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byline: Joan Tupponce

VCU deal expected to boost South Hill hospital

July marks the beginning of a new era for Community Memorial Healthcenter. The South Hill hospital has a new name — VCU Community Memorial Hospital — as a result of a partnership announced in April with Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond.

As part of the deal, VCU committed a minimum of $75 million toward constructing a new Community hospital building as well as improvements in its health-care technologies, clinical initiatives and physician recruitment efforts.

The partnership is the end product of a process begun two years ago when Community’s board started analyzing the changing health-care environment. “Our payer mix had been changing,” says Scott Burnette, Community’s president and CEO. “Eighty-nine percent of our inpatients were Medicare, Medicaid or they had no insurance.”

The hospital’s affiliation steering committee assessed potential suitors, looking for a long-term partner that would help it create a new health-care facility. “The board looked at the needs of the community and the needs of [the hospital],” says John Duval, CEO of MCV Hospitals and Clinics at VCU. “A number of institutions were invited to submit, and VCU was ultimately selected.”

Hospital officials say the partnership pairs two organizations with similar missions and cultures.  “That is how we ended up with VCU Health System,” Burnette says, noting that VCU already had a relationship with his hospital, providing services in South Hill to cancer patients. “It was somebody that we knew,” he says.

Community’ employees now are part of the 9,000-employee VCU Health System workforce, eligible for raises and enhanced benefits package offered by the larger organization.

VCU also will assist Community in recruiting more general surgeons as well as specialty and primary-care physicians.

The new South Hill hospital is expected to open within four years. Community is evaluating a 50-acre tract owned by the hospital to determine whether it will be a suitable location.

“The sooner the better as long as we can do a high-quality job,” says Duval. “The existing facility is from the 1950s. It has been added to and expanded over time. They have done a great job of maintaining it, but it’s time for a more contemporary facility.”

A separate board of directors will continue to oversee the South Hill hospital. It will include 10 members from the community and four from VCU.

“[Community] will be­­come a controlled entity within the health system as opposed to a full asset merger,” Duval says. “It’s important to engage with South Hill and surrounding counties to work together in addressing the health-care needs of the community.”

“This is going to be great for the organization and for the community,” Burnett says. “It significantly enhances our services to the region, and it will bring more clinical research into the area.”

Loudoun effort aimed at developing rural businesses

Many people know Loudoun County for its concentration of technology-focused businesses, but the county’s economic engine also is fueled by agriculture.

About three-fourths of the county’s landmass is rural, with about 150,000 acres of active farmland. Rural businesses contribute more than $69 million to the county’s economy each year. “We have 42 farm wineries in the county and that number is growing,” says Kellie Boles, Loudoun’s agricultural development officer. “We also have more berry growers in Loudoun than any other county in the state.”

The growth of the county’s rural economy is in part a result of Loudoun’s rural business development team. It is rolling out a yearlong initiative to help landowners begin or expand agricultural businesses in western Loudoun. “We wanted to fill in the gaps in the rural economy,” Boles says.

Before the rollout, county representatives traveled to New York’s Finger Lakes region, known for its wineries, to see what complementary businesses exist there. The Loudoun officials, for example, visited a dairy and participated in cheese tastings. “We looked at the pieces we need to fill in to make ours a diverse rural economy as well,” Boles says.

One of the up-and-coming industries the county is targeting is farm brewing.  The Virginia legislature this year approved a new license that requires farm breweries to use agricultural products grown on their land to make beer. “The county is now writing a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow farm breweries in the western part of the county,” Boles says.

The county also hopes to pull in more businesses like Endless Summer Harvest, a hydroponic lettuce operation. The company has built a permanent greenhouse and plans to double its output in the next year.

“That is what we want: people who will invest in the county,” Boles says. “We are also seeing more people putting in orchards, such as Moonfire Orchard, which grows heirloom apple trees.”

Moonfire plans to supply a cidery in the county. It represents a prime example of one business spawning another. “Our next wave will be businesses that support the brewery industry that produce fruits and grains like barley and hops,” Boles says.

One of the benefits of a growing agricultural economy is it requires less infrastructure, in terms of roads, schools and utilities, in comparison with residential communities and commercial enterprises. “Farmland contributes more to the tax base than it gets in services. Agriculture is a net positive for Loudoun,” Boles says.

Getting from here to there

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Logistics Systems (CCALS) got a boost last October when the Virginia Port Authority joined the organization.

Mark Manasco, the president and executive director of CCALS, hopes the applied research organization’s newest member will encourage other members “to think outside of domestic best practices and consider a global perspective where logistics and supply chain is concerned.”

The port authority brings a physical logistics component to CCALS with its deep-water facilities, technology and automated supply-chain systems. The port already has seen an increase in traffic from Panamax ships, huge vessels designed to pass through an expanded Panama Canal, making Virginia a prime East Coast location for the distribution of goods.

The port will be an even bigger player in the state’s economy when the Panama Canal’s expansion is completed late next year, allowing for an increase in traffic. “It opens up Central Virginia and puts it on the map in a lot of ways,” Manasco says. “It is a good partner to have in our organization.”

In addition to the Port Authority, current CCALS industry/government members include Logistics Management Resources, government consulting firm LMI, the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee and the Crater Planning District Commission. Four Virginia universities (Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia State, Longwood and University of Virginia) also are members.

Following CCAM model
Based in Prince George, CCALS follows on the successful model of the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a collaborative research organization prompted by Rolls-Royce’s decision to build a jet engine component plant in Prince George.

CCALS’ goal is to bring together the research expertise of universities, businesses and government entities to foster the creation of goods and services. “We like to say we are industry-directed and university-executed,” says Manasco. “We have everybody at the table at a level that makes a difference. We have people creating jobs and people creating curriculum.”

It offers its members three categories of research — generic, directed (an issue specific to a member company) and collaborative, where the organization serves as a channel for federally funded, state and association research.

For example, VCU (along with other CCALS universities) is talking with the Defense Logistics Agency, a combat support agency. VCU is looking at the agency’s needs, such as access to strategic metals like tin and titanium, while examining “what our capabilities are,” says Chip Minor, a CCALS board member and the chair of VCU’s department of supply chain management and analytics.

The approach of CCALS and CCAM to research has resonated with corporations. “What makes both organizations unique is their intellectual-property policy,” says Barry Johnson, chairman of the board of CCALS and former chairman of the board of CCAM. “They give corporate members the ability to fund directed research anywhere in the network and own the research outright. With pre-competitive generic research, the intellectual property is owned by CCALS but made available royalty-free with a nonexclusive worldwide license to member companies.”

Other universities and states are trying to create organizations similar to CCAM and CCALS, but none presently have the same type of policy.

CCALS also is a separate corporation while some partnership organizations are centered under the umbrella of a specific university. “With CCALS, every university member is an equal partner around the table and that is a key component,” Johnson says.

Targeted industries
CCALS hopes to attract businesses in growth industries such as health care, transportation and energy. Its location, within driving range of two-thirds of the U.S. consuming public, is a draw for companies considering relocation or establishing new operations. “It’s a good place to put your base of operations if you distribute goods,” Manasco says.

CCALS also is talking with General Electric about becoming a test site for the logistics application of the Industrial Internet, which helps companies and machines exchange information through a secure online connection. “GE has been to a couple of CCALS board meetings and presented information,” says Manasco.

Another goal for the organization is workforce development. Officials hope it will help define jobs of the future based on global standards and look at ways to build skills in the workforce. “We are looking at ways to leverage what people are doing now. When you talk about common problems and ways to approach things, nothing but good comes of it,” Manasco says.

Virginia Commonwealth University and Fort Lee worked together to create a new master’s degree program in supply-chain management. This fall Army officers enrolled in the theater logistics program at Fort Lee will be able to attend VCU for the first time.  They will earn their master’s degree within one calendar year. “They will come to VCU in the evening one night a week for the first course and then take the remaining courses in the spring and summer,” says Minor. “It’s a fairly intensive program.”

The Army believes it is important for its officers to attend an academic facility and work with civilian students. “We are expecting in the vicinity of 10 soldiers, but it’s too soon to tell yet,” Minor says. “As we go along we expect that number to go up considerably.”

Even though the master’s degree program was developed with Fort Lee, VCU will make it available to anyone interested in supply-chain occupations. “It’s an opportunity for anyone taking the class to interface with the Army and vice versa,” Minor says. “The Army is a significant customer to a lot of companies.”

The program also is expected to benefit Army officers who hope to retire from the military in their early 40s. “This degree will give them something marketable that they can take to the corporate world,” Minor says.

German expertise finds home at the beach

When customers tour Stihl Inc.’s manufacturing plant in Virginia Beach, they frequently comment on its cleanliness. Some ask President Fred J. Whyte if the plant was cleaned specifically for their visit. He tells them, “No. It looks like this all the time. The expectation from management is that you do things right, and you do them right the first time.”

Put another way, the German business culture may not have as much tolerance for mistakes as Americans. “We don’t hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya,’ ” Whyte says with a laugh.

The Virginia Beach facility serves as the headquarters for U.S. operations for the worldwide Stihl Group, based in Germany. Andreas Stihl started the company in 1926, and it continues to be a family-owned business today. It develops, manufactures and distributes power tools for the forestry, agriculture, construction, tree-care and landscape industries as well as for homeowners. Products include the Stihl chain saw brand, the world’s top-selling brand since 1971. They are distributed through a network of 40,000 dealers in more than 160 countries. 

The company began production in Hampton Roads in 1974. Four years later, it moved to its current location in Oceana Industrial Park. The company decided to establish a presence in the U.S. because it is the largest single market worldwide for Stihl’s products. “If you are going to be a player, you have to be in the market,” Whyte says.

Stihl was attracted to Virginia Beach for a variety of reasons. One of the main motivators was the area’s deepwater port with worldwide access. “The company had an eye toward the future and exporting,” Whyte says. The Virginia Beach facility exports to about 90 countries around the world.

The company also benefits from the area’s skilled workers, many of whom are ex-military. “The military provides training that we require here,” Whyte says.

Virginia Beach’s business-friendly atmosphere was a plus as well. “The city has been extremely responsive and supportive,” Whyte says. “We have all the goods and services of most big cities without all the big-city problems.”

Employment at the Virginia Beach facility has grown from 50 employees to more than 1,900 workers. It produces and distributes more than 275 models of handheld outdoor power equipment. Nationwide it has more than 2,100 employees.

The plant has expanded several times to accommodate the manufacture and final product assembly of various components. It is currently situated on about 150 acres with more than 2 million square feet under roof. The last expansion, completed in 2012, added 57,742 square feet.

The company has posted sales records every year for the past 22 years with the exception of 2009, the depths of the Great Recession, when it still showed a profit. In recent years sales have grown to more than $1 billion annually.

In 2009, Stihl Inc. became a Foreign Trade Zone, an area geographically in the U.S. but legally considered outside the country for customs purposes. The designation allows the company to import components at a duty-free rate and receive the benefits of duty elimination, reduction and deferral.

The founding company began exporting to Russia, Canada and the U.S. in 1931. Its U.S. headquarters started exporting in the mid-1970s to a variety of countries including Brazil. It also imports product and raw materials from South America. “Brazil is an interesting country,” says Whyte, who frequently travels to Sao Paulo.

He finds people in Brazil to be “a bit more laissez faire and more laid back” when conducting business. “Their way of doing business is warmer and friendlier,” he says. “In terms of handshakes and hugs I tend to think we as Americans are abrupt at times.”

There are also cultural differences at Stihl as well. Germans, for example, tend to be very direct, but they can easily separate business from pleasure. Business is business, and “drinks are drinks,” Whyte says. “They may have strong business discussions, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get together later for a beer. In our country, if you have a tough business discussion, people can take it personally.”

On average an employee from Germany visits the Virginia Beach facility three weeks out of every month. “We also send people to Germany, Brazil and Switzerland to become more culturally astute and learn how to do business,” Whyte says.

The company believes in continuing education. It has both job sharing and an apprenticeship program in manufacturing where employees receive hands-on training coupled with classes at Tidewater Community College. The program is similar to a model used in the German headquarters that combines on-the-job training with classroom learning. “Our apprenticeship program here has benefitted from Germany’s dual-system model,” Whyte says. 

Economy in Sao Paulo
The biggest city in Brazil, with more than 11 million people, Sao Paulo is one of the 10 most populous cities in the world. It is the financial epicenter of Brazil, housing the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, the Cereal Market Stock Exchange and the Futures Market. The city has a large concentration of foreign businesses, including many German and Swedish-based companies. Industries in the city include automotive, manufacturing, science and technology. The Forbes list of the top billionaire cities ranked Sao Paulo sixth last year. Major businesses in the city include telecommunications firms Telefonica and Vivo, brewing company Ambev, Switzerland-based Nestlé, consumer goods company Unilever and steel maker Cosipa.

Economy in Virginia Beach
Twenty internationally based firms have their U.S. or North American headquarters in Virginia Beach. Target industries include advanced manufacturing, biomedical and life sciences, defense, information services, maritime and logistics. Virginia Beach is the only city in Virginia with no machinery and tools tax. It has established an office in Dusseldorf, Germany, to help European businesses interested in Virginia Beach. Last year the city added 17 businesses such as Germany-based Prufrex. In addition to Stihl, some of the city’s larger employers include sign company Architectural Graphics, manufacturer M & G Electronics Corp., Sentara Healthcare, organ procurement organization LifeNet Health, Christian Broadcasting Network, Gold Key/PHR Hotels and Resorts and Amerigroup (a part of WellPoint) which manages publicly funded health programs.

Polishing the ‘jewel’

Peter Meredith, the CEO of Meredith Construction Co., was only 6 the first time he walked into the Chrysler Museum of Art, then known as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. At the time he was more fascinated with the monumental horse statue outside the museum than the art inside. Now as the chair of the museum’s board of trustees as well as a major donor, he considers the museum to be “a jewel” in Norfolk.  

In May the Chrysler reopened its doors after an 18-month renovation and expansion. The redesign of the Chrysler’s 210,000-square-foot interior included the addition of new wings on either side of the front entrance. The added space is being used to display more of the museum’s 30,000-work collection, most of which was donated by auto industry executive and art collector Walter Chrysler Jr.

The $24 million project is the latest of three phases of the museum’s $45 million capital campaign. Funds from the campaign also were used to create the museum’s Glass Studio, a full glassmaking facility that opened in November 2011. “People can watch glass being made every day, and they can take a class,” says William Hennessey, the museum’s director. In addition, campaign funds will support the growth of dedicated endowments, which will help ensure the museum’s long-term financial stability.

Before the reopening, the museum was hampered by a lack of gallery space, making it difficult to approach private collectors about loaning or donating their art. Because of the cramped space, many items from the museum’s collection had to be kept in storage. “They deserved to be shown,” says Hennessey. Two restored, oversize Roman statues that are currently on view, for example, had been stored away for 50 years.

The museum’s two new wings house galleries for its American and European painting and sculpture collections and also provide 30 percent more gallery space for its impressive glass collection. “A good number of our galleries, particularly the glass gallery and the ancient worlds gallery, were out of date,” Hennessey says.

The contemporary art gallery features many works that were too large to display before the renovation. One new addition is the 10-foot-tall sculpture that Louisiana artist Keith Sonnier crafted out of sheets of cut and shaped steel that sat in a crate near the museum’s back door for years.

The renovation also brought changes in the status of the Irene Leache Memorial collection of European Old Master paintings, sculpture, tapestries and decorative arts. The 27 works dating from the 14th- through the 19th-centuries have been on loan to the museum since soon after its opening in 1933.  In April the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation gave the entire collection to the museum. “It was the obvious next step for us to make this part of the permanent collection,” says Vickie Bilisoly, president of the foundation.

As part of its gift, the foundation also established an endowed curatorship for European art. Jeff Harrison, the museum’s chief curator, holds the position. “It was the last unnamed, curatorial position at the museum,” Bilisoly says. “We were happy to take this step at this time.”

The recent renovations also addressed accessibility for people with special needs as well as interior accessibility for visitors, making it easier for patrons to navigate through the galleries. An ill-placed elevator had made it difficult for people to move from gallery to gallery. “There was no sight line,” Meredith says. “Now we have open sight lines.”

The museum’s new restaurant, complete with full-scale kitchen and deck overlooking The Hague, an inlet off the Elizabeth River, will be an additional plus as will the newly upgraded HVAC system. The system will better control the humidity and temperature in the building. “It’s energy efficient and green,” Meredith says.

Even though the changes inside will be noticeable to patrons, the architectural style of the Chrysler remains the same. “People like the way the museum looks,” Hennessey says of the overall exterior. “They didn’t want to change it, and we didn’t want people to notice anything different. It fits comfortably in the [Ghent] neighborhood.”

Meredith sees the museum as “the premiere arts institution” in Hampton Roads and one of the top in Virginia. “If we weren’t in the big leagues before, we are now,” he says.

Helping soldiers

Fantastic 50
HIGHEST REVENUE GROWTH
Millennium Corp., Arlington
millgroupinc.com

Retired military officers Kevin N. Jennings and Cedric D. Henry may have given up their uniforms, but they haven’t lost their sense of duty.

“We wanted to create our own destiny, but we still wanted to continue to serve our country and help soldiers,” says Jennings, a former Army officer who co-founded Arlington-based Millennium Corp. in 2004 with Henry, a former Navy officer. “And, we have been able to do that.”

Millennium provides government clients system engineering and technical assistance in cybersecurity, program management, logistics, acquisition support and Lean Six Sigma consulting and training for project efficiency. “We make sure that material is developed and built to the requirements of the government, and that it is on budget and on schedule,” Jennings says.

The company’s revenue rose 2,723 percent over four years, making it this year’s leader in the Fantastic 50.

This year marks the company’s 10th anniversary. In 2010 it made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. and has stayed on the list for the past three years. “We’ve grown by word of mouth,” Jennings says. “It’s a huge responsibility to keep growing and doing the right thing.”

The company has 142 employees. The majority of them are located in Northern Virginia. Millennium has other offices in Huntsville, Ala.; Picatinny, N.J.; and the Aberdeen, Md., area. It also has employees in 17 on-site locations. “We understand the government’s requirements and meet those with the folks we put in there,” Jennings says. “We had a plan. We selected the right talent.”

The company has worked with the Department of Defense and other government agencies since its inception. “All of our contracts are geared toward the warfighter,” Jennings says. Two of the company’s largest projects support the Distributed Common Ground System — Army (DCGS) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and PM Biometrics at Fort Belvoir.

DCGS is the Army’s intelligence component that gathers, analyzes and shares information in a common system. Biometric systems capture, transmit and store information such as fingerprints for identity verification.

“We provide software program management, logistics, scheduling and systems engineering support for DCGS and strategic planning for PM Biometrics,” Jennings says.

The company’s largest federal contract is with the Department of Homeland Security where it supports the Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security agencies. It also works with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the Joint Warfare and Analysis Center, Naval Supply Command/Naval Facility Command and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Millennium seeks ways to make projects more efficient and effective. “We are willing to take on hard projects and tough issues,” Jennings says. “We put our resources on a project to help with problems that larger companies might have walked away from. We put the hours in to do what we need to do.”

The company has been working with the U.S. Army PM Close Combat Systems in Picatinny, N.J., for seven years, providing program management and scientific engineering technical assistance. Under that contract, the company has helped the military in its initiative to identify and disarm improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “We are proud that we are helping to ship equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan that can be put to use immediately saving soldiers’ lives,” Jennings says.

The company strives to be one of the leading providers of cybersecurity services for the government. “We are one of the few small businesses that has cybersecurity certifications and can provide offensive penetration testing [recognizing risks and implementing the necessary procedures to combat them],” Jennings says. The company’s cybersecurity specialists often work with their clients as new software and equipment is built, searching for system vulnerabilities. “We look at how we can make it strong and protective,” Jennings says.

Of the company’s seven key executives, six are retired military officers with experience in areas ranging from concept development to sustainment of large acquisitions. “We are a company that complements the government’s skill set,” Jennings says.

Military trainers

Fantastic 50
SERVICE
PD Systems Inc., Alexandria
pd-sys.net

All levels of military personnel at Fort Lee, from privates to commissioned officers, have attended classes taught by PD Systems Inc. Last year the Alexandria-based firm trained 23,413 soldiers at the Army base near Petersburg. 

“We do individual training, and we do collective training where we train the whole unit,” says Greg Gibbons, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “We have 104 employees working on programs at Fort Lee. We also have subcontractors with about [another] 100 employees combined.”

PD Systems’ revenue climbed 1,956 percent from 2009 to 2012, making it the service company leader in the 2014 Fantastic 50.

The company provides training for soldiers in the Ordnance and Quartermaster schools. In addition, many noncommissioned and commissioned officers as well as warrant officers receive leadership training from the company at the Army Logistics University. 

The company won the Sustainment Center of Excellence Instructional Training and Support Services contract at Fort Lee in 2011. It is one of the company’s larger contracts. “We provide ongoing training,” says company Executive Vice President Martin Ried.

Soldiers in the Quartermaster School are taught basic supply operations. “We teach them how to handle supplies such as how to set up fuel points and operate safely in the field,” Ried says. “We also teach them how to account for fuel.”

The military programs taught by PD Systems fall under the company’s service arm. Many of its instructors are retired military.

The company also provides systems engineering testing and evaluation, acquisition support and logistics training. The company works with various projects such as writing manuals, product development and modeling, base camp support, mobile maintenance and train-the-trainer instruction.

PD Systems also specializes in product development and sales, including power generators and power distribution equipment, most of which is sold to the U.S. Air Force. Some of the company’s products are used at military base camps to provide power and power distribution. “We are also selling a lot of secondary distribution centers that distribute the power to various pieces of equipment,” Ried says.

The company’s products must meet the government’s stringent standards. “They have to work in extreme environments,” Gibbons says. “We get the military specifications, and we design the equipment to meet that rigorous specification.”

The company recently won contracts with the commonwealth’s Virginia Values Veterans initiative, which encourages companies to hire veterans. “We will present programs talking about why it’s a benefit to hire veterans,” Gibbons says.

Gibbons was PD System’s first employee when founder Tim Fleischer started the company in 2007. “We started with five employees, and all five are still with the company today,” Gibbons says.

Retired from the U.S. Army with 28 years of military logistics experience, Gibbons champions the company’s jump-in-and-get-it-done attitude. “Our ability to adapt is very important. If we say we are going to do something, we do it,” he says.

The company looks for employees with a high level of technical experience. “One of our real competitive advantages is the technical expertise of our employees and senior managers,” Gibbons says. “That allows us to build trust with the client.”

The company has a total of 202 employees but only about 20 work at its headquarters in Alexandria. It also has offices outside of Detroit near the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), and it has about 20 field service representatives in Afghanistan. They support TACOM by repairing and maintaining equipment.

At one point the company had more than 150 field service representatives in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. “Now we do more training,” Gibbons says, noting that the U.S. has pulled most of its troops out of those areas.

From 2011 to 2012, the company tripled its revenues. Revenues in 2013 were flat because many of its projects were attached to the defense budget. “And there was a drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Gibbons says.

It has five major contracts that constitute most of its business with another 15 to 20 that represent various bits of business.

Identifying and meeting needs

Fantastic 50
TECHNOLOGY
TTC Inc., Arlington
ttcin.com

TTC Inc. co-founders Jose Rojas and Frank Vella believe in reinvesting in their Arlington-based company. “If you want to have a growing company, you have to reinvest,” says Vella, the company’s vice president and chief financial officer. “We put our resources into what helps us grow.”

That growth made TTC the top technology company in the Fantastic 50 this year. The company’s revenue rose 1,123 percent from 2009 to 2012.

Rojas and Vella opened the company in 2005 after working together in the telecommunications industry. At the time, they were working as subcontractors, Rojas with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Vella with the Department of Homeland Security. 

All the while, the two were building and marketing their company. They landed their first prime contract in 2009 with the TSA to provide SharePoint content. SharePoint is an information management collaboration tool. “We got very good reviews on our performance and they increased the size of the contract,” Rojas says.

TTC now has grown to 54 employees. Rojas and Vella look for potential team members who are customer focused. “We want to have the right people and the right approach,” Rojas says. “We offer our team members competitive salaries and a good benefits package.”

The company provides an array of information technology services such as network design and installation, custom application, software and database development, data center networking, communications design and installation, mobile application development and Microsoft SharePoint. TTC also offers content management and customer solutions through the Microsoft product.

“Often when customers hire us, they are not seeing the benefits from their SharePoint site that they thought they would see. If it’s not user friendly, people won’t use it,” Vella says. “We put structure to it and train people in the agency. We identify their needs and try to solve them.” 

Whenever possible, TTC prefers to be a member of the review team when a client moves to a new software platform. “We can make sure the new application will mesh and work,” Vella says. “We can be a proactive team member and partner with the customer to look toward the future.”

Winning government contracts was challenging at first for the company. “We knew how to do our work, but we didn’t know how to be government contractors,” Vella says. “We hired people to help us make the business contacts and learned ways to do business with the government.”

In addition to its Arlington headquarters, the company has an office in Baltimore. “We also have employees at different customer sites,” Rojas says. “And we work with subcontractors; all total we have over 60 employees.”

The company’s contracts are split evenly between the Department of Defense and other federal government agencies. It also works with a limited number of commercial customers.

Last year, TTC won a major contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to deploy and train its staff on SharePoint and to develop content management applications.

Earlier this year the company won a contract to provide video teleconferencing support for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. “We are supporting a four-star general in that project,” Vella says. 

Explaining the company’s rapid rise in revenue, Vella says, “Everything contributed to that — the quality of the product, reinvestment, good retention of staff. The more we do what we do, we realize that all these facets need to work together and function properly.”

The company continues to develop new lines of business, adding a project management arm as well as a SharePoint training and development arm. “We hope that will lead into other IT training and projects,” Vella says.

TTC also is discussing mobile application projects with various government agencies. It has developed mobile apps for commercial clients for several years. “It will be an additional line of work for the company, and it will add extra value for the agency. It’s a win/win,” Vella says.

‘Dump truck on rubber tracks’

Fantastic 50
RETAIL/WHOLESALE
MOROOKA USA, Ashland
morookacarriers.com

Morooka USA’s go-anywhere, rubber-track vehicles are used in endeavors ranging from gold mining to natural gas exploration. The Japanese-made carriers have the traction to maneuver through rough terrain that would bog down other machines.

“It’s a niche product in a niche industry,” says Michael Wilkerson, the chief financial officer of the Morooka USA. “We have a great product that is in high demand in the energy sector. We were in the right place at the right time in the right industry.”

The Morooka is essentially “a dump truck on rubber tracks,” he adds. “The dump bed can be removed and can carry attachments for other applications such as a crane, welding equipment or it can carry people to a job site.”

Morooka USA sales rose 319 percent from 2009 through 2012, making it the fastest-growing retail/wholesale company in the Fantastic 50 this year.

The Ashland-based company started in 2005 when it entered into a distribution agreement with the Japanese manufacturer Morooka Co. Ltd. It was first awarded distribution across the eastern U.S.

In 2009 the company persuaded Morooka Co. to give it not only the entire U.S. territory but also its Canadian territory. Based on its success in those markets, the Japanese company expanded Morooka USA’s distribution rights to include Central and South America. “We’ve gone from handing out cards to people recognizing us as a brand and coming to us because they see what we can do,” Wilkerson says.

Sales of the track carriers, which range in price from $50,000 to $300,000, have risen each year, from 46 machines in 2006 to 336 last year. “We are on pace to exceed that this year,” Wilkerson says. The company’s growth has been continuous since 2005. In 2012 it posted a 137 percent increase in revenue over 2011. Last year revenues rose 54 percent over 2012.

When it picked up its Central and South American territory, Morooka USA was fortunate to have an employee who was born in South America, says Kenneth Byrd, president of Morooka USA. That salesman now heads the sales office in Colombia.

Finding dealers in Central and South America was challenging at first. “We started with nothing,” Wilkerson says. “We were knocking on the doors of reputable equipment dealers. We kept asking them until we got an answer.”

The company landed its first dealer in Mexico in 2011 and had its first sale there in 2012. It followed with sales in Colombia in 2012 and 2013. Its South American territory now includes Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

Doing business in South and Central America was a learning curve for the company. “From a sales perspective, we’ve learned that the process is slow, and decisions are made differently in other countries,” Byrd says.  “There is a great deal of government intervention in infrastructure decisions. By the time the process winds its way from idea to fruition, it can take a long time, months to years.”

Most of the dealers the company works with are comfortable doing business with a U.S. firm, Byrd adds. “They do insist upon terms that stretch the imagination sometime. You have to think outside the box to make certain deals work.”

Morooka USA is one of three construction-related firms held by Richmond Group. The others are Dominion Equipment Parts and Morooka USA – Rents.
The company’s track carriers are used in the energy, oil and gas industries in a variety of applications. They are utilized in projects such as hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting natural gas from shale rocks. “We are a small player in that huge market,” Byrd says of the energy industry. “It’s all about being in the right industry.”

The company is always finding new applications for its carriers. They were used in a 2008 ash spill in Tennessee, in levy work in New Orleans and in clearing snow from FedEx Field in Landover, Md. “These machines can plow through marshy, swampy land where a dump truck would get stuck,” Wilkerson says.

Sales in North America are growing at a faster pace than South and Central America at the moment. Looking to the future, the company hopes to enter new markets. One of the last open territories is Africa. “We are not ready for that yet,” Byrd says. “But that’s not to say we wouldn’t do it.”

Products for emergencies

Fantastic 50
MANUFACTURING
First Line Technology, Chantilly
firstlinetech.com

In March, Stafford County used First Line Technology’s No Notice AmbuBus Kit during a snowstorm to convert a school bus into an ambulance that would transport victims of an I-95 bus crash to an area hospital. The crate-size kit includes tools, steel frames, stretchers and a bus ramp.

Owners Amit Kapoor and Randy Sakowitz came up with the idea for the kits after processing orders and sending cots, blankets and pillows to the National Guard and American Red Cross units responding after Hurricane Katrina. “They told us their biggest problem was evacuation,” says Kapoor, the company’s president and CEO. “They had lots of school buses but no ambulances.”

Kapoor and Sakowitz started the Chantilly-based company in 2003 to create and design technology for defense, homeland security and response agencies. “We wanted to develop more effective equipment for the Department of Defense and first responders,” Kapoor says. “We focused on state and local governments.”

They targeted several niche areas, including chemical warfare, decontamination and preparedness for weapons of mass destruction and toxic chemicals.

The company’s 252 percent, four-year growth rate makes it the fastest-growing manufacturing company in this year’s Fantastic 50.

First Line has sold about 500 of the AmbuBus Kits in the U.S. The product is one of about 80 in the company’s AmbuResponse line. This year the Journal of Emergency Medical Services named two of the AmbuReponse products — AmbuPower 125 and the AmbuBus MPMT Type 1 Kit — to its 2014 “Hot Products” list.

The company’s AmbuResponse line is one of three key product lines that also include the PhaseCore and Decon line of decontamination equipment. One of the major products in the Decon line is FiberTect, a decontamination wipe that military and first responders use for absorbing chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals and pesticides.

First Line’s initial products were PhaseCore vests. Elements used in the vests provide a cooling effect to the body’s core by absorbing body heat. Target customers range from law enforcement officers to industrial workers.

The company originally imported the vests from a Swedish partner. First Line then would customize the vests for its U.S. customers. “The exchange rate made pricing a challenge, so we decided to bring the manufacturing to the U.S.,” Kapoor says.

In 2006, First Line purchased the vest designs from the Swedish company and began manufacturing vests in the U.S. “We would do the design, and other companies would aid in the metal fabrication as well as the cutting and sewing,” Kapoor says. “We did the last-mile kitting, putting things together.”

The company has doubled its revenues every year during the past three years. It was listed on the Inc. 5000 of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. in 2012 and 2013. Last year the company was named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, and in 2012 it was designated a small business success story by the National Defense Industrial Association.

The company’s headquarters includes an 8,000-square-foot warehouse and a 2,000-square-foot office. It currently has 11 employees. All employees are encouraged to take part in company outings, from fishing trips to Super Bowl parties. “We want our employees to get to know each other out of the office,” Kapoor says. “In crisis response, everybody always needs to work together and understand how to work together. Bonding outside of the office helps out.”