabricio Drummond
Chief revenue officer, Axios Arlington
Without a media background, Fabricio Drummond became the first chief revenue officer of the burgeoning media company in November 2019. Since its 2016 inception, Axios has raised $30 million in venture capital and at the end of 2019 it was poised to raise an additional $20 million in venture capital, raising its valuation to $200 million. Its website attracts 7 to 10 million unique visitors per month, generating $25 million in 2018 revenue. Drummond is no stranger to high-growth companies. Before joining Axios, he spent more than 15 years leading business development within startup companies. He previously served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer at SuperBAC, an international biotechnology solutions company.
Earl T. Granger III
Earl T. Granger III
Chief development officer, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Williamsburg
Earl Granger is a Williamsburg champion through and through. The William & Mary graduate was most recently the associate vice president for development at his alma mater. He joined the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in August at the height of the pandemic while the hospitality and tourism industries plummeted — particularly in Colonial Williamsburg, where more than 700 employees were furloughed or placed on administrative leave during the spring. He has his work cut out for him this year but has hope for the world’s largest living-history museum — largely bolstered by a switch to outdoor programming and bringing back furloughed employees. “Colonial Williamsburg has cause for cautious optimism as we head into 2021,” he says.
Marc Gruzenski
Head of security and senior managing director, The McLean Group LLC McLean
Marc Gruzenski left the Magic Kingdom this spring to become the head of security for The McLean Group, a middle-market investment bank. Gruzenski served for seven years as The Walt Disney Co.’s director of global security technology and director of information protection. He has also worked as the chief of intelligence and analysis and global asset protection for Accenture. While investment banking professionals and consumers increase their online business during the pandemic, Gruzenski has his focus on cybersecurity, physical security and security risk management at The McLean Group, which provides financial advice on mergers and acquisitions and business valuations.
D. Jermaine Johnson
D. Jermaine Johnson
Greater Washington and Virginia regional president, PNC Bank Vienna
After 15 years with the ninth-largest bank in the nation by assets, D. Jermaine Johnson was tapped to fill the gap left by the promotion of Richard Bynum, a prominent D.C.-area business leader who is taking on a larger corporate role at the bank. Although Johnson is new to his role, he isn’t new to the banking industry. He started his career 25 years ago with Bank of America as a management trainee. He was most recently the corporate banking market manager for the Greater Washington and Greater Maryland markets with PNC Bank before his promotion. The James Madison University graduate serves as treasurer of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and on the audit committee for the Arlington-based March of Dimes.
Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann. Photo courtesy VCU
Dr. Arthur Kellermann
CEO, VCU Health System; senior vice president, VCU Health Sciences Richmond
Steering one of Virginia’s top health systems is no small feat — especially during a pandemic. Dr. Arthur Kellermann, who was appointed CEO of VCU Health Systems in October, has COVID-19 prevention, treatment and vaccine deployment at the top of his 2021 to-do list. “If the life of someone you love is on the line, it’s where you want to go,” Kellermann says of VCU Health. The former dean of the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, Kellerman’s other priorities include securing VCU Massey Cancer Center’s designation as a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center and ensuring construction of the Children’s Hospital of Richmond stays on schedule for a 2022 opening.
Brent Lewis
Brent Lewis
Associate vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, James Madison University Harrisonburg
Following nationwide protests for racial equity, organizations have made space for executives such as Brent Lewis, the new associate vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at James Madison University. In late September, Lewis, who wrote his dissertation about the social and cultural experience of gay and lesbian students attending historically Black colleges or universities, became the first person to hold the position overseeing JMU’s Division of Student Affairs and leading the Office of Disability Services; Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression; and the Center for Multicultural Student services. “The higher education landscape is being required to do more and create more meaningful and intentional opportunities for students to gain a sense of belonging,” Lewis says. During the next two years, he and other JMU leaders will convene a racial equity task force to “tackle difficult conversations” and make action recommendations, he says.
Stan Little
Stan Little
Chief experience officer, United Way Worldwide Alexandria
Now more than ever, the United Way is being sought to provide support for community efforts to aid those affected by the global pandemic. Former SunTrust Foundation President Stan Little, who has a background in systems engineering, took his new role in February during a wave of companies and organizations hiring CXOs to improve interactions between customers and employees. The nonprofit United Way Worldwide helps coordinate a network of 1,800 autonomous community-based United Way chapters worldwide, 25 of which are located in Virginia. Little leads all donor-facing functions for United Way Worldwide, which annually has nearly 3 million volunteers and raises nearly $5 billion from than 8 million donors. The former Georgia State University business professor has also been an adviser to the Federal Communications Commission and The College Board.
Brett Malone
Brett Malone
President and CEO, Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center Blacksburg
Brett Malone is a prime product of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, where he started his first software company, Blacksburg-based Phoenix Integration, in 1996. And now he serves as the research center’s president and CEO. The “triple Hokie,” who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Virginia Tech, has plans to expand the CRC, a space for research and development for tech companies, through investments in more lab space, biotech building construction and industry partnerships, he says. A Northern Virginia expansion (where Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus is being built) is another top priority for 2021. “The entrepreneurial researcher … we really cater to that phenotype,” he says. “We think there’s opportunity to expand that model.”
Peter Phillips
Peter Phillips
Director of customer and regulatory relations for Virginia, Exacta Systems Richmond
2020 has been about as predictable as a game of blackjack, but that hasn’t stopped the Virginia Lottery and other gaming organizations from posting significant profits this year. In October, Peter Phillips, a disabled veteran with 25 years of service as a naval special warfare officer, became the Virginia director of customer and regulatory relations for Boynton Beach, Florida-based Exacta Systems (which also has a Henrico County office). The company sells historic horse race software and machines to businesses including Colonial Downs Group and its four Rosie’s Gaming Emporium locations statewide. Colonial Downs is poised to generate more than $26 million in state tax revenue and nearly $18 million in local tax revenue this year, according to the company, and annually generates $25 million for the horse racing industry. As the legal gaming industry continues to grow in Virginia, Exacta Systems announced plans in October to increase hiring.
Mark Nantz. Photo courtesy Valley Health
Mark Nantz
President and CEO, Valley Health System Winchester
For Mark Nantz, getting to know his 6,500-member team of caregivers following his June appointment as president and CEO of Valley Health System was a little different — but the welcome was just as warm (think masks, elbow bumps and Zoom meetings). After all, Nantz says, “the COVID pandemic has changed much about the way we provide care, how our community views health care workers … and even the way we live.” At the Winchester-based health care system, Nantz oversees six hospitals and 50 medical practices that collectively serve more than 500,000 people in the Shenandoah Valley. Despite the pandemic, the former Atlantic group president for Bon Secours Mercy Health anticipates that services will continue to grow during 2021, he says.
Liz Porter
Liz Porter
Health group president, Leidos Reston
Reston-based federal contractor Leidos in August promoted Liz Porter to president of the company’s $2 billion health group business, which employs 7,500 people. Leidos’ health group provides technology and life sciences services for patient care, providers and payer operations, all of which Porter oversees. At its core, the group works to improve care and reduce costs for health care organizations, which has emerged as a challenge during the pandemic. “Look for Leidos to expand our operational services and platform capabilities in the health space,” Porter says. “It is all about supporting a holistic view of the patient.“ Porter, a military spouse, also serves on the industrial advisory board to the engineering department at Villanova University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
Lawrence Roberts
Lawrence Roberts
Director, U.Va. Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership Charlottesville
During a time of laser-sharp focus on politics, Larry Roberts was hired as the fifth director of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership in January. A graduate of U.Va. and the Georgetown University Law Center, the veteran Virginia political and legal adviser brings decades of experience to the nonpartisan institute, which provides leadership training for high school and college students as well as first-time political candidates and community and business leaders. The institute in 2021 will focus on partisan and regional balance to grow the number of leaders in rural Virginia, Roberts says. “I’ve had success in elections, I’ve had success in government, but what I feel I can do most effectively at this point is to work outside of [that] to train people who are going to be the future leaders in politics,” he says.
Jennifer Taylor
Jennifer Taylor
President and CEO, Northern Virginia Technology Council McLean
In September, Jennifer Taylor took the baton from the highly influential Bobbie Kilberg, who led the Northern Virginia Technology Council for 22 years, building the regional membership and trade association into one of the nation’s largest technology councils. As the former vice president of industry affairs with the Consumer Technology Association, Taylor brings business relationships with Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. In 2021, Taylor will outline her three- to five-year strategic plan for NVTC. “We are in the midst of facing the next wave of technology evolution, with more commercial tech companies moving to the area such as Amazon … and NVTC will be prepared to help create a tech hub … anchored with tech companies of all sizes, service providers, academia and policy makers,” she says.
Grady Tripp
Grady Tripp
Vice president and chief diversity officer, Tegna Tysons
Once part of McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. (the nation’s largest newspaper publisher), Tegna in September named Grady Tripp its inaugural chief diversity officer, following months of racial equity protests across the nation. The broadcast media and marketing services company tasked Tripp with attracting, retaining and growing a diverse talent pool, as well as developing training programs and a company diversity and inclusion working group. He’ll leverage his three years of experience as part of Tegna’s talent acquisition team to inform his new role. The Florida A&M University grad previously worked for Fortune Global 500 company Accenture plc. This fall, Tripp played an integral role in Tegna’s expansion of parental paid leave to six weeks. “We truly aspire to serve the greater good of our communities and our employees a little better each day,” he said.
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