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byline: Joan Tupponce

Program recognizes farms owned by families for centuries

Charles Garber is proud his family’s Shenandoah County farm is part of the Virginia Century Farm program. “Our roots run deep here,” he says.

Garber represents the ninth generation of his family to own Garber Farms, a 370-acre farm established around 1775.

The Garber farm joins a distinguished group in the Virginia Century Farm program. Formed in 1997, the program is administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services through the Office of Farmland Preservation. To be eligible for the Virginia Century Farm designation, a farm must have been owned by the same family for at least 100 consecutive years, be lived on or farmed by a descendant of the original owner and gross more than  $2,500 annually from the sale of farm products.

“This is an honorary designation to recognize families that have owned farms for hundreds of years continuously,” says Andy Sorrell, coordinator of the Office of Farmland Preservation.

Nearly 1,400 Virginia farms have been designated as Virginia Century Farms since the program’s inception. More than 20 family farms in Virginia are recognized as being more than 250 years old.

The state’s oldest Virginia Century Farm, Summer Hill Farm in Hanover County, has been owned by the Newton and Page families since 1672. The program has three farms from the 1600s, Sorrell says.

Garber’s ancestors, who were German Dunkard Brethren, moved to the Shenandoah Valley during the Revolutionary War. “At the time, this area was largely uninhabited,” he says.

Today the family raises poultry, specifically small broilers used for fast-food restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Popeyes.  “We also have about 125 to 150 cows, and we crop around 300 acres of corn, beans and wheat,” Garber says.

The farm is also a distributor for cattle-handling equipment made in Iowa. “That’s been a good diversification,” Garber says.

The Garbers believed they would qualify for the Virginia Century Farm program when they heard about it. “We are proud our farm has been around so long. A little bit of recognition makes you feel good,” he says.

Investor brings new life to historic Danville bank

When Tom Smith heard about plans to recapitalize First State Bank in Danville he immediately wanted to become involved in the project.

Casey Crawford, a co-founder of Fort Mill, S.C.-based Movement Mortgage, made a $10 million personal investment in the bank in June, making him the majority stockholder.

“This is a startup with history, and the history of the bank appealed to Casey,” says Smith, who is now president and CEO of the bank under its new name, Movement Bank. Smith formerly was the founding president of a community bank in North Carolina.

The bank was founded in 1919 as Savings Bank of Danville by African-Americans wanting to provide financial services to people denied credit by mainstream banks. In recent years, however, the bank has struggled. In 2011 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions issued a consent order in an attempt to improve its financial performance. The bank’s condition “got more critical in 2016 and 2017,” Smith says.

Since Crawford’s investment, the bank’s assets have grown from $28 million to $39.5 million.

A native of Falls Church and a graduate of the University of Virginia, Crawford played in the NFL for three seasons. His stint included winning a Super Bowl ring as a member of the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He previously played for the Carolina Panthers from 2000 to 2001.

Since its founding in 2008, Movement Mortgage has grown to more than 650 locations in 47 states with 4,000 employees. The company ranked No. 1,295 in this year’s listing of the nation’s fastest-growing companies by Inc. magazine. Movement Mortgage had revenue of $579.9 million last year. Its three-year revenue growth rate was 316 percent.

As part of its relaunch, Movement Bank is enhancing its existing products. In addition to banking services, it provides mortgages as well as commercial and consumer loans. “We are a full-service bank,” Smith says.

The bank’s plans include opening loan production offices in Richmond, Virginia Beach and Roanoke over a period of time. Smith hopes that customers feel the new change to Movement Bank “was seamless,” he says. “We still have the same hours, the same people and the same service.”

Firm’s tool assesses risks for opioid overdoses

On average, more than 40 people die in the U.S. per day from unintentional overdoses from prescription opioids.

“It’s tragically ironic that prescription opioid overdose deaths have increased [from 4,000 in 1999 to 15,000 in 2015 in the U.S.] in a time when we have all the data we need to effectively target at-risk patients and address their personal risk factors,” says Dr. Barb Zedler, chief medical officer at Venebio Group, a Richmond-based life-science consultancy.

Venebio recently introduced Venebio Opioid Advisor, a risk-screening tool for opioid overdoses. The software tool analyzes the top risk factors associated with an overdose and predicts a patient’s likelihood of experiencing an overdose with 90 percent accuracy.

“What we are focused on is the overdoses of prescription opioids that are used by patients treated for pain,” says Zedler, noting that much of the national attention to the opioid epidemic has focused on addiction.

Venebio has identified 16 factors most associated with prescription opioid overdoses and catalogued them in a risk index. The strongest predictor is a history of abuse or addiction of any substance, particularly opioids. Other factors include a serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, as well as impairment of the liver, kidneys or lungs.

Venebio’s Opioid Advisor can be embedded in electronic medical records or databases. “It provides clinical decision support guidance for health professionals,” Zedler says. “It is designed to change opioid prescribing behavior.”

Richmond-based Virginia Premier Health Plan Inc. is among the first organizations to implement the tool. It is also being used by Rhode Island-based Amazing Charts, an electronic medical records (EMR) firm, and Amida Care, a private, nonprofit health-care organization in New York City. Other clients include health plans, university health systems, EMR systems and pharmacies in Virginia and New York.

In addition to its Richmond office, Venebio has a second site in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The company has 10 full-time employees and about 250 mostly doctoral-level scientists under contract for consulting work.  “We can put together a pretty impressive team with low overhead,” says Duff Young, the company’s chief operating officer.

Grant helps industrial park prepare for prospects

After 10 years in the works, Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in Henry County is on its way to “Tier 5” status, the state’s highest level of readiness for economic development prospects.

The Commonwealth of Virginia named the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. as one of eight recipients of Virginia Business Ready Sites Program development grants. The $500,000 grant will help with the cost for an onsite water tank at Commonwealth Crossing.

“We are about $30-plus million for total cost,” Mark Heath, president and CEO of the local economic development group, says of the project. “Once the grant is complete and the water tank is built and in service, the project will be at Tier 5 status.”

The industrial park, which sits on the Virginia-North Carolina line, has received a number of grants over the years, including a $5 million grant in 2011 from the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission. The 700-plus acre site is designed to attract “mega projects” involving more than $250 million in capital investment and the creation of more than 400 full-time jobs.

“Everything — the graded pad, all utilities and electricity — is in place now,” Heath says, adding that the industrial park also has Norfolk Southern rail service. “A company could come in and start construction right away. It’s ready to go.”

The Tier 5 designation from the state “removes any question about the project,” he adds. “We have been marketing this site actively for the last several years. Now we are just crossing the last ‘t’.”

The industrial park already has attracted interest from business prospects. “It’s been fairly active,” Heath says. “We have been seeing the kind of clients the Centre was designed for, both domestic and international.”

Firm’s tool assesses risks for opioid overdoses

On average, more than 40 people die in the U.S. per day from unintentional overdoses from prescription opioids.

“It’s tragically ironic that prescription opioid overdose deaths have increased [from 4,000 in 1999 to 15,000 in 2015 in the U.S.] in a time when we have all the data we need to effectively target at-risk patients and address their personal risk factors,” says Dr. Barb Zedler, chief medical officer at Venebio Group, a Richmond-based life-science consultancy.

Venebio recently introduced Venebio Opioid Advisor, a risk-screening tool for opioid overdoses. The software tool analyzes the top risk factors associated with an overdose and predicts a patient’s likelihood of experiencing an overdose with 90 percent accuracy.

“What we are focused on is the overdoses of prescription opioids that are used by patients treated for pain,” says Zedler, noting that much of the national attention to the opioid epidemic has focused on addiction.

Venebio has identified 16 factors most associated with prescription opioid overdoses and catalogued them in a risk index. The strongest predictor is a history of abuse or addiction of any substance, particularly opioids. Other factors include a serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, as well as impairment of the liver, kidneys or lungs.

Venebio’s Opioid Advisor can be embedded in electronic medical records or databases. “It provides clinical decision support guidance for health professionals,” Zedler says. “It is designed to change opioid prescribing behavior.”

Richmond-based Virginia Premier Health Plan Inc. is among the first organizations to implement the tool. It is also being used by Rhode Island-based Amazing Charts, an electronic medical records (EMR) firm, and Amida Care, a private, nonprofit health-care organization in New York City. Other clients include health plans, university health systems, EMR systems and pharmacies in Virginia and New York.

In addition to its Richmond office, Venebio has a second site in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The company has 10 full-time employees and about 250 mostly doctoral-level scientists under contract for consulting work.  “We can put together a pretty impressive team with low overhead,” says Duff Young, the company’s chief operating officer.

Partnership formed to promote Valley tourism

Visitors to the Shenandoah Valley often are not aware of what the region has to offer. The Shenandoah Valley Tourism Partnership is hoping to change that with its new marketing campaign slogan, “Today’s Shenandoah Valley.”

The marketing effort started as a collaboration involving marketing officials employed by localities throughout the region. “Our jobs are to promote our destinations to increase visitation, which ultimately supports our local economies,” says Jenna French, director of tourism and marketing for Shenandoah County. “We saw great potential in working together to promote the Shenandoah Valley as a regional destination.”

According to Virginia Tourism Corp., visitors to the Shenandoah Valley in 2015 generated $1.3 billion in direct spending, a 1.5 percent increase over the previous year. “They also supported $97.2 million in state and local taxes,” says French. “Our goal is to drive those numbers up with increased visitation.”

Launched in May, the tourism partnership now involves 13 communities, stretching from Winchester to Lexington. “Visitors don’t see jurisdictional boundaries, and promoting the region as a whole enables us to encourage people to plan longer trips to the area instead of seeing our individual localities as a weekend destination,” French says.

Working together also enables the localities to pool their resources and take on projects that would otherwise be too expensive for individual budgets. “A great example of this is a PBS travel series we hosted last year called ‘Family Travels with Colleen Kelly,’ which will air this summer throughout the country and even internationally,” French says. “As individual localities, we wouldn’t have had the resources to host them on our own.” 

In working with the partnership to evaluate the area’s strengths and visitor perceptions of the region, Mikula|Harris, a branding and advertising agency, came up with three areas of focus: outdoor recreation and scenic beauty, family travels and growing an interest in the area’s farm-to-table movement.

“Our main goal now is to increase awareness of the Shenandoah Valley as a premiere travel destination,” French says.

Monogram plant plays role in parent company’s award

Monogram Snacks in Martinsville has grown rapidly since its parent company, Monogram Foods, opened the plant in 2009.

“We’ve gone from 115 to approximately 600 employees at the plant,” says Karl Schledwitz, chairman and chief executive officer of Memphis-based Monogram Foods, which employs nearly 3,000 people in eight manufacturing facilities in seven states. 

The Martinsville plant makes meat snacks and meat sticks, including a full array of jerky products. “We produce over 100 different products in Martinsville,” Schledwitz says. Those products include Monogram brands such as Wild Bill’s and Hannah’s as well as private-label snacks. Monogram Snacks also “co-manufactures” products for other brands.

The growth at Monogram Snacks hasn’t gone unnoticed by the meat processing industry. Monogram Foods recently was named the industry’s 2017 Processor of the Year. The recognition honors the company’s growth as well as its industry leadership in investment and innovation.

The Martinsville plant offers evidence of that investment. In June, Monogram Snacks began operating a $11 million wastewater facility, which will allow the plant to continue its growth.

The project includes an anaerobic digester that performs a series of biological processes with the capability of producing enough methane gas to generate 400 kilowatts of power for the Appalachian Power grid. “The wastewater facility is about 400 percent larger than our previous facility,” Schledwitz says.

In planning the project, the company qualified for investment energy credits as well as new-market tax credits. “We are one of the first companies in the country to do both together,” Schledwitz says. “The project wasn’t a big job creator because it only takes a few people to run the facility, but it does enable us to add jobs going forward to expand our capacity. We have plans to grow even more in Martinsville.”

Schledwitz says he enjoys doing business in Virginia. “There hasn’t been a state that has been better to deal with,” he says.

The CEO also praises the Martinsville-area workforce. “They are better skilled than anywhere else we have gone,” he says. “A lot of people that were trained in the textile and furniture industries became available because of the decline of those industries in the area.”

Reorganization process improved profitability

LARGE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Sean Barden
Mary Washington Healthcare
Fredericksburg

Sean Barden’s biggest accomplishment at Mary Washington Healthcare in Fredericksburg is his 2014 effort to “right-size” the organization so its resources were consistent with the number of patients it serves.

His work resulted in a $27 million operating profit improvement and a 14 percent reduction in personnel based on patient occupancy in one year. Most of the staffing reductions were accomplished through attrition.

“There had been a lot of changes in rapid succession that the organization had to absorb, such as the recession, the Affordable Care Act and growing competition,” he says. “The hospital had a couple of years of operating losses as those shocks came in. We had to look at that and make sure we had the right number of people.”

Mary Washington’s results have continued to improve. In 2016, the health system had its best financial year ever.

Barden’s efforts also have led to the refinancing of Mary Washington’s long-term debt at greatly reduced interest rates. The health system’s recent financial performance and balance sheet strength resulted in Fitch Ratings upgrading its rating from BBB+ to A-. Dr. Michael McDermott, president and CEO of Mary Washington Healthcare, praises Barden’s financial acumen and leadership abilities. “We can look to him to help us with strategic decisions and know that he will put us on the right course,” McDermott says.

Barden, a native of Vienna, Va., came to Mary Washington in 2007 after a career in health-care finance that included serving as CFO at Lake Forest Hospital outside of Chicago. “I enjoyed the organization, but my wife is a Virginia girl and hated Chicago,” he says. “I like to tell people she found this job for me. It was a really good opportunity.”

Since he joined Mary Washington, Barden’s work has helped the organization execute its strategies. He converted the health system’s defined-benefit retirement plan to a defined-contribution plan in which employees invest in the program. The change resulted in $6 million in annual savings.

Barden is always able to financially “connect the dots and see how it all folds together and have it operate as efficiently as possible,” says Therese Wareham, managing director and CEO of Kaufman Hall, a management consulting and financial advisory firm in Chicago. “He has the ability to work with and lead people in a way that allows them to execute and enhance the vision he has for the organization.”

Barden is a decisive leader and once he has made an informed decision “he does not second-guess himself,” says Clarence A. Robinson, director of fiscal affairs for the city of Fredericksburg and a member of the Mary Washington Healthcare board of trustees. “He will work to execute his plan with full confidence and commitment.”

A member of the health system’s senior leadership, Barden enjoys being able to work with his team and help set a course for the organization. Barden works hard and “expects you to work hard, but in a fair way,” says health-care consultant Joe Becht of Becht Advisory Group LLC in Mechanicsville. “He takes responsibility. He’s not going to throw any of his people under the bus.”

Barden has a quiet leadership style as well as the ability to “remove his ego from his decision-making process, to take the lead and act with authority and to remain calm and focused in the face of adversity,” Robinson says.

CFO holds herself to high standards

SMALL NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

Sylvia Haines

Hampton Roads Chamber, Norfolk

Often when he’s leaving work for the day, Bryan Stephens finds Sylvia Haines, his chief financial officer and chief operating officer, still hard at work. “She demands more of herself than we would demand of her,” says Stephens, CEO of the Norfolk-based Hampton Roads Chamber. “She adheres to the highest of standards. I have seen her stay late into the night and redo things to the standard of excellence she expects.”

That standard is reflected in the perfect audits the organization frequently receives. “I remember a couple of years ago they identified a minor deficiency of under $100, which was easily fixed, and she was upset about it. She told me she was better than that,” says Stephens. “She has dogged determination to do everything to a high level of excellence.”

Born in Portsmouth, Haines started with the Hampton Roads Chamber in 1987 as an accountant. “What I enjoy the most in chamber work is that you get to juggle a lot of different things. It’s not just accounting. I get to oversee communications and marketing. I enjoy that part of my job. It’s never boring,” she says.

In addition to accounting, her work at the organization has involved relationship building and public speaking, duties that have helped her overcome her shyness. “I used to be painfully shy,” she says. “Being an introvert, doing presentations over these years has helped me grow. You have to put yourself out there, and it’s helped me step out of my box. Forming relationships with others in the community has helped me grow as well.”

Haines has accumulated many responsibilities during her time with the chamber. Her job includes working for the chamber’s affiliate organizations such as the Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads, Hampton Roads Sports Commission and Hampton Roads Chamber Foundation.

The chamber also handles administrative duties for the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance and Chamber Solutions, a partnership of chambers across Virginia. “I do wear a lot of different hats, but I love what I do,” says Haines. “I would rather have too much on my plate than have too little, any day.”

Haines understands how to spot “red flags and bring them to my attention,” says Stephens. “She will identify something that is problematic before it becomes problematic. We are able to implement some sort of solution to prevent it from being problematic. She keeps me well informed.”

Haines also supports the chamber’s mission of being the voice of the local business community. “I think she personally cares not only about the organization but also the people that make up the organization,” says attorney and consultant Shepelle Watkins-White of Shepelle Watkins-White Consulting & Law in Chesapeake. “She had an employee that was terminally ill and she put in long hours to cover for the employee, and I think that is very telling about her compassion.”

Haines is a selfless leader and “mentor to everybody that works for and with the Chamber,” says Stephens. “We have a lot of young professionals that work for us, and they all look to her as a role model.”
A mother, Haines serves as treasurer of Champions for Children: Prevent Child Abuse Hampton Roads. “I have a passion for children being taken care of the way we should take care of them,” she says.

She doesn’t know where the future will take her, but one day she would like to run a chamber of commerce. “I don’t know where that is in the future, so we will see,” she says. “I’m happy where I am right now. My boss is doing some great things with our chamber, and I want to be part of that.”

Real estate CFO seen as a ‘straight shooter’

LARGE PRIVATE COMPANIES

James Crowder

HHHunt Corp., Richmond

James Crowder loves putting real estate deals together and finding ways to finance them.

“It’s fun to see projects come alive,” says Crowder, CFO at HHHunt Corp., one of Virginia’s largest real estate development companies. “My favorite part of the job is structuring the deal and negotiating with the banks to get the best financing. I like the creativity part of it.”

Before the Great Recession hit, Crowder was able to arrange for a $90 million syndicated loan involving five banks. “That provided a line that we were using a significant portion of to finance projects,” Crowder says. “We were able to invest in projects and properties prior to and during the recession.”

HHHunt’s diversified real estate operations in four states also have helped in hard times. In addition to residential communities, the company owns apartments and assisted-living facilities. Those projects continued to generate income for the company during the recession. “That was great to have,” Crowder says. “It enabled us to continue to build houses on the for-sale side of the business and continue to develop other income properties.”

J. Melvin Watkins, group manager with M&T Bank in Richmond, sees Crowder as “a straight shooter” when he’s working on a deal. “Jim is very candid and very matter of fact. He’s methodical and analytical,” he says. “He takes the time to explain why he’s making a decision. It’s refreshing to deal with him in that way.”

In fact, Crowder on many occasions has taken bankers on personal tours of HHHunt communities to illustrate the company’s vision.

A Petersburg native, Crowder taught math in Richmond public schools before switching to a career in finance. He was a banker at Central National Bank in Richmond before he joined The Bogese Companies, a Richmond-based, family-run land development company. He was working in finance and accounting for homebuilder Tomac Corp. in Midlothian before moving to HHHunt in 1998 as vice president of finance and accounting. He became chief financial officer in 2013. During his tenure as CFO, the company’s profitability has increased 57 percent.

“When he came to the company he came from a homebuilder that had much more experience than we did,” says Buck Hunt, HHHunt’s vice chairman and CEO. “We had done master-planned development to large scale and homebuilding to a degree. He brought a broader base of knowledge on homebuilding.”

Keeping up with industry and banking changes can be challenging, especially in light of the company’s rapid growth, Crowder says. “Counties have become more sophisticated in their development requirements, and the federal government has issued new banking regulations.”

Crowder always keeps an eye on potential risks. “If something with a deal like a market change or competition goes bad, you have to find new strategies to make it work,” he says.
In addition to managing the company’s finances, Crowder has a variety of other responsibilities ranging from insurance to technology. “I have also always handled the legal matters to make sure we are covered legally and our loan agreements are properly structured,” he says.

One of the people who has observed Crowder in his various roles is Nathan Kerr, vice president at Scott Insurance, a Lynchburg-based brokerage. “He is an amazing leader with an uncanny ability to encourage, challenge and unify everyone with whom he works,” Kerr says.

As part of the executive team, Crowder helps the company craft its strategy.  “A lot of times we will get into discussions around a new initiative or policy outside of the realm of finance,” Hunt says.

Crowder’s commitment to the company stands out, the CEO adds. “He is dedicated to HHHunt and also to me and my family as well. I feel like I can trust him with every detail. There is nothing we can’t share and that is vitally important.”