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byline: Joan Tupponce

New osteopathic medical school begins classes

With the start of classes in August, Liberty University became the home of the 30th school of osteopathic medicine in the country.

Establishing Liberty’s College of Osteopathic Medicine is part of the university’s overall goal to become a comprehensive Christian university, rivaling such well-known institutions as Brigham Young University and the University of Notre Dame.

Liberty received about 3,000 applications for the new school’s first class of 160 students. “We tried to find students that help us fulfill our vision and mission,” says Dr. Ronnie Martin, the school’s dean. “We hope they will go into community-based practices in underserved areas.”

About 32 of the students are from Western, Central and Southern Virginia. “We recruited heavily in those areas.” Martin says. “We believe there is a high potential for those graduates to go back to those areas.”

The dean is building affiliations and relationships with several community-based partners, such as Lynchburg-based Centra Health and Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Hospitals, which has six hospitals in Virginia.

Osteopathic medicine in­­cludes the use of prescription drugs, surgery and technology to diagnose diseases and evaluate injuries. The field also involves hands-on diagnosis and treatment using a type of therapy known as “osteopathic manipulative medicine,” moving muscles and joints using techniques such as stretching, gentle pressure and resistance.

The medical school is housed in Liberty’s new Center for Medical and Health Sciences. It occupies about 120,000 square feet of the 144,000-square-foot building. “As of today there is not a more technologically advanced college of medicine in this country,” Martin says. “We bought the latest state-of-the-art equipment. Our labs are as well-equipped as any place in the country.”

The center is also home to the School of Health Sciences’ master’s degree program in public health and a soon-to-be completed research facility. When finished, the building project will top out around $50 million, Martin says.

When the medical school’s students graduate, they will have “full, unrestricted practice rights in the United States and 66 countries worldwide,” Martin says. “Fifty percent of osteopathic graduates go into community-based practices, such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency and general surgery. The remaining 50 percent go into every other specialty you can imagine.”

Women make their mark

This is supposed to be the Year of the Horse, according to the Chinese calendar. Yet it might be remembered with a different kick. From sound bites on the news from women CEOs at such old-line companies as General Motors to Hillary Clinton’s position as the frontrunner in the polls for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, 2014 is shaping up as the Year of the Woman.

While women remain in the minority as leaders at America’s largest companies, their numbers are rising. In 2014, 24, or 4.8 percent of America’s Fortune 500 CEOs are women, up from 20 in 2013 and more than at any time since Fortune magazine began tracking executives’ gender in 1998.

Progress is evident in other areas as well. Economist Janet Yellen made headlines earlier this year when she became the first woman chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which sets the country’s monetary policy.

In Virginia, the story is much the same, with women heading major business initiatives. Among Virginia’s 22 Fortune 500 firms, two are led by women. One of them, General Dynamics’ Phebe N. Novakovic, was the highest paid public company CEO in Virginia last year, with $18.7 million in total compensation. (See “Paid to perform“)

The other Fortune 500 CEO, Gracia C. Martore at McLean-based Gannett Inc., will assume a new challenge when the corporation splits into two publicly traded entities. One company will include Gannett’s newspapers, and the other, which Martore will lead, will house its digital and broadcast properties.

In Newport News, Barbara A. Niland played a key role in the 2011 spinoff of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the former giant shipbuilding arm of Fairfax County-based Northrop Grumman Corp.  After creating HII’s corporate financial team from scratch, Niland became CFO of what is now an independent Fortune 500 company.

Meanwhile in Richmond, Gail W. Johnson serves as a successful model for women entrepreneurs. Twenty-five years after starting Rainbow Station Inc., she is taking her preschool franchise model overseas. The company has opened two  of what are expected to be 110 schools in China and is expanding into Indonesia as well.

Johnson, who began her career as a pediatric nurse, can remember when women had few career choices.  “I have seen a lot of change. Maybe we aren’t where we need to be in 2014, but we in are in much better place than we have been in the past.” 

As proof, Johnson shares this anecdote. “Just a few years back, I walked into a dealership with the intention of buying four new vans for Rainbow Station. I was totally ignored as if I wasn’t even there,” she recalls, “and I believe I was not taken seriously because I am a woman.”

When Johnson went to leave, a sales associate finally approached her and learned that she was ready to purchase vehicles. “Needless to say they tried to relentlessly to get me back inside. I refused to do business with them from that day on. But today this would never happen.” 

Johnson, Niland and Martore were among five women executives who agreed to participate in an email survey conducted by Virginia Business about some of the major business challenges facing executives today. The other women are Nancy H. Agee, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, a major regional health system based in Roanoke, and Nancy Taylor, president and CEO of Tredegar Corp., a plastics film and aluminum extrusions company in Richmond. (See separate story on Taylor).

Besides challenges, the women discussed how their companies recruit top talent and weighed in on work/life balance, compensation and what motivates them as leaders. 

Gender equality
When it comes to gender equality, Gannett takes pride in its woman-led management team. In 2013 the Women’s Forum of New York named Gannett as one of 40 Fortune 500 companies to have 30 percent or more female membership on its board of directors. “It’s crucial for diversity to be a core value,” says Martore.  “Our top executive positions are led by women who serve in the chairman, CEO, CFO and CMO roles. Diversity is one of the key performance indicators by which senior management is evaluated.”

While more women are moving into the C suite, the fact that Sheryl Sandberg’s recent TEDtalk and book, “Lean In,” resonated with so many women is “pretty hard evidence that we still don’t have gender equality,” says Taylor.  In the book, Facebook’s chief operating officer looks at why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, even though there are more women in the pipeline, and 50 percent of the nation’s college graduates are women. She talks about how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers by not “leaning in” and aggressively pursuing their career goals with confidence, and she offers tips on how to do this. “What it takes to get there will be different by industry, company and individual, but there are a number of common challenges,” says Taylor.

On the issue of pay equity, some women noted that compensation for women executives is getting better. “When women first began achieving executive positions, their pay was not equitable, but that curve is flattening and will continue to do so,” says Agee.  “The more executive compensation reflects accountability for performance, the less gender is a factor in the equation.”

In Virginia, full-time working women earned 76.9 percent of the pay of their male counterparts, which ranks the Old Dominion 32nd among the states, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The national average was 78.6 percent.

In the Virginia Business email poll, women cited a range of business challenges, from maintaining a competitive advantage to responding to the needs of customers and consumers. Often the challenges of running a business are industry specific. For instance, at HII, Niland worries about having one primary customer, the U.S. Navy, which commissions the nuclear-powered ships her company builds.  “Add to that the specter of sequestration, and the result is a significant challenge to resource planning, including employment levels (due to potential and unknown workload fluctuations) and capital allocations.”

Agee’s organization has nine hospitals, employs 600 physicians and operates nearly 200 practice sites.  She says the key to leading an organization of this size and complexity is “a culture of collaboration, partnerships and relationships.”

Attracting top talent
Recruiting top talent is crucial. The women said they focus on hiring the best and brightest. “We are always looking for the ‘A’ performers — those exceptional individuals who raise the bar,” says Martore.

“The key is to create a culture where the best employees want to work and aren’t afraid to take bold steps.”

Overall, creating a work environment that offers opportunities for growth along with competitive benefits and compensation helps recruit and retain top talent. Niland says HII offers wellness programs and affordable health care as well as significant workforce development opportunities, including two apprentice schools. “We are focused on our employees’ well-being.”

To find skilled employees, Taylor says, her company uses an outside recruiting firm, while Johnson’s company recruits on college campuses and has an intern program. 

Maintaining a work/life balance can be a challenge, the women said, no matter the industry, largely because of globalization. “Today with globalization, technology and particularly communication devices, we are in a 24/7, no work-hour boundary environment, and you have to manage that in a way that meets both the business requirements and your personal needs,” says Niland.

Some of the women said their companies are responding with practices such as flexible scheduling and wellness initiatives in addition to encouraging employees to use vacation time. “Unique to our business, you also have the option to bring your child to work,” Johnson says. “It can be really nice to be able to just pop into the other room and check on your child a couple of times throughout the day.”
Success is built on personal motivation, and several of the women say they are motivated not only by the impact their company has on the community but also the investment they have in their colleagues.

“Just the other day I was watching a young leader in our organization, someone I have known for several years, and I was so impressed with the ease with which he handled himself, his confidence, communication skills and his ability to work with a team. I told him so, and he said,  ‘You taught me how to do it.’ That is what motivates me,” says Agee.

Building a company that is strong and well positioned for the future motivates Taylor and Martore. “The idea of shaping a business that creates value today and into the future for shareholders, for customers, for employees,” says Taylor. “ … I can’t emphasize enough how seriously I take that responsibility. It is my driver.” 

Martore also noted the many constituencies that CEOs strive to serve. “My goal is to serve them all well by leading well.”

Front Royal celebrates return of Avtex property

September marks a new beginning for the site that once housed Front Royal’s largest employer, Avtex Fibers.

The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority will hold an event celebrating the return of the Avtex Superfund site to the community. “It will be exciting to see this site have jobs and be a viable part of the community again,” says Jennifer McDonald, the authority’s executive director.

A Superfund site is a property that the Environmental Protection Agency has determined is contaminated and needs remediation. “At one time we were the largest Superfund site in Virginia,” McDonald says.

Opened in 1940, the Avtex plant produced rayon, polyester and polypropylene until it abruptly shut down in 1989. “It was devastating,” McDonald says. “There was no time to properly shut down the acid [in the plant]. Everything was left in the pipes, and it sat there for 10 years until 1999 when the Economic Development Authority took ownership.”

The EPA will issue a “letter of no further interest” during September, which means the 162-acre industrial plant site is ready for development. The property also has 240 acres in conservancy and 34 acres containing a recreational area with soccer fields and a state-of-the-art skate park. “We sold 5.24 acres to the Town of Front Royal to construct a new police headquarters,” McDonald says.

The Army Corps of Engineers participated in the demolition of the Avtex plant. The site cleanup was conducted by Philadelphia-based FMC Corp. “They were the only surviving company that once had owned the property,” McDonald says. “The other companies had filed bankruptcy. FMC has done a wonderful job with the cleanup. It is a great community partner.”

Federal funding ac­­counted for $26 million of cost in demolishing the building, but McDonald estimates that FMC has spent more than $100 million on the total project.
She would like to see the site developed by someone familiar with Superfund sites and their restrictions. “Now that the EPA can see that it is clean, they are revising the restrictions to allow more things to be onsite,” she says, adding that development of any project involving the routine presence of children is prohibited. “There can’t be any [daycare centers] or schools or residential development. And, no one can use the groundwater.”

McDonald hopes developers will create a mixed-use project with industrial, commercial and office buildings. The interested developers are now “sitting on the sidelines, waiting,” she says.

Developer turning old Martinsville hotel into apartments

Developer Dave McCormack hopes to breathe new life into the former Henry Hotel in Martinsville by converting the structure into a four-story apartment building. A center of activity during the heyday of the textile and tobacco industries in Southern Virginia, the hotel, which was built around 1920, has been empty for several years.

The $3.2 million project will include three commercial spaces on the first floor and 25 apartments. “There is a need for quality, market-rate apartments in Martinsville,” says McCormack, president of Waukeshaw Development Inc. in Petersburg. “You see a lot of low-income housing, but you don’t see a lot of market-rate apartments.”

He sees the opening of the New College Institute’s new Building on Baldwin, just blocks away, as a plus for his apartment complex. “That development will attract a lot of students,” he says.

The college building will house academic and workforce training programs.

McCormack started de­­­veloping buildings in Petersburg and other underserved areas about 12 years ago. One of his larger Petersburg projects, Mayton Transfer Lofts, includes 220 apartments. He expects to have about $60 million in investments in the Petersburg area by 2015. “I do projects [that] developers have stayed away from,” he says.

He looked at the Henry Hotel property more than a year ago at the suggestion of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. He had worked with the department on similar projects. “I like working in that reuse, historic tax credit realm,” he says. “I like to do projects that are game changing and spur other development.”

McCormack, who bought the 26,400-square-foot building from Martinsville for $1, is using historic state and federal tax credits, as well as a $600,000 grant from the state Industrial Revitalization Fund, for the project.

“Virginia Community Capital is financing the remainder,” he says, adding that he expects to break ground on the project this month. Construction will take about 10 months. “We hope to have a certificate of occupancy by the middle of the summer of 2015.”

McCormack says that his renovation projects usually pave the way for other projects in the same area. He hopes to have the same success in Martinsville. “These things always lead to more opportunity and development,” he says.

Technology firm finds new home in trolley barn

Bob Dierk, site manager of JDSU in Roanoke, sees the company’s plans to move to The Bridges development in December as “getting in on the ground floor of a new and appealing area.” The technology company will be the first corporate tenant in the $100 million project, which is expected to transform a long-vacant stretch along the city’s South Jefferson Avenue into new apartments, offices and shops.

JDSU’s new office space will be in the Trolley Barn, a more than 100-year-old building in the newly designated National Roanoke River & Railroad Historic District. Redevelopment of the Trolley Barn is part of the first phase of The Bridges project, which also will include a 157-unit apartment complex, a restaurant and office space.

JDSU liked the Trolley Barn’s downtown location because it offers convenient access to restaurants, attractions and other businesses as well as convenient parking. JDSU now is located in Valley Point Business Park near Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport. “We had been in Salem for 20 years,” says Dierk, who also serves as the company’s director of research and development. “Our lease there ran out before we were able to renovate the Trolley Barn, so we moved to a temporary location.”

The downtown location will serve as the product development site for California-based JDSU, which develops software and instruments. The Trolley Barn space will house about 75 employees, many of whom are software and hardware engineers. “We are a design center of a large 5,000-plus employee global corporation,” Dierk says, adding that the new space could accommodate about 100 employees. “It offers us growth for the future.”

The Trolley Barn, built around 1912, originally served as a place to park and service streetcars. “It was an open barn so [streetcars] could drive though both ends,” Dierk says. “We are trying to re-create that open environment. We are taking down the cinderblock walls on the north and south sides and putting up windows so you will be able to see from end to end in the building.”

The structure has 17-foot ceilings and steel catwalks that were used to service streetcars. “We are keeping the catwalks and utilizing them in our plans,” Dierk says. “They will be used as a space for small meetings.”

ESN recognized for its continued rapid growth rate

ESN continually gets accolades for its steady growth. In July, Hispanic Business magazine named the Arlington-based company one of the 100 fastest-growing Hispanic businesses in the U.S. In 2012, ESN was included in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

Retired U.S. Navy Commander Raymond Lopez Jr. started the company in 1995 with a single $25,000 purchase order from the U.S. Navy. Last year ESN’s revenue hit $38 million. “We have consistently grown 10 to 20 percent each year since 2001,” Lopez says, noting that he also has expanded his customer base from the Navy to other federal departments and agencies.

The company acronym stands for Engineering Services Network. It provides engineering and technology solutions for military and government customers. Services include professional management and systems engineering, cybersecurity, network design, data-center consolidation and systems development.

ESN has worked with the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Military Sealift Command, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps.

The company’s 250 employees are based in Arlington and in field offices throughout the U.S. and overseas. “We have employees in 22 states,” Lopez says. “We also have people in Bahrain.”

Forty-two percent of the company’s employees are veterans, many of whom are stationed in the office in Chesapeake. Their work includes helping to develop the next generation of combat systems to improve the Navy’s operational effectiveness.

The company’s recent projects include moving the Navy Cyber Command from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach to the former U.S. Joint Forces Command headquarters in Suffolk. In May ESN won a $24.5 million contract from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific to provide technical support for voice communications. “We have worked together for years and this is an important extension of those earlier efforts,” Lopez says.

The Navy also awarded ESN a $7.7 million contract to provide combat systems engineering and systems integration support to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in California.
The company’s employee retention rate is considered high for the IT industry. In 2013 the rate was 90 percent, a figure that Lopez attributes to the company’s benefits and family atmosphere. “We start everybody with three weeks of paid vacation and there is no waiting period for our 401(k),” he says. “We have people that are smart and earnest. We need customer-centric folks because we are trying to help the war fighter or veteran.”

NanoTouch products fight the spread of disease

Outbreaks of diseases such as MERS and Ebola have people scrambling to find ways to kill germs and disinfect surfaces. Some organizations are turning to NanoTouch Materials in Forest near Lynchburg for its antimicrobial NanoSeptic products. The products’ nontoxic surfaces kill bacteria, viruses and fungi without contributing to antimicrobial resistance.

In May the company sent 3,500 surfaces for door handles and push pads to the King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Saudi Arabia to help combat the MERS outbreak. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory illness. One of the newer NanoTouch products sent to the hospital is a peel-and-stick skin for over-the-bed tray tables.

NanoTouch co-founder Mark Sisson has been working on the company’s product line for three years. “There was a lot of confusion in the marketplace,” he says. “All the products out there such as hand sanitizer were one-time kills. Our surfaces work continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Located in the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research, NanoTouch is now working with distributors in 11 countries. Sisson originally thought the company’s primary client would be the health-care industry, but he’s found that “the acute-care side of health care is slow to move, slow to adopt new technology,” he says. “There are lots of hurdles.”

Other industries, however, have been eager to purchase NanoTouch products. “There has been rapid adoption of the products in the hospitality and travel industry,” he says.

NanoTouch products, for example, are being used in guest rooms at the Craddock Terry Hotel in Lynchburg. The hotel uses the company’s travel mats as well as self-cleaning TV channel guides and coffee maker instruction placards. “The products are branded with the hotel’s logo,” Sisson says. “When travelers leave, they can take the travel mat with them and use it in other hotels and on airline tray tables.”

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke is also a customer. It has applied the company’s NanoSeptic surfaces to doors and other high-traffic touch points throughout the building. Demand for NanoTouch products is growing, Sisson says. “We have already had sales this year four times higher than last year. Once the word gets out there we think it will snowball.”

Institution’s CFO aims for the double bottom line

Clyde Cornett considers himself a natural problem solver. That characteristic has served him well since he became chief financial officer for Virginia Community Capital Inc./Community Capital Bank of Virginia in 2008. A nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) that owns a for-profit bank, VCC helps small businesses and communities by promoting housing development and revitalization efforts. The organization has offices in Richmond, Christiansburg and Springfield.

Coming from a background in public accounting, Cornett didn’t have a great deal of experience with nonprofit organizations or community development, but “being a problem solver has been a huge benefit for me,” he says.

As CFO, Cornett oversees the financial dealings of the parent organization and the bank. “The basic concept is similar,” he says of the two entities. “What was challenging for me was the nonprofit side, understanding industry-specific rules.”

VCC is one of only 10 or fewer organizations in the country with this type of structure. “Out of those, four or five are Indian tribe-related,” he says. “There was no guidance for us on how to marry up two organizations and report to investors or regulators.”

Since Cornett came aboard, VCC’s total assets have grown from approximately $23 million to more than $105 million. “To know that we have grown this organization so much in a short amount of time feels really good,” he says.

A native of Dante, a small town in Southwest Virginia, Cornett began working in community banking after graduating from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. When he joined VCC, he began networking with people working in nonprofits and community development financial institutions. “They would share information,” he says. “I had a lot of help, and that’s one thing I like about this industry. People don’t see themselves as competitors as much as potential partners.”

Cornett takes a logical and methodical approach to work, says VCC’s CEO Jane Henderson. “He’s very supportive of new ideas and innovation, but he doesn’t let the organization get so out on the ledge that we get into trouble.”

During Cornett’s tenure, VCC has had six consecutive years of profitability and fund balance growth. It has financed over 4,600 units of affordable housing, financed six community health-care centers and created or saved more than 1,950 jobs. “Clyde clearly knows how to lead a team to a double bottom line, where both monetary and mission results are created and valued,” Henderson says.

Outside of work, Cornett is one of the founding directors of Appalachian Community Capital, the first of its kind in the community development financial institution world. “The goal is to raise national capital that individual CDFIs might not have access to,” he says. “We want to get capital flowing into the high-poverty regions of the Appalachian Mountains, from New York to Mississippi.”

Personable and innovative, Cornett consistently receives praise for his leadership as well as his financial expertise. “A large part of VCC’s success is attributable to Clyde’s blend of experience coupled with his dedication to the mission of the organization,” says board chairman Dixon Hanna.

Henderson agrees. “VCC is too small to have internal employee awards yet;  however, if we did, Clyde would certainly win one,” she says. “He has great people and business skills.”

He reduced school system costs without cutting jobs

Two years after becoming chief financial officer for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Farrell Hanzaker had to face one of the biggest challenges of his career: helping the commonwealth’s third-largest school division stay afloat during the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2011, the school system lost $91 million in funding. Hanzaker was a guiding force in navigating those tumultuous times.

“He helped us get through that period,” says Deputy Superintendent Sheila Magula. “We made cuts strategically, but it didn’t result in people losing their jobs.”

Hanzaker initiated efforts to reduce spending while eliminating any program that was inefficient. “We were able to implement cost-saving programs regarding the energy we use,” he says. “That has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Cost-saving strategies begun by Hanzaker have saved the school system more than $40 million since their implementation.

The CFO also worked with city staff and Virginia Beach City Council members to develop a new revenue-sharing formula. It replaced the 17-year-old model that was heavily based on real estate tax revenue. “He diversified the revenue streams,” says Dan Edwards, chairman of the Virginia Beach City School Board. “Real estate is still a factor, but so are other elements such as hotel and meal taxes. He worked to achieve a more sustainable, less volatile revenue formula.”

During the sometimes-contentious process, Hanzaker was able to help build a more collaborative relationship between the school system and city government. Magula credits his negotiating strength to his past experience. “He has that business perspective,” she says.

A native of Kannapolis, N.C., Hanzaker worked in banking and health care after a decorated career as a Marine Corps aviator. He had worked for a number of school systems since 1979 before taking the Virginia Beach job in 2006.

Hanzaker enjoys the work because of its diversity. “I do something different every day,” he says. “I get the chance to get out in schools and visit classrooms. For me to sit in the office and do nothing but numbers … would be horrible.”

Hanzaker has helped the school system earn awards and recognition from a variety of organizations, including the Government Finance Officers Association and the Association of School Business Officials. “We look for ways to improve what we do on an ongoing basis,” he says.

His work philosophy: “Do the job until you get it done. I believe you have to hold people accountable,” he says.

Magula describes Hanzaker as “quietly competent and a good listener.” He listens to all requests and tries to find a way to make them work if he believes they are feasible. If not, “he will challenge you to think deeper,” Magula says. “He is not a ‘yes’ person. Everyone on the leadership team enjoys working with him.”

Ransom thrives on change at rapidly growing company

Robin Ransom adjusts to change quickly. “I like the challenge of new things,” she says. “I can adapt to multiple scenarios.”

A little over a year into her role as chief financial officer at Commonwealth Commercial Partners, a Henrico County-based commercial real estate services firm, Ransom is finding that the real estate industry changes on a daily basis.

“It’s very volatile,” she says. “Every day is different.” And different is what Ransom is all about.

The West Virginia native began her career in the tax arena but soon ventured into different areas of accounting as well as different types of companies.

When she decided to get an MBA, she chose William & Mary because she wanted an institution that offered diversity in programs and students. “I wanted to go to a place where there weren’t a bunch of accountants in my class,” she says. “Everyone in my class had different backgrounds, and that was great for me.”

An almost 20-year-old firm, Commonwealth had never had anyone in the capacity of CFO before Ransom, a Certified Public Accountant, joined the team. At the time, it was undergoing dramatic growth with an increasing set of financial needs. The firm offers asset management, property management, sales and leasing in 22 states. It currently manages 15 million square feet of space and 225 properties.

“Robin was fearless, jumping into an industry where she didn’t have any experience,” says Commonwealth’s CEO Mark Claud. “There was no rule book, no job description. She had to start from scratch and build a team at a time when we were experiencing extraordinary growth.”

Last December the company took over management of a 2.1-million-square-foot portfolio with 32 properties. Ransom was instrumental in helping the process run seamlessly.

“There were multiple levels of reporting back to the client,” she says. “I helped guide the staff on how we were going to accomplish this. It was a huge undertaking not only for me but also my staff.”

A key member of the leadership team, Ransom compares managing real estate to handling 200 individual businesses, all under the same umbrella organization. “Each property is a stand-alone business,” she says. “I am involved in the details of the properties and the portfolios.”

Ransom is practical and flexible in her work, says Brian Farmer, chairman of the business section at Richmond law firm Hirschler Fleischer. “She is a listener and a learner. She develops a lot of information before she comes up with a solution.”

Even though Ransom doesn’t sell real estate services, she has made a major financial impact on the company. She developed a monthly reporting system that established a budget and forecast, helping the company understand the financial performance of each of its divisions. “A lot of times financial statements take a back seat to growing the company,” she says. “We can now say what we are going to accomplish and measure against it every month.”