“Business can be a force for good. I absolutely believe it,” says Byron L. Boston, CEO and co-chief investment officer of Glen Allen-based real estate investment trust Dynex Capital Inc. “CEOs have an obligation to use profit to do positive things in the community.”
Boston and 11 other prominent Black business and nonprofit leaders spoke to Virginia Business about why the bottom line has never been purely about profit for them. Many report overcoming racial and financial hurdles to achieve success in their fields, and they say that never would have happened if it weren’t for many helping hands along the way, not to mention the unflagging support of the African American community. Now, they are fortunate enough to be in a position to pay it forward in a variety of ways.
“One of the biggest things I can do is to give back,” Boston says, and as head of Dynex, which has a market capitalization of more than $615 million, he’s well-positioned to do that.
Not by chance are equality and inclusion listed prominently among Dynex’s core values, and Boston makes sure that his company lives up to that ideal by having half of its staff and board made up of women and minority groups. Boston says he’s also changing outdated hiring dynamics by building a robust internship program.
Boston did not grow up privileged. His father was a World War II vet from Mississippi who had only eight years of schooling, and Boston, who grew up in St. Louis, was the first person in his family to go to college. Many barriers made his route to the boardroom “a ginormous cultural stretch,” says Boston, who’s adamant that he wouldn’t be where he is now without people who guided him toward success. For example, his high school football coach made sure that he was recruited by a top academic college, although Boston didn’t even have the appropriate clothes to wear when he left for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
After he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago, Dartmouth alumni kept on “coaching him all the way to Wall Street,” Boston says. Before joining Dynex in 2008, he worked at financial flagships such as Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Freddie Mac. He also founded his own REIT, Sunset Financial Resources Inc., in 2004, selling it in 2006.
“Money in the hands of a good man is a powerful thing,” says Boston, who last year established a scholarship at Dartmouth for first-generation college students. He also has mentored first-generation college students at the University of Richmond and Virginia State University, as well as numerous young professionals.
“I’m very in tune with those who are like myself who need guidance. I’ve got years of mentoring other professionals at this point,” he says. “I’m really proud of my life. I’ve lived it outside my comfort zone, and I want others like me to realize that there is a broader world out there.”
But it’s a world that comes with challenges for Black Americans, many of whom regularly face challenging financial and cultural inequities. Given that, Virginia Business asked some of Virginia’s Black business leaders to discuss how they are helping the next generation to overcome these challenges.
Bell. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
SHELLY BELL
Founder, Black Girl Ventures Foundation
Fort Belvoir
“Everyone thought I was crazy — again,” Bell says about starting nonprofit Black Girl Ventures Foundation, which supports Black and brown women entrepreneurs with accessing social and financial capital needed to grow their businesses. Before founding Black Girl Ventures in 2016, she had cycled through a series of eclectic careers — performance poet, computer science teacher, T-shirt maker and marketer, and even an Airbnb host who put up guests in a tent in her living room. Bell, who holds a computer science degree from North Carolina A&T State University, says her success at Black Girl Ventures finally proved “everybody” wrong.
Digitalundivided, a New Jersey-based nonprofit booster for Black and Latina women entrepreneurs, conducted a study that found that Black women business founders received just 0.27% of available venture capital investment during 2018. Black Girl Ventures is determined to upend that dismal statistic by helping Black women entrepreneurs learn how to access resources to build their businesses.
Black Girl Ventures has hosted “Shark Tank”-style pitch presentations that have resulted in 275 woman-owned startups receiving crowdfunding, resulting in enterprises that have gone on to generate more than $10 million in revenue. Black Girl Ventures’ empowerment efforts also include leadership training and outreach for students at historically Black colleges and universities.
Along the way, Black Girl Ventures’ mission has caught the
eye of big corporate sponsors such as Nike Inc., which has donated $1 million to BGV for grants and mentorship programs, and Visa Inc., which partnered with BGV to help “digitally enable” 50,000 small businesses.
Outside office hours, Bell gives back by sitting on the board of Malikah, a New York-based global nonprofit that helps women of color develop skills such as self-defense and financial literacy. She also sits on the board of Color of Crohn’s & Chronic Illness, a Maryland-based nonprofit assisting minority people affected by inflammatory bowel disease, digestive disorders and chronic illnesses.
Bell teaches other women of color “to hustle, expand, commit and harmonize,” she says. To get ahead when the odds are so stacked against you, she says, you need be “diplomatically radical.”
Cobbs. Photo by Hannah King
CRYSTAL COBBS
CEO, Cobbs Consulting; President, Black BRAND-Dan River Region
Danville
“Just being helpful can carry you a long way,” says Cobbs, who has made a career out of advising businesses and organizations on ways to grow and thrive. Her Danville firm, Cobbs Consulting, assists clients with essential skills such as social media marketing, drafting business plans and the formation of the legal structures to allow access to critical resources. “I help them not make the same mistakes that I made,”
she says.
Through her business, she has volunteered her time to assist and educate community members with learning how to negotiate various licensing processes so that they can tap into the opportunities arriving with the projected 2023 opening of the $500 million Caesars Virginia resort casino in Danville. And in July 2021, Cobbs started Black BRAND-Dan River Region. A chapter of Black BRAND, the Hampton Roads Black chamber of commerce, the nonprofit assists minority business owners with services such as business education and sponsoring vendor fairs.
Cobbs remembers summers as a child, when she would accompany her grandmother as she walked to her job cleaning a school. Now, Cobbs chairs the Danville School Board. “I think about the people who paved the way for me, and the privilege I have now,” she says. “I want to be an example.”
Foster photo courtesy West Cary Group
MOSES FOSTER
President and CEO, West Cary Group
Richmond
“Nobody is successful by themselves. That’s just what being human is, and I’ve got to return that,” says Foster, who started his advertising, marketing and data analytics firm in 2007 and has turned it into one of the country’s largest African American-run agencies.
Foster, who grew up in Farmville, knows that “most things that matter aren’t easy,” but he believes in the power of networking to overcome what he sees as a stark contrast in opportunities for Black children versus white children. That’s why he serves on the board of NextUp RVA, a free nonprofit partnership offering out-of-classroom learning experiences for public middle school students in Richmond. NextUp provides opportunities for kids to learn everything from coding to culinary skills, Foster says, and his West Cary Group donates employee time and resources to support NextUp’s mission.
Foster further fulfills his “strong desire to give back” by sitting on the University of Richmond Robins School of Business’ Executive Advisory Council. He also serves on ChamberRVA’s board and chairs its diversity, equity and inclusion advisory council.
“I love being in business in this region,” Foster says. “We have each other’s backs.”
Gore. Photo courtesy The Dana Agency
SAMIA GORE
Founder and CEO, Body Complete Rx
McLean In 2014, after the birth of her fourth child, Gore says she “picked up some weight,” so she “set out on a journey to do something about it.”
She soon saw that the wellness industry didn’t offer many weight-management products that catered to Black women, and her response to that was Body Complete Rx (BCRX).
Turns out Gore wasn’t the only Black woman who felt that neglect.
Since founding her plant-based supplements and nutritional powder company in 2017, the brand has grossed more than $10 million in sales.
Last year, BCRX partnered with The Vitamin Shoppe, a national retailer with more than 700 outlets, making BCRX the first Black, woman-owned weight management brand ever sold by the chain. Gore is now the only Black woman serving on the company’s wellness council.
By being forthcoming about her own experiences, Gore says that she has been able to “help people really change their lives,” and she regularly shares her “lessons learned” with aspiring entrepreneurs through presentations at conferences and business forums.
“My life,” she says, “is an open book.”
Miles
DELCENO C. MILES
President and CEO, The Miles Agency
Virginia Beach
“No one is going to give you anything. You have to earn it. You have to have a plan,”
says Miles, who definitely had one from an early age.
In 1989, before she turned 30, she founded The Miles Agency, a minority- and woman-owned marketing and public relations firm that specializes in community outreach and multicultural marketing. In 2002, Miles’ business acumen was recognized when she became the first African American chair of
the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce regional board.
A self-described people person, Miles says that PR “is the perfect industry for me.” Her love for communications isn’t confined to business, though. Miles serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council and Tidewater Community College, where she also chairs the college’s educational foundation. Miles also is a supporter of the proposed Virginia African American Cultural Center.
Last year, she and her siblings started The Miles Foundation to honor their mother. The foundation’s goals include supporting education, financial literacy and reducing the digital divide. Its inaugural gift was a $5,000 grant to Norfolk State University Foundation Inc.’s scholarship fund.
Miles’ efforts are inspired by her awareness of the importance of giving back to those who are so supportive of her business. Reciprocity, she says, “is part of our culture.”
Purvis has gone dramatically far in the federal contracting and technology worlds, rising through her 20-plus-year career to direct Northrop Grumman’s internal information technology strategy and its IT relationship with partners, customers and suppliers. “There are like about five of us,” she says of high-ranking African American women in the tech world, “and we all know each other.”
Purvis credits her success to three bedrock principles: forging a character that is consistent “in the daylight and behind closed doors”; possessing a drive to deliver at the highest level; and having the courage to “take a blank slate and create something that doesn’t exist.” But she’s also cognizant that she didn’t get to where she is on her own.
“I have been able to stand on the shoulders of those who went before me,” Purvis says. “My parents were some of the first Black IBMers in Virginia, and I grew up with a mindset of creating a culture that would be better for the next person coming in.”
Purvis has served on the boards of George Mason University, Northern Virginia Family Service and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington’s Prince William County club.
From where she sits, she says, “There’s an opportunity to share your talent, your treasure and your time.”
Ransom
THOMAS RANSOM
Virginia regional president, Truist Financial Corp.
Richmond
Ransom’s mantra is “know, show and grow.”
The banker, who last September became Virginia regional president of one of the nation’s largest banks, was the first person in his family to go to college and the first “to get dressed up to go to work.” His subsequent career in finance has continued to be a series of “first experiences,” he says.
During his 20-plus-year career at BB&T and now Truist, the Hampden-Sydney College alumni has made narrowing the “economic chasm between Black and white home ownership” a priority.
“He has been a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion,” says David Weaver, Truist’s chief commercial community banking officer, noting Ransom’s crucial role in setting up Truist’s partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Inc. to launch a scholarship program for students at historically Black colleges and universities.
“A gap scholarship of as little as $900 can make a difference,” Ransom says.
Outside his job, Ransom sits on the board of INROADS College Links, a nonprofit career readiness program for ethnically diverse high school and college students. “One hundred percent of the students we touch in high school go to college,” he says proudly. Additionally, he serves as a corporate adviser to U.S. Black Chambers Inc., a national association for African American chambers of commerce and business organizations.
“I want to motivate and inspire people to reach their potential, to do the impossible,” he says. “That’s important to me, because that is my story.”
Royster
KENNETH ROYSTER
President and CEO, First Genesis of Virginia; Co-founder and wealth consultant, Heritage Financial Partners
Norfolk
Luke 12:48 reads, “To whom much is given, much is required.” Royster believes in that biblical maxim.
“Nothing is greater in the world than if I contributed to someone’s else’s success,” he says, adding that, “I’m going to look out for African Americans because our opportunities are limited.”
Through his financial planning firm, Royster focuses on the transfer of multigenerational wealth that he says is essential to closing the racial wealth gap. It’s a mission built on honesty and integrity, he says: “There’s no substitute for these things. I put people first, profits second.”
That holds true for his charitable endeavors as well. A few years ago, Royster chaired the cotillion committee of Portsmouth’s Eureka Club Inc., which awarded a $17,000 scholarship to an African American high school girl. He also works with the nonprofits Tidewater Metro Baptist Ministers Conference and the 200+ Men Foundation Inc., which supports initiatives to improve the lives of African Americans. First Genesis, which also has offices in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, also supports a number of youth activities and organizations.
“The more successful you are, the more impact you can have,” Royster says, “but I never felt obligated [to give back]. It’s in my DNA.”
Smith. Photo by Mark Rhodes
BRUCE SMITH
Developer, Bruce Smith Enterprise LLC
Virginia Beach
On the gridiron, Smith was an impact player, one of the greatest defensive players of all time. Now, as a real estate developer, the Pro Football Hall of Famer and NFL all-time sack leader still seeks to make a big impact.
Smith has partnered with Armada Hoffler in the past and is responsible for developing the Hilton Garden Inn Blacksburg University and Smith’s Landing apartment complex in Blacksburg.
“I believe in Virginia,” Smith says, “but we fall short because of the way we do business.” Cronyism and a reluctance to move beyond the status quo are holding back women and minorities, he says, even though “where there is inclusion, there are more opportunities for everyone.”
Smith uses his star power to broadcast this message both in the boardroom and through speeches, mentoring and charitable activities.
“I struggled growing up,” he says. “I’ve seen both sides of the story.” That has led him to buy equipment for the sports teams at his alma mater, Norfolk’s Booker T. Washington High School, and to sponsor an annual scholarship for a Booker T. student to attend Virginia Tech, where the two-time All-American was known as “the Sack Man.” He also sponsors college scholarships in his parents’ names through his church, Norfolk’s Queen Street Baptist.
“We have to stop losing our brightest minds, which is our college kids, from going off to college and never returning home because there’s a lack of opportunity for good, high paying jobs” in Hampton Roads, says Smith, who advocates for inclusion and diversity in regional economic development efforts.
Additionally, Smith is a Norfolk International Airport commissioner and sits on the board of Operation Smile, a Virginia Beach-based medical nonprofit that provides free cleft lip and palate surgeries to needy children worldwide.
“It gives you inner peace when you know you are helping out, doing your part,” Smith says.
Taylor. Photo courtesy Society for Human Resource Management
JOHNNY C. TAYLOR JR.
President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management
Alexandria
Harriet Tubman got out of the South and could have kept right on going, but she didn’t. “She is such a heroine because she came back,” Taylor says of the brave abolitionist who risked her own freedom to rescue other people from enslavement. That type of giving back has become a cultural expectation in the Black community, he says. “Otherwise, your success is not celebrated.”
Taylor has given the Black community plenty of reasons to celebrate him. Holding a law degree from Iowa’s Drake University, he practiced at Richmond-based McGuireWoods and has held a variety of high-profile positions, including as general counsel and senior vice president of human relations for Paramount Pictures’ Live Entertainment Group and associate general counsel and vice president of human relations for Blockbuster Entertainment Group.
In 2010, Taylor left the corporate world to become president and CEO of the nonprofit Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which, since its establishment in 1987, has awarded more than $300 million in scholarships to HBCUs and predominantly Black institutions.
In 2017, he took over as head of the Society for Human Resource Management, the largest human resources professional association in the world, with more than 300,000 members in 165 countries.
President Donald Trump appointed Taylor chairman of the President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs in 2018. Taylor currently serves on the American Red Cross’ board of governors, where he works to ensure that African Americans have an ample blood supply for the treatment of diseases such as sickle cell anemia.
Years ago, Taylor met an elderly Black man who told him, “Young man, only us can save us.” That bit of open-eyed wisdom, he says, “stuck forever.”
Wright-Warren. Photo by Hannah King
TAMMY WRIGHT-WARREN
Chief operating officer, Negril Inc.; Co-owner, W&W Luxury Limousine Service
Danville
Wright-Warren is deeply embedded in her Danville community, where her businesses and her charitable efforts blend seamlessly.
As COO of Negril, a company co-founded by her father, Kirby Wright, she provides services that allow people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses to remain in their homes or live in group homes. And as co-owner of W&W Luxury Limousine Service, which has a fleet of limos, buses and cars, she not only delivers people to special occasion destinations but provides free rides to nonprofit organizations such as the local chapters of the Boys & Girls Clubs and Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
A minority investor in the Danville Caesars Virginia casino, Wright-Warren also was a committee member for Caesars for Danville, a group that helped campaign to bring the $500 million resort to the city. The entertainment conglomerate plans on hiring 1,300 workers and will employ 900 construction workers.
“Caesars has a strong record of lifting up small businesses in the areas where they operate, especially those owned by women and minorities,” Wright-Warren told the media software company Cision. “This is the kind of partner our area wants and deserves.”
Over its 120 years, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has seen — and made — a lot of history.
Since a quartet of ambitious and talented Richmond attorneys joined forces in 1901 to start the law firm of Munford, Hunton, Williams & Anderson, the practice has not only produced an array of legal luminaries, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., but has had a hand in cases that have shaped the fabric of life in Virginia and the nation. With about 900 attorneys — 196 of them in Virginia — and offices in 13 domestic and six overseas locations, Richmond-based Hunton is the state’s second-largest law firm. During each of the past three years, it has posted annual revenues of more than $740 million.
Almost from its beginnings, Hunton has been known as a go-to firm for large business interests. It has represented railroads, real estate entities, banks, utilities and insurance companies and has practices dedicated to litigation, administrative law and transactions.
George C. Howell III, chairman of the firm’s executive committee, says Hunton regularly handles “very large” cases, including litigation for tobacco companies and multibillion-dollar, single-offering transactions. Among the firm’s biggest cases in Virginia was its representation of Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc.’s $62 billion spinoff of Kraft Foods in 2007 and Altria’s $113 billion spinoff of Philip Morris International the following year. In 2020, Hunton advised Philip Morris International on a $2.5 billion debt offering, and this year, the firm represented auto insurer GAINSCO in its $400 million acquisition by State Farm Mutual Auto-mobile Insurance Co.
Hunton “has done a ton of work” in the energy sector, too, Howell says. Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy Inc., the commonwealth’s largest power company, is one of its oldest clients. Carlos M. Brown, senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer for Dominion, says his company and Hunton “go back almost to the firm’s founding.” Over the years, the utility giant and Hunton have worked in tandem as the energy field has grown and evolved, and they continue to do so to “meet the modern needs” of the industry. “Hunton has always been a leader in regard to large utilities,” Brown says.
It also counts among its energy clients Potomac Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Co., Consolidated Edison Inc., American Electric Power Co. Inc. and Energy Transfer LP. In 2020, the firm successfully represented a coalition of oil and gas industry groups before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups challenging natural gas pipeline permits.
Citizen lawyers
To beef up the firm’s already potent energy sector, the firm (then known as Hunton & Williams) merged in 2018 with Andrews Kurth Kenyon, a Texas-based practice focused on the oil and gas industry, creating Hunton Andrews Kurth. This fall, the firm formed an energy transition team to focus on complex issues such as carbon capture, the decommissioning of aging power facilities, environmental justice and regulatory compliance.
Hunton also continues to expand its practices into technological fields such as cybersecurity and data privacy. Its attorneys offer guidance on issues involving compliance with rapidly evolving U.S. and international data privacy laws and regulations, covering hot technology topics such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition and the prevention and management of cyberattacks and data breaches. The firm represented Yahoo! in the aftermath of a cyber breach that compromised more than 3 billion user accounts and spawned more than 40 class-action lawsuits.
Hunton’s roster of Virginia corporate clients, which includes major companies such as Smithfield Foods Inc., McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. and Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., has led some wags to say that Hunton is not just part of the establishment, but the establishment itself.
Hunton has a decidedly human side, though, too, evidenced by its longstanding commitment to pro bono work. The firm
encourages its attorneys to consider themselves “citizen lawyers,” equally committed to serving both their clients and the larger community.
In 1991, Hunton became the first law firm in the nation to open an office devoted exclusively to pro bono cases, and, for decades, it consistently has dedicated 3% or more of its billable hours to such cases. All the firm’s lawyers engage in some level of pro bono work.
The firm’s pro bono office in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood handles uncontested divorces, guardianship issues and domestic violence cases for those who cannot afford an attorney. Hunton also has done extensive pro bono work on eviction cases in the Richmond area. The state capital has the second-highest rate of evictions in the country, a situation attributable to Virginia’s “landlord-friendly laws,” says Richmond partner Kimberly C. MacLeod, who chairs the firm’s pro bono leadership committee.
Last year, attorneys at Hunton, which counts Richmond’s city government among its clients, gave pro bono advice to the city concerning an unsuccessful citizen lawsuit that sought to stop the city’s removal of Confederate statues. “We are proud about being on the right side of history,” MacLeod says. “Some would say we were on the wrong side of Brown v. the Board of Education.”
Silent partner
In the early 1950s, Hunton represented Prince Edward County’s school board in its efforts to fight racial desegregation. That case later would become one of five bundled into the Brown lawsuit when it went before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court’s subsequent ruling that schools must be integrated convulsed Virginia for many years.
The late Lewis F. Powell Jr., Hunton’s most renowned alumnus, was a partner at the firm when it represented the Prince Edward school board, and, although he wasn’t a part of the case, as chairman of the Richmond School Board from 1952 to 1961, he was inescapably involved in the issue. Despite his close friendship with ardent segregationist Virginia U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., Powell later would maintain that he did not condone Byrd’s strategy to close schools rather than integrate them. “I disagreed completely with the Massive Resistance policy. I thought it would destroy the public schools,” Powell later said. Yet, though he had forged close relationships with some of the city’s Black leaders, Powell did not publicly express anti-segregation sentiments at the time.
“Powell was an admirable person, but by today’s standards he would be heavily criticized,” Allen C. Goolsby says of Powell’s silence, which seems so loud now.
Goolsby, a former partner and now a special counsel at the firm, has been with Hunton for 52 years and worked closely with Powell, who was a partner at the practice for a quarter century before President Richard M. Nixon nominated him to a seat on the Supreme Court in 1971. “I have never seen a man who worked so hard and was such a gentleman,” Goolsby says of Powell. “He wrote more thank you notes in a week than I did in my life.”
Special Counsel Allen C. Goolsby, who’s been with Hunton Andrews Kurth for 52 years, worked closely with the firm’s most illustrious alumnus, Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
Goolsby accompanied Powell on the drive from Richmond to Washington, D.C., for Powell’s confirmation hearing. “His modus operandi was always being well prepared,” Goolsby says of his distinguished colleague, but that day, that trait almost backfired on Powell when a rear tire blew out on their car somewhere along Interstate 95. The car’s trunk was jam-packed with documents chronicling virtually every legal opinion Powell had ever written or said, Goolsby remembers, and the voluminous records had to be removed by the side of the busy highway to get at the jack and the spare. “I’ll never forget worrying about all those papers,” he says.
Powell, the last practicing lawyer to be nominated to the Supreme Court and a former president of the American Bar Association, would be confirmed by the Senate in an 89-1 vote. “The [Senate Judiciary] committee had a variety of strongly held views but a civility that you don’t get today,” Goolsby says.
Embracing diversity
Shortly before he took his seat on the Supreme Court, while still at Hunton, the justice-to-be wrote what would become known as the Powell Memo. A controversial defense of business written for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the memo is often cited as a foundational document for the neocon movement.
In keeping with that memo, once on the court, Powell generally took a pro-business stance on financial cases, but a decidedly more liberal one on social issues. He strongly affirmed Roe v. Wade in a 1983 opinion, and in a 1978 case about racial quotas at a California medical school, he argued that the university could give weight to race in its admissions decisions but not apply strict quotas.
Similarly, Hunton is proud of its own history of embracing diversity. Among its illustrious alumni are John Charles Thomas, the first Black person to serve on the Supreme Court of Virginia; Cleo Powell, the first Black woman to serve on the court; and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond), who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor this year.
Rudene Mercer Haynes is Hunton’s firmwide hiring partner and co-leads the firm’s servicer advance financing practice. The firm first employed a woman lawyer all the way back in 1921, certainly an uncommon hire for the time.
“You don’t need to have a certain pedigree” to work at Hunton, says Haynes, who made The National Black Lawyers Top 100 list this year. “We are a diverse bunch. I know it sounds clichéd, but it is the people who attracted me and have kept me here. They were very welcoming, and I could be my authentic self.”
That welcoming attitude is embedded in Hunton’s DNA, says Howell, who calls the firm’s culture “its greatest strength.” While in many law firms, the expected and accepted attitude is that “you eat what you kill,” at Hunton, he says, collaboration, mutual support, inclusion and teamwork are core beliefs.
Douglas S. Granger, the firm’s Richmond managing partner, concurs, praising the firm’s “collegial atmosphere. We do spend an awful lot of time together, and we share common values,” he says. “The practice of law is a service to society,” he explains, “and nothing can be done as well by one as by a team.”
In the popular HBO TV series “Succession,” members of the Roy clan scheme, lie and backbite in an attempt to take over the family’s media empire once the patriarch steps down. The show, which reportedly filmed scenes in Richmond in May for its third season, is a satiric festival of twisted relationships and family dysfunction, and it makes for entertaining television. It’s hardly a stretch, either, to think that some of the unseemly shenanigans on the show were inspired by the ugly, public squabbling among members of such real-life family empires as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the late Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc.
But for most family businesses, that kind of discord would spell doom. If a family business is to survive through multiple generations, its members usually need to find and agree upon a way to hand off the baton as smoothly as runners in a relay race. Statistically, though, that isn’t so easy.
Recent data from the Ohio-based Conway Center for Family Business says that just 19% of family enterprises make it to the second generation, 12% to the third and only 3% into the fourth generation and beyond. That sounds awfully dismal, but in an article earlierthis year in the Harvard Business Review, family business advisers Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer argue that despite that seemingly high failure rate, family firms tend to outlive their public counterparts.
Because a single generation is generally considered to be 20 to 30 years, even family enterprises that go belly-up within one generation still last a lot longer than most publicly traded companies, which, on average, fold in a shocking 10 to 15 years, according to a Yale study. Even more stunning, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 78.5% of all small businesses don’t even survive a year, usually because of inadequate management, insufficient financing, ineffective planning or marketing mistakes. And that’s not even taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the direct closure of 200,000 establishments nationwide last year, according to an April report by the Federal Reserve.
Nevertheless, Baron and Lachenauer say that family businesses have remained optimistic about their futures: 68% of the 140 family-owned companies they surveyed last December believed they would be more efficient after the pandemic, more than half looked forward to new opportunities and 25% expected not only to survive but grow. That optimism and comparative staying power will be crucial to the nation’s economy, given that the Census Bureau says that family businesses account for about 90% of American enterprises, half of all employment in the country and half of the gross national product.
Katharine Ross, president of Ross Publishing in Chesterfield County, is part of the second generation leading the company. photo by Shandell Taylor
Heir raising
Family businesses can thank some built-in advantages for their relative (so to speak) resiliency. Patrick Soleymani, associate dean of undergraduate programs and an associate professor of management at George Mason University’s School of Business, says these businesses have “a certain level of trust of intent” in knowing that their relatives “will go above and beyond” for their companies, certainly not something that public companies can rely on with their workers.
Family businesses also don’t have to be beholden to stockholders demanding quick profits. They can look at the big picture and not make the mistake of overleveraging their assets to achieve rapid but often short-term gains. “No one is looking over their shoulder,” says Gary A. Ballinger, a professor of commerce at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
Many family companies take immense pride in serving their communities and providing for their employees, he says, and “if they want to run their businesses in a public service fashion, they can do that, and they can tell everybody else to stick it.”
Still, those advantages can evaporate in the face of what is known as “the shirtsleeve curse,” which references industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s alleged observation that family businesses go from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” The reasons for that rags-to-riches-back-to-rags scenario can be many.
“Family companies are often started by someone with a passion, and the kids and grandkids might not share that passion,” says Paula Sorrell,
Ballinger
associate vice president of innovation
and economic development at GMU. Yet, even if the passion is there, the younger generation may not always be qualified to take over.
“A family business can be like a kingdom, with an heir, even if that heir is not qualified to be king,” says Soleymani.
Soleymani
The first generation sometimes can have a hard time letting go, too, or accepting advice from younger relatives who may be more attuned to the times. “Imagine as a child having to tell a parent that something is wrong,” Soleymani says — or having to take orders from your brother or sister. “Siblings may not listen,” he says, a truth that anyone who has a sibling would not dispute.
Even for nonfamily members of the business, the transfer of control between generations can be a fraught time, says Ballinger, and that can “disrupt the social networks at the firm.”
No single approach is guaranteed to bridge the generation gap or smooth such bumpy interpersonal dynamics, but a Harvard Business Review study published last year found that 94% of family firms surveyed had supervisory or advisory boards with about 31% family membership.
Outside advice
Katharine Ross, president of Ross Publishing Inc. in Chesterfield County, falls into that majority. Her magazine publishing house was founded in 1991 by John and Lori Ross, whose three sons, Brian, Craig and Katharine’s husband, Johnny,joined the business a few years later. She has worked in the firm for 20-plus years and was named president in 2018.
“Succession was not an overnight thing,” Ross says of her elevation to the company’s top job. “Authority, autonomy and trust grew over a long period.” Nevertheless, in 2010, she brought in nonfamily members to help explore new revenue streams.
“We live, eat and breathe what we do,” Ross says, reflecting the all-in attitude typical of family businesses, but “we needed a new perspective to pull from.” Her 28-employee company, which publishes Boomer magazine and Seniors Guide magazine, has since expanded into seven markets. It’s also boosted its online presence and has started a digital media agency subsidiary, Ross Media Solutions.
“Feedback is your friend,” Ross says, “even if it doesn’t always feel like that at the time.”
Keith M. Nichols, president of HandCraft Services in Richmond, which provides health care linens and uniforms for hospitals and other care facilities, also brought in advisers to give his business structure. He didn’t start out with Ross’s passion for the family enterprise, though.
“I had planned to be a cowboy,” he says, echoing Sorrell’s contention that not all members of families’ younger generations are eager to join the family fold. Nichols’ intention was to work in the business just long enough to make the money to buy a truck to take him out west, but then he met his future wife, and that was all she wrote. “It’s not a glamorous business,” he says, but “it isn’t boring,” either.
HandCraft Services President Keith Nichols originally wanted to be a cowboy, but he has stuck with the family business. Photo by Caroline Martin
HandCraft was founded by Keith’s father, John A. Nichols, in 1970 and was, at one time, the second-largest dry-cleaning business in Richmond. But after Keith Nichols and his brother, Jay, bought out their father in 1990, they began moving away from that sector of their business. “No one wears overcoats anymore,” Nichols says.
As they transitioned into the health care field, he and his brother divvied up responsibilities and made it a point not to second-guess one another, but in 2015, they brought in a consultant “to learn how to run a family business like a business, with clear-cut roles and accountability.”
Such advisers, Sorrell says, can help mediate honest but often uncomfortable conversations among family members. Soleymani calls it “family counseling: business edition.”
Imposing a formal structure on operations was the right thing to do for HandCraft. Nichols says his business “improved by leaps and bounds” and has grown to 500 employees. Today, the company only serves health care clients and, he says, it has an annual growth rate of 8% to 12%. The family’s third generation also has come on board. “They will be held accountable to perform at a high level,” says Nichols. “They have to understand what it takes to do the job.”
Home away from hom 0e
Other family-owned firms in Virginia have bucked the statistical need to bring in outsiders, yet have found success by keeping it all in the family.
Ramon W. Breeden Jr. founded The Breeden Co., a property development and management firm based in Virginia Beach, in 1961. While he remains the company’s chief executive and is active in every deal, his son, C. Torrey Breeden, joined the firm in 1998 after graduating from U.Va. with a business degree.He became the firm’s executive vice president about 15 years ago after working in all the company’s divisions to firm up his grasp on operations.
“There is no need to bring in outsiders/advisers,” Ramon Breeden says. “Our recipe of success is working, and there is no need to deviate.” That recipe includes refraining from dispensing advice to his son.
“Torrey, himself, is very skillful in his abilities,” his father says. “He may approach a deal differently than me, and that’s OK.” That formula seems to be working for the 400-employee company. In 2020, it did more than $350 million in business.
Richard “Den” Crallé III became the third Richard Crallé to run Farmville-based Green Front Furniture, taking over in 2018. Photo by Shandell Taylor
Richard “Den” Crallé III is of a similar mindset. He is the third Richard Crallé to run Green Front Furniture, and he knew exactly what he was getting into when he took over as president of the 120-employee Farmville-based retailer before he was even 30.
“I started off working summers, running up and down rug piles,” he says.
Like C. Torrey Breeden, Crallé hasn’t exactly been flying solo — his father, Richard Jr., and his mother, Terry, still work at the company. But the younger Crallé is the company’s president, and since assuming that role in 2018, he has added “new looks, new vendors and new lines,” modernized the store’s 1 million square feet of display space and installed a new point-of-sales system. His inaugural effort to sell rugs online “is going great,” he says.
Like a true millennial, Crallé is a believer in the power of social media, and he likes to appear personally in videos to promote Green Front products, a marketing tool that is unlikely to have occurred to people in his parents’ generation.
Not having to answer to a board has allowed him to be “more nimble” in responding to the changing market, Crallé says. “There’s not a lot of red tape.”
But of course, that freedom from outside oversight comes with a downside — almost no separation between work and home. “You never get a break,” Soleymani says. “You go on vacation with your business partner.”
The George Mason professor remembers how his own father, who started several family businesses, would run ideas past his captive audience in the car. It also has been said that family businesses are a classic case of capitalism at work and socialism at home, as family members are sometimes used as sources of free labor.
Tammi Ketterman is well aware of that dynamic. She and her husband, Dan, run Ketterman’s Jewelers in Leesburg. As children, all six of the Kettermans’ daughters appeared in ads for the family store, which was founded in 1988. Four of them, all grown up now, still work there. “They bring relevance,” Ketterman says. “I think we would have gone under without them.”
But she also remembers worrying that her girls would grow to resent the business, only seeing its demands and not its rewards. “If I have any regrets, it would be carrying unhappy experiences home to the dinner table,” she says. “That can be too much of a burden sometimes.”
It’s a burden that comes with the territory, though. However families choose to run their operations, the bottom line doesn’t really vary: Working in the family business will never be just a job, and leaving your work at the office is not going to be possible. Just look at the Roy clan of “Succession.”
On April 17, 2020, with a flourish of the pen, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam reshaped the future of energy production in the commonwealth.
Signing the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) into law last year, Northam declared that Virginia would become a leader in fighting climate change, and, indeed, no other Southern state has passed legislation as comprehensive. Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, the act’s co-patron, seconded the governor’s optimism. She adds that the VCEA will not only provide Virginia with clean energy but boost its economy, already projected to grow 8% in 2021, due in part to green energy jobs.
The VCEA requires stringent energy-efficiency standards that are projected to generate as much as $3,500 in savings for the average Virginia household over the next 30 years, according to a study by Advanced Energy Economy, an industry trade association. The act’s headline-grabber, though, is its mandate that all electricity consumed in the commonwealth must have zero carbon emissions and be generated from renewable energy sources by 2050.
It’s an ambitious goal, and the onus for achieving it falls largely on its two biggest electricity suppliers, Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc., with about 2.5 million in-state customers, and Ohio-based Appalachian Power, which services about 524,000 customers in Southwest Virginia, the Roanoke and New River valleys and the Lynchburg area. The two utilities are working purposefully to comply with the act, which gives Dominion until 2045 and Appalachian until 2050 to comply, with a provision allowing extensions if the utilities can’t provide reliable service from carbon-free sources by that point.
“You can either view this legislation as presenting a significant challenge or a great opportunity. We see it as the latter,” says Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia. “We are making great progress toward Virginia’s clean energy future and delivering significant benefits to our customers.”
Where things stand
The efforts to move Virginia to carbon-free energy production are happening as the impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent across the globe. The Pacific Northwest and Northern Europe saw record heat waves this summer, while several European nations experienced catastrophic flooding.
In August, the United Nations issued a report stating humans “unequivocally” caused climate change, warning that global warming is nearing a tipping point. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is at its greatest concentration in at least 2 million years, temperatures are at a 6,500-year high and sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “code red for humanity,” adding, “The alarm bells are deafening. This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”
Last year, under the Northam administration, Virginia passed the VCEA and became the first Southern state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a coalition of mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states working to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.
Close to 60% of the energy generated by Dominion in the commonwealth has been coming from sources that are neither carbon zero nor renewable, primarily natural gas and some coal. The Fortune 500 utility plans to close its coal-burning Chesterfield Power Station by May 2023, and it’s projected to close the coal-burning Clover Power Station in Halifax County in 2026. Dominion wants to keep its Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center — which burns coal, waste coal and biomass — operational until 2045.
Will Cleveland, a senior lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, opposes that plan. He calls the center “a net loser” that should be shuttered much sooner. The energy center may be profitable to Dominion, he says, but the power company’s customers pay for it through site-specific surcharges on their electric bills known as rate adjustment clauses.
Most of the rest of Dominion’s energy supply in Virginia — about 40% — is generated from its four nuclear plants in North Anna and Surry. Nuclear energy is carbon zero, so it can remain in play under the VCEA. The Surry facilities are federally licensed to be operational until the early 2050s, and Dominion is seeking an extension to run the North Anna facilities until 2060. Despite having an option to build a third nuclear plant at North Anna, the utility has no current plans to do so, says Dominion’s manager of media relations, Rayhan Daudani.
Appalachian’s reliance on fossil fuels is heavier than Dominion’s. About 45% of its generating capacity comes from coal and another 28% from natural gas, with nuclear energy making up just 7% of its portfolio. (The remaining 20% comes from a mix of sources, including wind, hydroelectricity and pumped storage hydropower.)
Appalachian has no coal-burning plants in Virginia, but it does operate two in West Virginia: the 2,930-megawatt John Amos plant and the 1,330-megawatt Mountaineer plant. About half the power from these plants flows to Virginia customers. Under the VCEA, that eventually will have to stop unless Appalachian employs renewable energy certificates to offset that consumption. Against the objections of environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Appalachian is seeking to keep these coal-burning plants operating until 2040.
The Sierra Club says that keeping the plants open is not cost-effective for customers, but Appalachian President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Beam has a different take. “If forced to make big changes up front, that would drive [consumer] prices up,” he says.
Nevertheless, to conform to federal regulations regarding wastewater systems and ash removal, the plants require $250 million in upgrades, and Appalachian is asking the State Corporation Commission to approve a $2.50 monthly rate increase to pay for the improvements. If approved, the rate increase would take effect in October.
Both companies as well as the commonwealth have their work cut out to comply with the VCEA and all will, by necessity, be making historic investments in wind power, solar power and energy storage.
Dominion has erected two pilot wind turbines as part of its plan to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Where the wind blows
Making wind power into a dominant source of energy for Virginia won’t be a breeze. Already, opposition has put the brakes on building the state’s first proposed land-based wind farm.
The planned 14-turbine Rocky Forge Wind project in the mountains of Botetourt County is opposed by the Virginians for Responsible Energy, a citizens’ group that contends that the project would degrade the landscape and pose a fire hazard. A lawyer for the group recently pointed out to the county that Rocky Forge developer Apex Clean Energy had missed a deadline for a site approval plan. After some back and forth, the county then rejected Apex’s request for an extension, leaving the project becalmed.
The Sierra Club, however, “fiercely supports” Rocky Forge. Dan Crawford, chair of the club’s Roanoke group and of its Virginia onshore wind promotion, says, “If push comes to shove, and it goes to court, I’m confident the wind farm will happen.”
Rocky Forge is also part of the state government’s plan to meet its goal of obtaining at least 30% of the electricity required for state agencies from renewable sources by 2022.
Meanwhile, Dominion is entering the offshore wind business in a mammoth way with its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, a $7.8 billion, 2.6-gigawatt wind farm to be built about 27 miles offshore from Virginia Beach. Baine says it is the largest project in Dominion’s history. It also will be the country’s largest and first utility-owned wind farm, featuring about 180 wind turbines, each rising more than 800 feet above the ocean surface. Once in operation, it’s estimated that the wind farm will generate $11 million annually in state and local tax revenues, according to a study by Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics commissioned by the Hampton Roads Alliance.
At this point, the project, sited in a federal lease area, is undergoing federal regulatory review and does not appear to have hit significant headwinds. The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) has been working with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Army Corps of Engineers to keep the project moving as part of the Biden administration’s goal to make all electricity generation in the country green by 2035. DMME director John Warren says that a timeline to establish a second federal lease area in Virginia waters for other offshore wind projects is already in development.
Construction on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm is expected to begin in 2024. To facilitate that, Dominion is building the nation’s first U.S.-chartered wind-turbine-installation ship, the Charybdis, in Brownsville, Texas. The $500 million vessel will be able to install a wind turbine a day, with a 2026 target completion date.
Appalachian’s plans to tap into wind power are much more modest. Beam says that Appalachian will add about 200 megawatts of onshore wind power in the next five years, with an eventual goal of reaching 2,200 megawatts.
Dominion Energy’s Remington Solar facility in Fauquier County Photos courtesy Dominion Energy Inc.
Solar systems
Just six years ago, Dominion was generating only 1 megawatt of electricity from solar power — or enough to provide electricity to 250 households. Daudani blames that puny figure on solar not being cost-competitive. Since then, though, costs have come way down, and Dominion now has 5,249 megawatts of solar in operation or under development, including nine projects that the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved in May. At optimum output, these nine facilities will be capable of powering 125,000 homes.
Appalachian plans to add 210 megawatts of solar in the next five years, but Beam cautions that “the size of the projects can and may change.” His company’s end goal is to have 3,400 megawatts of solar by 2050.
Just like the wind farm in the Blue Ridge, however, land-use issues surrounding solar have begun to crop up. The VCEA specifies that all solar farms generating power for the commonwealth must be located in Virginia, and it is estimated that Virginia will need about 60 square miles of solar panels to meet its energy needs in 2050. Most of these solar farms will be in rural areas.
In June, in what could be a harbinger of battles to come, Frederick County supervisors rejected a proposal to build an 80-acre solar plant near Gore, citing concerns about preserving agriculture land and the area’s rural character. Hollow Road Solar LLC subsequently filed a $7.5 million lawsuit against the supervisors.
“Are there challenges related to land use?” says Dominion’s Baine. “Yes. There is a wide range of views on land use and property rights, [but] we are working with each and every locality to support their needs.”
Dominion Energy plans to replace all diesel-fueled Virginia school buses with electric buses by 2030. Photos courtesy Dominion Energy Inc.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is a supporter of solar energy, but Cleveland cautions that “the purpose is not to overbuild, but to keep the lights on.” He would like to see more effort going into locating solar facilities on marginal sites such as brownfields, landfills and abandoned parking lots instead of on agricultural land. But he agrees with DMME’s Warren about initiatives to locate solar farms on previously mined sites in far Southwest Virginia. Warren calls that “a win-win situation for everyone.”
In addition to the state eyeing old mining sites for solar farms, Warren says the state government also has purchased power agreements on six solar farms as part of its 2022 goal and is encouraging community colleges to implement solar systems to generate power for individual buildings.
Warren sounds a warning, though, about the eventual success of the VCEA. The infrastructure for all green power initiatives will require mineral extraction, he says, something that many environmentalists oppose. “Establishing a domestic raw material supply chain is not environmental treason,” he says. “We have to flip the script, or we are headed down a big collision course.”
Energy storage
Of the three main sources of green energy, storing energy produced by sources like solar and wind presents the biggest challenge. The VCEA stipulates that Dominion and Appalachian must have 2,700 megawatts and 400 megawatts of storage capacity respectively by 2035, but so far, costs remain high and storage technology is less than satisfactory.
“Batteries are still pretty expensive compared to alternatives,” says Beam with Appalachian. He expects prices will come down in the next five to 10 years, but, for now, his company has a couple of bidders on small storage projects.
Dominion is investing $33 million in four pilot storage projects for a combined 16 megawatts of energy storage capacity but, once tapped, that power will last just four hours. “We’d like to see that duration get longer,” says Baine. For now, he says, “It’s a slower ramp for deployment.” It’s also a long way from the 400-megawatt requirement.
Dominion has found one solution to that problem with its innovative electric school bus program. In a $15 million pilot project started last year, Dominion provided 50 electric school buses to local school systems across Virginia. Pending General Assembly approval, Dominion proposes to put 1,000 electric school buses on the road by 2025 and to completely replace diesel-powered school buses in Virginia by 2030. When not in use, these buses could be used like a fleet of mobile batteries to supply power back to the grid, or to act as mobile power stations during power outages or emergencies. Dominion has estimated that the program would cost each of its Virginia customer households about $12 a year.
Nevertheless, both utilities are moving toward the goal of a carbon-free future, with a certain measure of faith that clean energy and storage technologies will only get better the closer they get to 2045 and 2050.
“In an ideal world, we would be all carbon-free by 2035,” says McClellan, referring to the goal date the Biden administration has set for a carbon-free electricity industry. But 2035 was a no-go in the Virginia General Assembly, and McClellan says she’s comfortable with the 2050 goal and confident that the VCEA provides the framework to meet it.
Since the law’s passage, McClellan says, “We’ve already gone from the back of the pack to the top five or six states [in solar energy generation].”
But the state senator also is a believer in the Russian proverb that became a Ronald Reagan mantra: “Trust but verify.”
“We will be monitoring progress very closely,” McClellan says.
In summer 2025, George Mason University is scheduled to open a distinctive, $168 million, 360,500-square-foot glass-and-steel tower on its Virginia Square campus in Arlington. Inside its walls, the university’s commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship and the creation of a tech-savvy workforce will be on full display.
In its 60-odd years of existence, Mason’s unwavering fealty to changing and growing with the times has transformed it from a startup branch of the University of Virginia with 17 students who studied at a renovated elementary school into Virginia’s largest public institute of higher learning, with more than 39,000 students.
Mason is a “different model of an educational institution,” says Joseph DeFilippo, director of academic affairs and planning for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. In just 20 years, he says, Mason has added close to 200 degree programs, far more than any other Virginia state college or university. In what might be taken as an understatement, he explains that statistic by saying that Mason has “a lower threshold for trying new things.”
The school’s latest “new things” are typical of Mason’s ambitious character — not just the new building that is going up on the Arlington campus, but also the just-created College of Engineering and Computing that it will house. The core of this college — no surprise, this being Mason — is brand-new, too: GMU’s School of Computing. The school will focus on statistics, computer science and information technology, subjects formerly under the purview of the Volgenau School of Engineering. As part of the university’s redesign and expansion of its science and technology programs, it is folding Volgenau into the College of Engineering and Computing.
All of these changes are, in huge part, the result of the state’s $1 billion Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP). The program’s creation was a major part of Virginia’s successful campaign to entice Amazon.com Inc. into locating its multibillion-dollar HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington.
The program’s purpose is to produce 31,000 additional computer science and engineering graduates during the next two decades to feed the enormous demand for skilled workers from Amazon and the many other tech companies clustered in Northern Virginia.
The commonwealth now has the third-highest concentration of technology companies in the nation but, like other tech-centric areas in the country, it doesn’t have enough skilled workers to fill the ranks. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that the nation will need more than 500,000 new workers in the fields of computer science and IT by the end of this decade.
Eleven universities statewide are participating in TTIP, but Virginia Tech and Mason are the biggest recipients of the initiative’s state funding. Tech is in line for $545 million to aid development of its $1 billion Innovation Campus in Alexandria, close to Amazon HQ2, and Mason is getting $235 million, $86 million of which it will spend on construction of the Virginia Square building. The rest of the construction costs will be funded through philanthropy.
Liza Wilson Durant, Mason’s associate dean for strategic initiatives and community engagement, says the Institute of Digital InnovAtion will facilitate collaborations between university researchers, students, corporations and entrepreneurs. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
In return for Virginia’s $235 million investment, Mason has pledged to graduate at least 15,948 bachelor’s and master’s degree holders in computer science and related fields.
The state’s investment on such a grand scale will have “a very positive impact” on the creation of a diverse digital workforce, says Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Stephen Moret, adding that Northern Virginia has the potential to become a national leader in data science.
‘Beacon of innovation’
Liza Wilson Durant is a professor of engineering at the Volgenau School. She also is an associate dean for strategic initiatives and community engagement. In that role, she has been overseeing much of the programmatic aspects of the Virginia Square building project.
In addition to housing the new college, the building will be home to the Institute of Digital InnovAtion, still another new enterprise that Mason opened last year. More than 300 Mason faculty, research staff and students will work at the institute to develop technologies and systems in fields as diverse as finance, health and social justice. Durant says that areas of special study at the institute will include cybersecurity for transportation, manufacturing and supply chains and, given GMU’s location just a few miles from the Pentagon, national defense.
She envisions the institute, which will include innovation labs, business incubators and co-working facilities, as “a beacon of innovation” with a big role to play in creating an equally enterprising innovation district along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The corridor already has a hefty head start on that goal, containing offices for tech giants such as Oracle and Amazon Web Services, Fortune 500 companies such as Mastercard and government contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp., not to mention several dozen other companies, large and small, established and startups.
The hoped-for product of all this commingling between “gown and town” is an ecosystem of wraparound services that Durant says will produce a competitive edge for the region and speed the transfer of research achievements to the marketplace while simultaneously offering advanced technical training to students.
Supporting all these efforts at the institute will be yet another new Mason institution — the College of Computing’s Department of Cyber Security Engineering. The first of its kind in the country, the department was launched March 1 and will focus on various areas of cybersecurity in various industries in areas including cellular networks, autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things.
Paula Sorrell, Mason’s associate vice president of innovation and economic development, also is at work on Mason’s multifaceted efforts to boost its synergy with the surrounding community and to make sure the region can make the most of the technologically skilled workers that the university is committed to producing. In fiscal 2020, Sorrell says, Mason supported 10,000 companies, offering 863 training and educational programs that served 18,000 attendees.
Sorrell also oversees myriad business outreach efforts that include:
The GMU Office of Technology Transfer, which helps faculty and students protect their research and bring it to market. Sorrell says it has seen 53% growth in the past five years and recently doubled its staff.
The Virginia headquarters for 28 Small Business Development Centers that the federal Small Business Administration has established statewide.
The Procurement Technical Assistance Center, which provides low-cost or free assistance to enterprises that want to do business with local, state and federal entities.
The Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program, through which experienced entrepreneurs offer free help to tech startups. Mason administers the state program for the commonwealth.
Incubators slated for the new Virginia Square building, along with incubators in Leesburg, Fairfax, Springfield and
Paula Sorrell is George Mason’s associate vice president of innovation and economic development. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Warrenton that operate through the Mason Enterprise Center, all of which remained open throughout the pandemic. “It’s unusual to run this many incubators,” Sorrell says, noting that the oldest one at Mason dates to 1995.
Diversity and inclusion
These multipronged initiatives aimed at ensuring that the region has the necessary skilled tech workers for a prosperous future also come with a resolute commitment to inclusivity. “It’s part of our DNA,” Durant says. “We want to support companies that look like our students.”
To that end, in fiscal 2020 Mason provided support services to more than 50 companies run by minorities.
Mason, in partnership with Marymount University, also recently ran a cybersecurity internship program for the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node. Starting with 16 paid intern positions, it will expand by 40 more internships this fall. About 70% of the interns accepted for the program so far have been women and people of color.
Mason’s student population is about 47% minority, along with international and multiethnic students. Many of these students are the first in their families to go to college, and many work while they earn their degrees.
“These students are not coming from a deficit. They don’t need help, but access to information,” says Chris Carr, chief diversity officer at Volgenau School of Engineering.
That Mason is successful in finding many ways to provide that information is borne out by its graduation statistics. “Mason has no equity gaps,” DeFilippo in academic affairs says. Minority and majority students graduate at identical rates.
Diversity does not start and end just with students, of course. Developing a diverse technological workforce is also about faculty, so Mason is directing some of its state TTIP funding into a program called the TTIP Faculty Thematic Hiring Initiative. The initiative, spearheaded by Carr and Sanmay Das, a professor of computer science, is creating four faculty positions that will support multidisciplinary education and research in computing fields. The first position will focus on biomedicine and health care disparities and the second on the intersection of artificial intelligence and social justice, with the focus of the other two positions still to be determined.
Many engineers and tech scientists may think that their work has little to do with larger issues, but the emergence of technological innovations such as algorithms to track personal data can affect everything from child welfare priorities to who gets a mortgage or access to medical procedures. “This is not a technocratic exercise,” Das says. “It affects society.”
That assessment, of course, can be applied to Mason itself. As the university continues to grow by leaps and bounds, it will be using its innovative and technological expertise, its business acumen and its belief in multiculturalism not only to supply Northern Virginia with a modern workforce but also to reshape the face of the region itself.
At a glance
Founded
Originally formed in 1949 as an extension of the University of Virginia, George Mason University formally separated from U.Va. in 1972.
Campus
Mason’s main campus is located on 677 acres in Fairfax County, just south of Fairfax city and about 20 miles outside Washington, D.C. Mason’s Arlington Campus, located in the county’s urban Clarendon business district, is home to the Antonin Scalia Law School and the Schar School of Policy and Government. The university also has the Mason Korea campus in Songdo, South Korea, and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation campus in Front Royal.
Enrollment
38,542 (fall 2020)
Student profile
Female: 52%
Male: 47%
In-state: 81%
Minority: 47%
Academic programs
In 2020-21, Mason offered 210 total degree programs, including 78 undergraduate degree programs, 94 master’s degree programs, 38 doctoral degree programs and one First Professional Juris Doctorate program.
Faculty
GMU has 1,612 full-time instructional and research faculty.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been unusually difficult for professional women, especially those with young children or other responsibilities, such as caring for older family members. Many had to leave work entirely or put pursuing their career goals on the back burner during the past year while handling personal duties at home. The pandemic’s future impact on women’s progress in leadership at work is yet unknown, as well as how it will affect the national effort to close the gender pay gap — particularly for Black and Latino women, who earn an average of 62 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white men, according to U.S. Census data.
With such an unusual year as our backdrop, Virginia Business introduces our inaugural Virginia Business Women in Leadership Awards, spotlighting a cohort of 30 executives who have excelled in their careers and are paving the way for other women to follow in their footsteps. More than 200 women business leaders were nominated this year, making it a challenge to narrow down the list to our 30 honorees. Decisions were made by Virginia Business’ editor and publishers.
The women selected had to be based in Virginia and hold significant C-suite or equivalent leadership positions at for-profit businesses. Those under consideration included business owners, CEOs, chief operating officers and other C-suite-level executives. We divided nominees into those working for small businesses ($20 million or less in annual revenues) and large businesses (more than $20 million in annual revenues). In making our decisions, we also considered nominees’ overall career accomplishments, community engagement and the role the leader has played in mentoring women and girls.
We congratulate our stellar first group of winners and look forward to honoring more women executives in future editions of the Virginia Business Women in Leadership awards.
LARGE BUSINESS
MARY ALDRICH, chief operating officer, PBMares LLP
MARY ALDRICH Chief operating officer, PBMares LLP Newport News One of the most gratifying parts of Mary Aldrich’s job, which she’s held since 2008, is watching the organization evolve and thrive because of decisions, initiatives and strategies she worked on. “Being the critical wingman to the CEO who is setting the vision, I get to execute and bring the results and vision to life with the CEO,” she says.
As a Generation Xer, Aldrich recalls growing up assuming she had to get things done herself, no matter the barrier. “Work harder, work smarter, overcome — it’s up to me,” she says. “Perhaps I saw the glass ceiling like any other barrier to my success. I acknowledged it existed, but I was accountable to figure out how to break through it.” Despite often being the only woman in the room when she was younger, she says, she never felt intimidated. In retrospect, Aldrich realizes she had an advantage often missing for women even today: a sponsor inside the organization.
“Twice in my career, I’ve had an incredible male mentor who helped pave the way for me to enter those rooms because they saw something in me and spent the time with me,” she explains. “They were helping me break through the ceiling.”
Aldrich helps others do the same as a board member of Christopher Newport University’s Luter School of Business, providing mentoring and outreach to undergraduate and graduate students in business programs.
JULIE ALEXANDER, managing director of REMS Norfolk, Colliers, Norfolk. Photo by Mark Rhodes
JULIE ALEXANDER Managing director of REMS Norfolk, Colliers, Norfolk Julie Alexander has been in the real estate professional services and investment management business for her entire career of more than 35 years.
“I graduated [from Old Dominion University] on a Thursday and started work on Monday,” she says. She was just the seventh hire for Robinson & Wetmore, a Norfolk development company that became part of Colliers International Asset Services in 2019. Last year, Colliers, which operates in 67 countries, managed more than $40 billion in assets.
Alexander oversees the company’s Norfolk and Hampton Roads portfolio, which represents more than 8 million square feet of commercial space, while also directly managing more than a tenth of that portfolio.
Her duties include oversight of the asset management team and contract maintenance staff, providing monthly reports to owners and preparing operating budgets.
“The owners were willing to dedicate any minute it took to my professional growth and training,” she says. Alexander pays that help forward by mentoring junior staffers.
“I would not be where I am now without Julie’s support,” says assistant property manager Ekaterina Muraveva.
Outside of work, Alexander has served as a board member for the region’s Salvation Army branch, which offers programs including emergency assistance, housing, substance abuse treatment, youth enrichment opportunities, spiritual care and emergency disaster services.
“I like solving problems and working with people,” says Alexander, who believes the best boss is a mentor and a good listener. “It’s enlightening to get the opinions of millennials.”
LORRAINE AMESBURY HOLDER, vice president of operations, Stihl Inc., Virginia Beach
LORRAINE AMESBURY HOLDER Vice president of operations, Stihl Inc., Virginia Beach When Lorraine Amesbury Holder joined German chainsaw and handheld power equipment manufacturer Stihl in 2008, she was the first female manufacturing executive in the company’s history. She attributes that achievement to technical and personal skills, qualifications, tenacity and not accepting no for an answer. “Often, it comes down to taking risks and doing things other people won’t because they’re afraid of the possibility of failure,” Amesbury Holder says. “At that point, the so-called ‘glass ceiling’ will disappear.”
As Stihl’s vice president of operations, Amesbury Holder isn’t afraid to hire people more proficient than she is in a specific subject matter area. As an individual, she’s a risk-taker, proud of her integrity, work ethic and moral compass. As a mother of two, she strives to be a role model for her son and daughter, demonstrating that women are strong, brave and fearless. “We can all do anything we want to do and are only limited by our imagination,” she says. “My children have seen me sacrifice, work hard, fail and succeed.”
When her mentor in the automotive industry passed away shortly after his retirement, a young Amesbury Holder was saddened to see only work colleagues at his funeral. She realized work had been his whole life and identity, when what mattered was living a full life, sharing experiences with others.
“We should all endeavor to make the world a better place, not just focus on the career aspect,” she says. “It’s something I strive to do through my work and personal life: Achieve the coveted work-life balance.”
KRISTINA BOUWEIRI, president and CEO, Reston Limousine & Travel Service Inc., Sterling
KRISTINA BOUWEIRI President and CEO,
Reston Limousine & Travel Service Inc., Sterling It was a different world in 1990 when Kristina Bouweiri started Reston Limousine with five vehicles. Since then, she’s grown the business to 250 vehicles and 450 employees — 75% of whom are female and/or minorities — and $30 million in revenue.
Hiring and promoting people is the most satisfying aspect of running her own business, Bouweiri says. “Not only am I providing a paycheck, but we always try to hire from within the company, so many of my employees have been with me 20 years. Even though we’re not a small company, we still run it like a family business where the employees are treated as family.”
That compassion also extends to the community, where she’s served on several community and regional boards, raised money for Loudoun Boy Scouts and recruited members for 100WomenStrong, a group that is dedicated to improving life in Loudoun County.
Near Christmas 2001, when Bouweiri was struggling to pay bills and her buses were about to be repossessed, her banker changed his mind. The buses remained because Reston Limousine had been donating limousine rides for sick children, wounded warriors and other groups
in need.
“I thanked him,” she recalls. “And told him that we would always give back to the community because it’s the right thing to do.”
NNEKA CHIAZOR, vice president of public and government affairs, Cox Communications Inc., Chesapeake. Photo by Mark Rhodes
NNEKA CHIAZOR Vice president of public and government affairs,
Cox Communications Inc., Chesapeake Ask Nneka Chiazor where her energy comes from, and she’ll say it’s from working with others to solve complex socioeconomic problems.
“Beyond the people, though, I’ve always been fascinated by politics,” she notes. She grew up in Nigeria, where “a coup took the democracy to a dictatorship literally overnight and quickly made me appreciate the intricate dynamic between governments, people and livelihoods.”
Under Chiazor’s leadership, the cable and telecommunications company has made broadband available in multiple rural locations throughout Virginia, and she’s also led efforts to bridge the digital divide for low-income families through Connect2Compete, Cox’s program designed to increase affordable internet access.
Chiazor is convinced that the future face of wealth is female and that only by working together will women continue achieving big things. She mentors Cox employees and also assists other professionals via organizations such as Women in Cable Telecommunications and the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications.
Although Chiazor says she had the support to achieve her goals from a young age, she acknowledges that glass ceilings exist. “For me, I just try not to get discouraged and overcome barriers by … having a North Star and following it,” she says. “Plus knowing when to compete and when to collaborate.”
LARA COFFEE, executive vice president of human resources, marketing and communications, Computer Systems Center Inc., Springfield
LARA COFFEE Executive vice president of human resources,
marketing and communications,
Computer Systems Center Inc., Springfield
Mentoring other women matters in every field, but it can be even more critical in a predominantly male industry, such as federal IT contracting. Lara Coffee acknowledges that while the lack of women’s representation in technology sectors has improved over the years, there’s still a long road ahead.
“With the global pandemic forcing millions of women to leave the workplace entirely, now more than ever, mentoring women is key to getting representation back into the workforce and in good numbers,”
she says.
Coffee has found that the key to getting positive outcomes from her workforce is by making people feel valued and heard. She provides staff with guidance and mentorship to help them determine their strengths and guide them toward their ideal role or position. Also, she exercises her years of marketing and public relations experience to enhance the company’s position in the marketplace.
But it’s the “people factor” she considers the best part of her position because each facet of her role speaks to her strengths, whether mentoring, marketing or public relations.
To young women starting their careers, Coffee offers suggestions on how to move forward: “Continue to be curious, true to oneself and surround yourself with trusted advisers. And allow for failure.”
KRISTA COSTA, executive vice president, Divaris Real Estate Inc., Virginia Beach
KRISTA COSTA Executive vice president, Divaris Real Estate Inc., Virginia Beach
Krista Costa has been a force in office leasing in the Hampton Roads region for two decades, representing both owners and tenants. She oversees a portfolio of more than 1 million square feet of space and is consistently ranked as a top broker in the region by CoStar Group Inc. Costa won the Commercial Sales and Leasing Award from the Hampton Roads Realtors Association and Commercial Realtors Alliance for 10 years straight, and her own company named her employee of the year in 2005.
“My company has a higher rate of female brokers than any other local company,” she says, explaining how integral that support has been to her career. “I had a great mentor with a vested interest in my success.”
Now, Costa mentors not only new Divaris agents but also young people in the broader community. In 2011, Divaris presented her its community service award for her work with a youth mentoring program run by The Up Center, a Norfolk organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening children and families.
Costa also visits schools to talk about careers in commercial real estate and recently began mentoring a student through the Women’s Initiative Network, run by her alma mater, Old Dominion University.
With such a full plate, it’s no surprise that she describes herself as “a really hard worker,” but hard work and even a mentor aren’t enough to succeed, she says. “You need to connect with other women in business, even if they are in different industries.” And, just as essentially, “you need to make sure that you ask for what you want.”
KIM ENOCHS, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Marsh & McLennan Agency — Mid-Atlantic LLC, Roanoke
KIM ENOCHS Executive vice president and chief operating officer, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC — Mid-Atlantic, Roanoke
Kim Enochs has helped grow the local region of national risk prevention and insurance company Marsh & McLennan Agency’s revenue from $83 million to $225 million over the past 11 years, as well as integrating 17 acquisitions during that period.
Enochs’ lifelong philosophy has been, “Anything is worth a conversation.” She found her position when an executive recruiter told her he’d immediately thought of her because a small firm in town was looking for someone to join its corporate team. At the time, she was employed by a large organization in a leadership position and was in line for a top executive role, but when told that the firm was a “best-kept secret” and that the role was full of growth potential, she agreed to meet.
Almost 20 years after she joined Marsh & McLennan, Enochs feels privileged to have helped build a successful organization while having fun and working with talented people.
As a leader, Enochs believes it’s her highest responsibility at this stage of her career to clear the way for other women by engaging in talent acquisition and leadership development initiatives. “If women don’t find ways to mentor, advance and support other women, they inadvertently help create a ceiling,” she says.
COURTNEY EPPS, principal and vice president of national delivery, Apex Systems, Richmond. Photo by Mark Rhodes
COURTNEY EPPS Principal and vice president of national delivery,
Apex Systems, Richmond
Courtney Epps sees herself as a fixer. “I love problem-solving. It gets me up every day,” she says. During the pandemic, she certainly had no need of any other alarm clock.
“I was a teacher, tutor, test proctor and cafeteria worker, responsible for keeping my 9- and 11-year-old daughters on track,” she says, “while at the same time ensuring my recruiting teams, sales teams, clients and business [were] still moving forward successfully.”
Epps set out to be a lawyer but subsequently decided that the law wasn’t for her, although she also wasn’t sure which direction to take. When she interviewed with Apex about 15 years ago, she says, “I didn’t even know what IT staffing was.”
Nevertheless, she became Apex’s first hire for its National Delivery Recruiting Center in Richmond. “I harnessed talents I didn’t even know I had,” she says. Epps quickly took on substantive roles at the company, where she now supervises about 100 employees. In 2013, she was named the first woman principal within her operating group, a designation that recognizes her key role in developing Apex’s mission. Her hard work and talent have helped turn the recruitment center into a $330 million business.
Epps credits her rapid rise to having “amazing mentors,” and she strives to play that role for others. “I like to help people get to where they want to be,” she says. Epps also believes in being your own best advocate: “Speak up. Use your voice. Don’t be afraid to say, ‘This is what I need.’”
DAWN GLYNN, president of Hampton Roads and Outer Banks, TowneBank, Suffolk
DAWN GLYNN President of Hampton Roads and Outer Banks, TowneBank, Suffolk
A lifelong resident of the Hampton Roads region, Dawn Glynn was a founding member of TowneBank 22 years ago. During her tenure, the regional bank has expanded from three offices to more than 40 throughout Hampton Roads, Central Virginia and North Carolina, with more than 2,600 employees, $15 billion in assets and contributions of more than $78 million to support communities served by TowneBank.
Her first job as a grocery store cashier introduced her to the customer service business. “I learned you can change someone’s day with a warm greeting and smile,” she recalls. “Making those simple connections are still a large part of my job today, building and growing member, employee and investor relationships.”
Glynn is dedicated to making a difference in her community and devotes time to organizations such as United Way of South Hampton Roads. As board chair during the May 2019 Virginia Beach mass shooting, she led community support efforts to help families and employees impacted by the tragedy. She also served on the board of Norfolk’s Access College Foundation, helping raise scholarship funds for local high school seniors.
Each of Glynn’s mentors over the last 35 years has shaped the leader she is today. “I’m a believer in always paying it forward with helping others,” she says. “I love coaching others, watching them grow into new roles and take on expanded responsibilities. They’re the future leaders of our company and community.”
SHANA HAMMOND-ADLER, vice president of capture and proposal, B&A, McLean
SHANA HAMMOND-ADLER Vice president of capture and proposal, B&A, McLean “Just because you can do everything, you shouldn’t,” says Shana Hammond-Adler, who is in charge of business development and marketing at B&A, a McLean-based government contracting firm. “You have to be able to trust and delegate. Appreciation of what you have and of others’ contributions is critical.”
That philosophy is indispensable for the contractor, who’s tasked with helping government, education and private sector organizations maximize skills for growth and reach corporate objectives.
But the philosophy of keeping employees engaged is one that she applies internally, as well. The multilingual executive is a major player in both B&A’s mentorship program and its Brand Ambassador initiative, which spreads values of inclusiveness and open communications throughout the company ranks. Hammond-Adler also spearheads the company’s contributions to charitable and community causes, such as the Hope for Henry Foundation, a D.C. charity that helps pediatric cancer patients, and the Celtino Foundation, which promotes STEM education in rural Latin America.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Hammond-Adler stepped up her philanthropic commitments by organizing the delivery of meals to first responders — including the U.S. Capitol Police — and hospital personnel. Additionally, she is a registered advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“You have to have the courage to lead, even if the choices are not popular,” Hammond-Adler says. But whether dealing with employees, clients or charities, her bottom line is always “empathy. You can’t forget that they are human beings.”
EVA HARTMANN, chief human resources officer, Schnabel Engineering Inc., Glen Allen
EVA HARTMANN Chief human resources officer, Schnabel Engineering Inc., Glen Allen Over the years, Eva Hartmann has seen the role of chief human resources officers shift. Today, she’s a strategic partner for Schnabel Engineering, creating competitive advantages to recruit and retain employees and build the company’s culture.
Hartmann began her professional career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture plc), where she was introduced to the concept of developing individual and organizational performance, both key tenets of human resources. This experience taught her that employees are the No. 1 asset of any company. And that informs her work at Schnabel, an infrastructure engineering firm.
“There’s a distinct competitive advantage gained when you’re intentional about building the potential of employees in your organization,” Hartmann notes, “because it inevitably leads to greater engagement and performance as a company overall.”
Hartmann also is a big proponent of women mentoring women, which can impact both parties on professional and personal levels.
“My first true professional mentor was a female executive in the banking industry who not only taught me — knowingly or unknowingly — how to be a competent and confident leader, but also how to balance family, work and volunteerism with optimism and, ideally, with grace,” she says. “Finding this balance can be tricky for ambitious women, and mentorship and guidance can make a big difference in their lives and their career.”
RUDENE MERCER HAYNES Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, Richmond Rudene Mercer Haynes was convinced that if she did everything within her control to bang on the glass ceilings long enough, eventually they’d crack. Although she acknowledges the systemic issues and societal barriers that impact the advancement of women of color in the legal profession, she can point to no instances when her gender or race impeded her success.
“I realize that my experience is not that of everyone’s, and what I’ve tried to do through my various leadership and decision-making positions is whatever I can to improve the legal profession’s diversity,” she says. “When we see ‘unicorn’ demographics in any industry, we need to ask ourselves what’s wrong with the system and what can we do to change what those demographics look like.” She does so as one of her firm’s global hiring partners, as well as a member of the Goals and Metrics Subcommittee of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Haynes says it’s crucial for women working in law to pass on the knowledge they’ve gained to younger women, in part because of the number of unwritten rules for success in the industry.
“Sharing this knowledge is critical to diversifying the face of leadership, especially in big law firms,” she says. “Having a community of women to serve as a sounding board … is invaluable to a woman attorney’s longevity and satisfaction in the practice.”
LAURA IPSEN, president and CEO, Ellucian Inc., Reston
LAURA IPSEN President and CEO, Ellucian Inc., Reston Laura Ipsen has more than 25 years of experience in the technology sector, working for Silicon Valley titans such as Oracle, Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp., where she oversaw 2,000 employees. In mid-June, Ellucian announced it will be acquired by investment firms Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners.
Ellucian helps educational institutions modernize the student experience through cloud technology. It was an ideal fit for Ipsen, who calls it “the best of both worlds — education and technology.”
But Ipsen also took the job because of the visibility of being one of a few women to head a large tech company. (Ellucian has more than 1,000 employees). She envisions her example as paving the way for other women to advance in a male-centric field.
At Ellucian, Ipsen cultivates Lean In Circles, peer groups that hold discussions on empowering women. She is active outside her company, too. In 2020, Ipsen was the keynote speaker at both the Bryant University Women’s Summit and at William & Mary’s Tech Day. In her off hours, she sits on the Business-Higher Education Forum board.
Ipsen’s advice to women who would hope to emulate her success is to be an “excellent listener.” Even more important, perhaps, is to take risks. “Don’t wait,” she says. “Do your next job now.”
TRACY LEWIS, partner, BDO USA LLP, Richmond. Photo by Shandell Taylor
TRACY LEWIS Partner, BDO USA LLP, Richmond
“I love numbers,” says Tracy Lewis, which would seem to make a career in accounting a natural fit for her. But forget the image of a dry-as-a-spreadsheet daily grind. Lewis begs to differ. The best part of her job is “the people aspect. I deal with a lot of different people, and my bosses change every day according to the client I work with. Not one of my days is mundane.”
Lewis joined Chicago-based global accounting firm BDO USA in 2002, after earning a master’s degree in accounting from William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business. She made partner in 2017 — the first woman to earn that distinction in BDO’s Richmond office.
Nurturing her network inside and outside of work has been critical to that success. “You have to be open-minded to other perspectives,” she says, and in the office she has surrounded herself with people with complementary skills. Outside of work, she’s done the same. She’s a board member and past president of the National Association for Women Business Owners’ Richmond chapter. “Leading by example,” is important, she says about her civic involvement.
“Tracy embodies what it means to be a mentor,” says Lauren Soles, a business development director at BDO’s Richmond office. “She has paved the way for women who want to continue to take their careers to the next level.”
ChamberRVA agrees with Soles’ assessment. In 2019, it presented Lewis its HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Engage) Mentor award.
KEIRA LOMBARDO Chief administrative officer, Smithfield Foods Inc., Smithfield The most formative period not just in her career, but in Keira Lombardo’s life, was in 2013 and 2014, during WH Group’s acquisition of Smithfield Foods and the parent company’s initial public offering. Amid that busy backdrop, after four years of infertility struggles, Lombardo discovered she was pregnant.
Never one to shy away from challenges, she and her husband relocated 8,000 miles to Hong Kong, and during her pregnancy, Lombardo flew more than 100,000 miles on IPO roadshows. WH Group debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2014, just days after her son’s birth. She recalls a former Smithfield CEO who had a knack for pinpointing her seminal moments by announcing, “Keira, you’re in a Kodak moment.”
A New Jersey native, Lombardo graduated from Rutgers University in 2002 with degrees in economics and finance. She joined Smithfield in New York City shortly afterward, holding a variety of positions from corporate finance assistant to executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance.
Lombardo feels fortunate to have had many male superiors and colleagues who encouraged and championed her career goals. Yet she knows other women who’ve had different experiences, and Lombardo wants men to take equal responsibility for changing companies’ cultures.
“As companies invest in diversity, equity and inclusion, it’s vital to engage men in the process,” she says. “Men play an important role in achieving gender parity, because only together can we shatter the glass ceiling.”
Diana Mendes, corporate president of infrastructure and mobility equity, HNTB Corp.
DIANA C. MENDES Corporate president of infrastructure and mobility equity, HNTB Corp., Arlington
HNTB is about building better — for public safety, for social equity and for the environment, which explains why the engineering and design firm recently tapped Diana Mendes for its new position leading infrastructure and mobility equity.
“I had no small plans,” Mendes says of her decision to pursue a career in planning.“I wanted to save the world.”
Though she may have fallen a tad short of that goal, her philosophy of “having a compelling reason to commit and move forward” has been characteristic of her 35-year career, which has included a stint consulting for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, a job she describes as “a fantastic experience.”
Since joining employee-owned HNTB in 2016, Mendes has overseen the expansion of its Virginia office to 250 employees, an increase of 40%. In recognition of her role in making her company a go-to firm for transit agencies across the nation, the company named her an HNTB fellow last year. She also was the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials’ 2019 Corporate Executive of the Year, and the American Transportation and Road Builders Association presented Mendes its lifetime achievement award in 2018.
Outside of work, Mendes has pursued her passion for planning with equal vigor, serving on many boards and committees, including those of the American Public Transportation Association and the American Planning Association.
She modestly attributes much of her impressive career to “incredibly gracious, patient and kind colleagues. My success has been a team sport.”
MONICA MONDAY Managing partner, Gentry Locke Attorneys, Roanoke As the managing partner at Gentry Locke, Monica Monday oversees 65 lawyers and has expanded the footprint of the nearly century-old firm by adding offices in Richmond and Lynchburg, while she personally continues to represent clients in state and federal appellate courts. In 2018, the legal rankings agency Chambers USA described her as having “a commanding reputation as ‘one of the go-to practitioners’ for appellate work,” making her a natural choice to chair the Virginia Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section Council.
Monday has earned a slew of honors featuring words such as “elite,” “super” and “best,” and she is just the fifth attorney in the commonwealth to be named a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. During her 28-year career, she has shared her expertise with young lawyers in her practice through “Gentry Locke University,” an internal vehicle for providing mentorship, guidance and training.
“I credit my firm with providing me with a lot of opportunities,” Monday says, especially for allowing her to work part time for nine years so that she could spend more time with her son before returning full time as managing partner in 2013. “I’m extremely grateful,” she says about that support.
But just as critical to Monday’s success has been her ability to overcome the “I can’t do that” syndrome that sometimes afflicts women in business. “We underestimate what we can do,” she says. “You need to realize that you can make it your own and do it your way. You don’t have to do the job the way your predecessor did.”
HEATHER NEWMAN, senior vice president of corporate strategy, Altria Group Inc., Richmond
HEATHER NEWMAN Senior vice president of corporate strategy,
Altria Group Inc., Richmond
Heather Newman is central to Altria’s 10-year vision to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a future with noncombustible tobacco products. She enjoys the rapid and continuous learning cycle that is intrinsic to corporate strategy, while her experience working at a family-run farm market in the Philadelphia suburbs shaped her interest in the customer.
A teenage Newman developed creative product displays to influence purchasing decisions at the farm. One of her managers noticed, informing Newman that she could go to school for that. “She told me it was called marketing,” Newman recalls. “I was sold!”
Seeking a strong undergraduate marketing program, Newman attended Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, where Philip Morris USA was an active recruiter on campus. Hired as a territory sales manager upon graduation in 1999, she now works for parent company Altria. “Although the breadth and scope of my responsibility is different, I have immense appreciation for the solid foundation those experiences provided me,” she says. “They shaped who I am as a leader, instilled my work ethic and, most importantly, taught me how to operate with resiliency.”
In addition to spending a significant amount of time with employee resource groups at Altria, both as participant and executive sponsor, Newman is on the board of directors of MENTOR Virginia, an anchor organization that helps grow youth-mentoring programs around the state.
LEIGH PALMER senior vice president of defense, General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Falls Church
LEIGH PALMER Senior vice president of defense, General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Falls Church
Leigh Palmer oversees some gargantuan contracts for one of the largest defense contractors in the country. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is the IT subsidiary of Fortune 500 contractor General Dynamics, which generated $39.7 billion in revenue last year. Palmer helped contribute to that bottom line by securing the $4.4 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract to move the armed services farther into the cloud and streamline its office applications.
WashingtonExec, a private membership organization for executives, named her a Top 25 Defense Exec to Watch in 2020. Palmer has spent a quarter-century in the industry, working for defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman and CSRA before it was acquired by General Dynamics in 2018. “My dad was in the military, so I’ve been around it my whole life,” she says.
Yet Palmer says her success “is not about me. It is about solving big problems to get to the solution on the other side,” and that requires not only “understanding what you are good at and where you might need support,” but a readiness to listen and a commitment to transparency.
“I spend a lot of time talking about empathy.”
The Virginia Tech graduate, who also holds a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania, now sits on the board of the nonprofit Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Palmer was a featured speaker at GDIT’s Women + Technology conference in October, when she spoke about inclusive leadership, a philosophy she practices on the job by mentoring other women in the male-dominated industry.
HOLLY PEARCE, vice president of distribution and logistics, Agway Farm and Home Supply, Richmond. photo by Shandell Taylor
HOLLY PEARCE Vice president of distribution and logistics, Agway Farm and Home Supply, Richmond
Looking back at her career trajectory, Holly Pearce recalls a key moment she experienced while working as logistics manager for Lumber Liquidators: A new executive brought her in to present her projects. Pearce prepped a three-phase action plan ending with blue-sky initiatives that, once implemented, would greatly benefit the company. Afterward, the executive told her he was going to take the “invisible wrap” off her and let her loose in the organization.
“And that’s exactly what he did,” Pearce recalls. “Within a year, I was promoted to director and in charge of 20,000 import containers each year, with a $68 million budget.” Today, she oversees the supply chain for agricultural retailer Agway Farm and Home Supply, managing contracts, fleet operations and budgets.
Throughout her career, Pearce focused on developing leadership skills through mentoring and coaching, to develop strong, productive teams with succession and growth in mind. She’s the first to admit that strategy and vision casting — a corporate leadership style focused on long-term goals — get her pumped up.
“I love being able to innovate and execute projects that support the overall goals of my organization,” she says. “Of course, that means securing support for internal stakeholders, so gaining consensus through mutual benefit is key.” Her leadership extends to being president of the Virginia International Business Council and recently being appointed an advisory committee member for University of Richmond’s Customer Experience Certificate program.
Being able to directly influence the course of the Agway organization still motivates Pearce every day. “It’s awesome to have a seat at the table and truly shape the foundation and future of a $300 million company.”
PALLABI SABOO, CEO, Harmonia Holdings Group LLC, Blacksburg
PALLABI SABOO CEO, Harmonia Holdings Group LLC, Blacksburg When Pallabi Saboo was interviewed by an admissions counselor at Virginia Tech, she was asked why she hadn’t applied to Harvard or Stanford to get her MBA. In those pre-internet times, the Punjab University graduate had relied solely on a trusted source: her fiancé, who was attending Virginia Tech.
Today, Saboo holds the reins at Harmonia Holdings LLC, a software company she has grown from 10 employees and less than $2 million in revenue in 2006 to 400 workers and nearly $90 million in annual revenue, with a presence in 18 states.
With that success comes responsibility, which Saboo welcomes. Under her leadership, Harmonia mentors growing companies under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé Program promoting the development of nascent businesses. “We write the proposal, do the hiring and run the program,” she explains. “Our goal is to help them learn under our mentorship. But it also helps us grow.”
Part of that mentoring is teaching women to self-promote and be less humble. “I share my lessons learned to mentor women to leverage the cards they’ve been dealt to make their journey faster,” she says. “Part of mentoring is teaching that strength lies in unity and we can both help each other rise.”
To support and encourage the growth of women in STEM fields, Saboo sponsors an annual scholarship at Virginia Tech.
MEGAN SHEPHERD Chief operating officer, SimVentions Inc., Fredericksburg Megan Shepherd’s first job, working in her dad’s camera shop, taught her a customer service mindset, and her first job after college as a software tester was the start of her technical career. Today, she leans on those skills at SimVentions Inc., an employee-owned defense contractor with more than 300 employees. Shepherd must focus on the present as well as the future, in addition to effectively communicating and relating to multiple teams, employees and customers.
“I’m a connector,” she explains. “Being COO pulls on several skills every day, but the ability to connect strategy, day-to-day [work] and people is critical.”
Her entire career, including earning two technical degrees in the mid-’90s, has been in male-dominated environments. She recalls her knowledge and contributions being overlooked while being told to sit and look pretty by older men in college classes. Undaunted, she continued to push, determined not to let the environment limit her, nor new opportunities and challenges pass her by. “As I grew professionally and took on additional responsibilities and leadership roles, I never focused on the fact that I was often the only female in the room, on the call or on the team.”
Long a mentor of current employees and past associates, Shepherd sponsors SimVentions’ Women in Leadership program to provide mentorship, networking and collaboration related to the unique challenges women face in the industry. “We need to empower women to understand and be confident in their potential,” she says. “Mentoring other women and girls demonstrates what’s possible.”
MARIA TEDESCO, president, Atlantic Union Bank, Richmond
MARIA TEDESCO President, Atlantic Union Bank, Richmond
As the first female president in Atlantic Union Bank’s 118-year history, Maria Tedesco’s leadership has transformed the bank, growing it from $14 billion to $19.6 billion in assets over the past two-and-a-half years.
With her eye on the goal of making banking easier and more convenient, Tedesco led a speedy effort to build a digital portal last year so customers could access the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, a pandemic-driven federal relief program that stymied some banks. Atlantic Union was able to process loan applications around the clock for weeks, ultimately completing more than 11,000 PPP loans.
Besides expanding revenue and leading all client-facing business teams, Tedesco oversees approximately 75% of the bank’s employees. After seeing the need firsthand, she led an effort to create a program especially for women called WIN, or Women’s Inclusion Network, which has become a critical component of the bank’s broader diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. “WIN is open to men and women, but its purpose is to advance women and teach how unconscious bias affects hiring,” she says.
Her recommendation to younger women is to stretch themselves at work. “Continue asking for more responsibility, say yes to every opportunity and build your network,” she advises. “Take calculated risks early in your career when they’re less costly, because you can learn a lot. And be kind to everyone you meet.”
SZU-MIN YANG, senior vice president and chief contracts officer, Peraton, Herndon
SZU-MIN YANG Senior vice president and chief contracts officer, Peraton, Herndon Szu-Min Yang embodies Peraton’s motto, “Do the Can’t Be Done.” Despite language, cultural and economic barriers, the first-generation Chinese American has made a 25-year climb up the corporate ladder to her present position as a key executive for the massive defense contractor, which has more than 22,000 employees and annual revenues of more than $7 billion. “I’ve kept my feet strongly to the ground,” Yang says about her success. “I have a willingness to try new things, even if they aren’t comfortable situations.”
As Peraton’s chief contracts officer since 2017, Yang has overseen three major mergers and acquisitions — Solers Inc. in 2019, and the twin purchases of Northrop Grumman’s federal IT and mission support businesses and Perspecta Inc., which closed earlier this year.
During the pandemic, she and her team sometimes worked 16-hour days, seven days a week, to fulfill their contract obligations while still keeping team members safe. Yang has volunteered with both the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, but she’s also taken time to pull back, such as a few years ago, when her parents were diagnosed with cancer. Yang cared for them along with her young children while still pursuing her career goals.
At Peraton, she is known for her empathy and commitment to nurturing her employees and guiding them to new opportunities. A good leader “sets a good example and demonstrates her values through action,” Yang says. “You have to be able to listen and not just hear yourself. You’re not a leader if no one wants to follow.”
SMALL BUSINESS
ARLENE E. LEE, CEO and principal, R.E. Lee Cos. Inc., Charlottesville
ARLENE E. LEE CEO and principal, R.E. Lee Cos. Inc., Charlottesville
“I don’t believe in being defined by challenges. I use them as a tool,” says Arlene Lee. As head of six companies that deal in commercial construction and land development, Lee’s toolbox is often full. And, “when you get to the end of your rope, you can get another rope,” she says, blithely mixing her can-do metaphors.
Since assuming leadership of the companies after the 2015 death of her husband, Christopher, she has focused on keeping R.E. Lee Cos. open to technological innovations and on making sure that it lives up to three bywords: pioneering, honorable and professional. She calls herself “a servant leader” to the companies’ 170 employees. “We have a tremendous responsibility to our employees, to their livelihoods, to treat them with compassion and empathy,” she says. As CEO, she created the Lee Education Apprenticeship Program and the Christopher E. Lee Young Leader Program to support young employees. She also is committed to individual mentoring within the companies.
Lee is active in many civic organizations, including the Virginia Council of CEOs; in 2019, she was presented its Charles E. McCabe Leadership Award for her work in increasing the council’s membership. Additionally, she sits on the boards of the Virginia Chamber and the United Way of Greater Charlottesville, among others.
A truly effective leader must be authentic, she says. “Show up as yourself. Embrace yourself. You can’t lead if you don’t know where you are going.”
LINDA NASH, founder and CEO, WellcomeMD, Richmond
LINDA NASH Founder and CEO, WellcomeMD, Richmond Linda Nash comes from an entrepreneurial family and has done her part to uphold that tradition by founding four businesses — “so far,” she adds. The trick, she explains, “is finding a need and filling it.”
In 2016, Nash founded WellcomeMD, a concierge medicine service in which doctors carry only 10% of the caseload of a regular practice, because she saw a need for more personalized health care. The patient-membership service model allows doctors “to drill down into the options to help people live their best lives,” Nash says. In addition to its operation in Richmond, WellcomeMD has two North Carolina locations and an office in Naples, Florida. In the past three years, its patient membership has grown at a rate of 325% annually.
She also heads Linda Nash Ventures, which helps startup businesses grow and thrive, and Nash has served on the boards of many nonprofits, including the Ellen Shaw de Paredes Breast Cancer Foundation, the United Way of Greater Richmond and the Powell Economic Education Foundation. She was a finalist for the Wells Fargo Women in STEM award in 2019 and has been named the Most Influential Woman in Concierge Medicine by Concierge Medicine Today.
Nash believes good leaders have to be “somewhat vulnerable. You need to admit mistakes and show you’re human,” she says. But she also believes in confronting issues and “having hard conversations. Avoiding conflict causes conflict.”
SUSAN QUINN, president and CEO, circle S studio, Richmond
SUSAN QUINN President and CEO, circle S studio, Richmond
During her career of more than 30 years, Susan Quinn has worn a closet’s worth of hats as executive coach, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, adviser and mentor. She has applied that multifaceted expertise to helping Fortune 500 companies and middle-market firms propel growth and realize their potential.
Initially, Quinn had thought that lawyering was her destiny, but after taking a fundraising job at a hospital, she realized that consulting was the career that resonated with her. “I get a thrill out of helping colleagues and clients see things through a new lens,” she says.
In 1986, Quinn started Creative Associates, which later morphed into her consulting and branding firm, circle S studio. In recognition of her achievements in that business, her alma mater, Randolph-Macon College, named her its 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2019, she also was a finalist for the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Women of Excellence Award.
Quinn makes it a point to host multiple interns every year at circle S. “You can’t have too many mentors,” she says, but her commitment extends beyond business hours. She advises students in programs at Randolph-Macon and the University of Richmond, and she has held the title of “super mentor” at UR since 2012.
Quinn is modest about her success. “I don’t know the definition of being at the top of my game, because there is always so much more to do and be,” she says. “I always seek to do better each day in small, incremental ways.”
ANGELA D. REDDIX, founder, CEO and president, ARDX, Norfolk
ANGELA D. REDDIX Founder, CEO and president, ARDX, Norfolk Angela Reddix’s philosophy is “to live and grow where you are planted,” even when she was often the youngest person in the room and one of a tiny minority of Black women. Hard as that could be, she says, “I was determined to stick it through and learn my lessons.”
Those lessons obviously were learned because the health care management and technology consulting firm she founded in 2006 has landed $178 million in government contract work and now has more than 125 employees.
Reddix likes to give back. In 2016, she founded Envision Lead Grow, a mentorship program for middle school girls. And during the pandemic, Reddix personally awarded $2,020 grants to 13 women owners of small businesses who were unable to tap into other sources of financial assistance. In May, she launched a second cohort for her Reddix Rules Fund, with 10 women entrepreneurs who will receive training in pitching, economics and operations.
Her work in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors has earned Reddix many accolades. She is a member of Old Dominion University’s Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame and was a recipient of its 2017 Women of Achievement Award. In January, she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Leader Workforce Award from the Urban League of Hampton Roads.
“To be an employer is the most honorable thing I have done,” says Reddix, but she admits that “it can be lonely at the top.” Women leaders need a professional coach, a peer group for support and “a mental health professional on speed dial,” she says. “You can’t make emotional decisions.”
BETH YOUNG, founder, president and CEO, Quality Information Partners Inc., Fairfax
BETH YOUNG Founder, president and CEO,
Quality Information Partners Inc., Fairfax
“I think data all the time,” says Beth Young, which comes in handy in her line of work, the development and implementation of standards for educational data.
Since founding Quality Information Partners Inc. in 2004, Young expanded her virtual business from being a two-person operation to a 30-employee company that works with federal and state agencies, private businesses and nonprofits, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also written three surveys for the National Center for Educational Statistics and was the consulting author on five best-practices publications for the U.S. Department of Education.
Young, who holds a doctorate in education policy from George Mason University, always has possessed a drive for service. “My parents raised me that way,” she says. “As an adult, I realized I had more to offer than just to my child.”
Outside of work, Young is a commissioner on the Fairfax City Economic Development Authority and the city of Fairfax’s Commission for Women, an advisory panel. In those roles, she has been responsible for developing an annual networking event for more than 100 businesswomen. She also has helped foster a culture of collaboration among women in business as a member of the Rowan Tree, a Herndon-based virtual community for
female entrepreneurs.
Young says that women should tap into resources that are available to help them find success, and relationships are critical. “You find ethical partners and you hire good people and watch them grow,” she says. And, just as importantly, “You listen to your staff.”
The past year or so in America has often seemed a dark time, with headlines dominated by COVID-19, the tumult surrounding social justice issues and our deeply politically divided nation. Yet, it also has been a time of breathtaking generosity, as uber-wealthy philanthropists and well-heeled corporations have opened their wallets to fund groundbreaking initiatives, especially in the fields of education and health care.
Here are the stories of two Virginia families whose altruism could make a major difference for many, many years to come, along with a roundup of some other impressive gifts made in the last year, either by Virginians or benefiting the people of the commonwealth.
The Goodwins
In 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden launched the federal Cancer Moonshot initiative to fight the disease that killed his son, Beau. And as president, in his first joint address to Congress, Biden urged lawmakers this April to “end cancer as we know it” and support the creation of a new federal agency, the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, which, Biden explained, would “develop breakthroughs to prevent, detect and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer.”
Biden wants to turbocharge the fight against a disease that kills almost 600,000 Americans annually.
Philanthropists Bill and Alice Goodwin announced in March they are committing $250 million to establish a new national cancer research foundation. Their son Hunter died from cancer in January 2020. Photos by Caroline Martin
Virginia philanthropist William Goodwin Jr. and his wife, Alice, who lost their son Hunter to cancer in January 2020, share Biden’s zeal for finding cancer treatments and cures. The couple announced in March that they are donating $250 million to kickstart a national cancer research foundation called Break Through Cancer. Half of the funding will come from their late son’s estate.
The Goodwins have generously and consistently supported cancer research and other endeavors for 20 years. (They were in the news in April for giving $5 million to Mary Baldwin University to establish a doctor of nursing practice degree program. See page 13.)
But their funding of Break Through Cancer is on a different scope entirely. It is nothing less than an ambitious attempt to change the nature of cancer research.
Goodwin, the retired chairman and president of Richmond-based Riverstone Group LLC, explains that medical research is largely a territorial enterprise, and intellectual property — along with the royalties it generates — “is protected like it’s in a vault.” But the impressive rapidity with which vaccines to fight COVID-19 were developed through cooperative scientific efforts shows that competition is not the only way forward, or even the best way. Break Through Cancer is a daring initiative to test that theory.
The new foundation, which will be based in Boston, brings together five of the nation’s most prestigious cancer research institutions — Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston; Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Philadelphia; MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City; and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Researchers at the institutions will collectively focus on four of the deadliest kinds of cancer — the kind that usually kill in 18 months or less: pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma (which killed Beau Biden) and acute myelogenous leukemia.
“We’d like to be seeing real results in three years,” Goodwin says. “If we don’t see results within five years, we aren’t making it.”
Tyler Jacks, director of MIT’s Koch Institute, will oversee Break Through Cancer. Three or four years ago, he says, the research institutions began discussing whether “there would be value in joining forces.” That long journey, he says, leads “directly to the generosity of the Goodwin family.”
The foundation is in the “brainstorming phase” now, he says, but Jacks hopes to begin funding research grants by this summer. The research teams dedicated to each of the four types of cancer will have no physical lab space but will be more akin to think tanks.
“Think of it as a poker game with five expert players all trying to come up with a winning hand,” Jacks says. “We’ll be taking the best cards from all the hands.If things go very well, we’ll see major scientific breakthroughs.”
Reston-based Octo Consulting CEO Mehul Sanghani and his wife, Hema, gave $10 million to their alma mater, Virginia Tech, in 2020. The gift supports a center for artificial intelligence and data analytics as well as efforts to improve food access for students. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
The Sanghanis
Mehul Sanghani and his wife, Hema, grew up in nearby towns in Central Virginia and met when both attended Virginia Tech. Since the couple graduated in 1998 and 1999, he went on to found Reston-based Octo Consulting, which delivers information technology and artificial intelligence services to government and commercial clients. She became a manager at Fairfax-based CGI Federal Inc., which also provides IT services to federal clients.
With their shared focus on technology, it’s not surprising that the two loyal Hokies might support their alma mater’s efforts involving artificial intelligence and data
analytics. What is surprising is the size of the $10 million gift the couple made to the university last year. Announced this January, $7.4 million of their donation is earmarked to support the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, formerly called the Discovery Analytics Center. The remainder of their gift will support an initiative to improve food access for students; Virginia Tech Athletics; and the Global Business and Analytics Complex planned for the Blacksburg campus.
Some of the Sanghanis’ gift also will support disadvantaged and minority students.
The Sanghanis are the youngest alumni couple to ever have made a gift of such size to their alma mater.
“Virginia Tech is where we both met and it opened the doors of opportunity to both Mehul and myself,” Hema Sanghani said in the university’s announcement. “We believe we have a responsibility to give back to the school that has afforded us so much.”
Projected to be completed in 2024, the Sanghani Center will be housed in the first building slated to open on Virginia Tech’s new $1 billion Innovation Campus in Alexandria.
“The gift will allow [Virginia Tech] to expand efforts to make strategic hires and bring on folks in AI,” says Mehul Sanghani.
Naren Ramakrishnan, who heads the Sanghani Center, expects his current faculty of 20 to grow to 30 to 35. The center’s population of about 120 full-time graduate students will double in size. “I view this as an excellent opportunity to enlarge our ambitions,” he says. “It’s a huge step and an opportunity for us.”
Ramakrishnan plans for the center to leverage the proximity of Amazon.com Inc.,
which is building its HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington, and other heavy-hitting tech organizations in the area to create a “back-and-forth synergy.” The emphasis, he says, will be on “use-inspired research with practical applications.”
About $1.5 million of the Sanghanis’ gift will support The Market of Virginia Tech, a food-support program that initially will provide up to 75 students with ingredients for a full week of meals.
“There’s this cliché of college students and ramen noodles,” Sanghani says, but food security among students, especially graduate students who may have families, “is a major, major issue.” The scope of the need, he says, “was eye-opening for us.”
In a January news release announcing the Sanghanis’ gift, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said the alumni couple’s “decision to step forward in such a meaningful way exemplifies the Virginia Tech spirit of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).”
Other major gifts
Last year, MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon.com Inc. founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and the world’s third-wealthiest woman, gave away nearly $6 billion to hundreds of nonprofits and organizations across the United States. She emphatically demonstrated her commitment to supporting historically Black universities and colleges with gifts of $40 million to Norfolk State University, $30 million to Virginia State University and $30 million to Hampton University. All of Scott’s gifts fell into the category of largest-ever donations to the colleges from a single donor.
In December 2020, Scott further gave $10 million to Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia, another “largest-ever” gift for that institution. And that same month, she split $22 million among South Hampton Roads’ YMCA, YWCA and United Way. All three of the nonprofits described her gifts as “transformational.”
Other notable gifts made by Virginians or to Virginia-based organizations over the last year include:
A $50 million, multiyear commitment in May from Chicago-based aerospace and defense contractor Boeing to foster diversity at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Alexandria. The largest corporate donation ever made to Virginia Tech, the commitment also ties the largest private donation the university ever received. Boeing President and CEO David L. Calhoun is a Virginia Tech alumnus.
A $24 million gift in December 2020 from the C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Foundation to Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health Foundation. Since 1999, the Wrights, now deceased, and their namesake foundation have given the university more than $70 million. About $16 million of the most recent donation will support the C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and the other $8 million will be split between the Wright Engineering Access Scholarship Program and the Health Adult Outpatient Pavilion, which is expected to open this year.
A $9 million gift in November 2020 from Amazon.com Inc. in honor of the second anniversary of its decision to locate its East Coast headquarters in Arlington. The gift will be shared among a variety of NoVa nonprofits. Community organizations that support small businesses, military families, the environment and the arts received $3.5 million, and organizations offering legal assistance, such as the Virginia Poverty Law Center, were given $3 million. Amazon gave $1 million to nonprofits dedicated to community empowerment and racial equity, such as the Arlington Branch NAACP Scholarship Program, while another $1 million was shared by health care providers such as the Arlington Free Clinic. Amazon earmarked an additional $500,000 for organizations dedicated to literacy programs and workforce development and economic development in low-income communities, including La Cocina VA and the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia.
Philanthropists Carolyn and James Hartman donated $3.7 million to James Madison University toward the construction of Hartman Hall. Photo courtesy JMU Creative Media
A $3.7 million gift announced in October 2020 from James and Carolyn Hartman to James Madison University. The Hartmans’ gift helped make JMU’s $66.5 million state-of-the-art Hartman Hall possible. The new building on the Harrisonburg campus is the first step in an ambitious plan to create a College of Business learning complex.
A $2 million gift in January from the Estes family and their freight-shipping company, Estes Express Lines, to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University. The money will go toward a new inpatient facility called the Wonder Tower. The Children’s Hospital Foundation, which is dedicated to maximizing the impact of donations, will match the gift. The 16-story tower will include a pediatric trauma center, an emergency room, inpatient units, operating rooms and improved amenities for families. It is expected to be completed in 2023.
A $1 million grant in November 2020 from Bank of America to Northern Virginia Community College to help minority students with education and training. Specifically, the grant will support the community college’s short-term credential program, which provides training in areas such as information technology and health care.
This spring, for the sixth consecutive year, Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc.’s charitable foundation made $1 million in total funding available as grants of up to $25,000 for nonprofits in 16 states, including Virginia, to help meet local housing and food needs along with improving access to medical services.
A $500,000 gift made in November 2020to Hampton University from Virginia Natural Gas to improve the university’s remote learning infrastructure. The donation was part of a $50 million, multiyear initiative by Virginia Natural Gas’ parent company, Southern Co., to provide HBCU students with scholarships and internships as well as access to upgraded technology.
What keeps a person working at an age when most of us are happy to let others take care of business? These overachieving Virginians, all over age 80, have remained hard at work mostly for one or more of three reasons.
The first is being able to continue work with family. Retirement is rarely mandatory if you or your progenitors founded the company, which is the case for many of these dynamos.
The second is their desire to make their communities a better place, whether through their businesses or charitable good deeds, but usually both.
And last, but certainly not least, most take undiminished pleasure in continuing to wheel and deal.
Meet eight* outstanding octogenarian Virginians who aren’t yet done making their mark on the commonwealth.
*The online version of this story includes a bonus ninth profile of nonagenarian Norfolk real estate magnate Harvey Lindsay Jr.
“You’ve got to give up everything to achieve success. You’ve got to have that dedication.”-Ramon W. Breeden Illustration by Vicente Martí
RAMON W. BREEDEN JR. | 87 President and CEO, The Breeden Co., Virginia Beach
“My hobby is really my business,” says Ramon W. Breeden Jr. “I’m thinking about it in the middle of the night.”
That level of intensity wouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever worked with the real estate magnate, who has been a go-getter from the get-go. The Richmond native grew up in modest circumstances and went to the University of Virginia on a baseball scholarship. When his parents couldn’t afford to keep him in school, Breeden wasn’t deterred, taking on odd jobs to finance his own education. He began his career as a math teacher but, desiring to be in charge of his own destiny, Breeden soon turned to real estate development and mortgage financing, founding The Breeden Co. in 1961.
In the 60 years since, The Breeden Co. has owned, managed or developed more than 15,000 apartments, 1,700 single-family homes and 2 million-plus square feet of retail and office space, mostly in Virginia. It now focuses on high-density, mixed-use projects, and its business continues to expand at a rate of 12% to 15% annually, says Breeden, who continues to work full time. “Why not?” he says about his schedule. “I’m healthy. I’m fit.”
Breeden’s son, Torrey, has worked with him in the family business for more than 20 years.
In his down time, Ramon Breeden likes to fly and still pilots his company’s corporate airplanes and helicopters. Over the years, he also served on the board of the former Commerce Bank in Virginia Beach and was a director of Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T) Co. of Virginia (now part of Truist Financial Corp.).
He also has remained involved with higher education, variously serving U.Va. as a member of the McIntire Foundation Board and the McIntire Advisory Board. Some
of his considerable energies have gone into supporting his local SPCA and United Way, as well. “I never think about doing more,” Breeden says of the prodigious number of things
he already does. “I think about doing [it] the right way.”
“Don’t borrow money you don’t know how to pay back.” -Daniel Clemente. Illustration by Vicente Martí
DAN CLEMENTE | 84 Chairman and CEO, Clemente Development Co. Inc.,Vienna
When he is working, Dan Clemente doesn’t stop. “It’s 24 hours a day,” he says. “I don’t do anything else.”
With that schedule, unsurprisingly, Clemente has accomplished a lot. He started out in the 1960s as a lawyer specializing in bankruptcies, eventually becoming a nationally known expert on bank failures. He subsequently parlayed that knowledge into founding banks in Arlington and Springfield.
But at heart, Clemente is a developer. Perhaps it was in his blood, since his grandfather was in the development business in New York City with former President Donald Trump’s father, Fred. Clemente’s inaugural project was Virginia’s first-ever condominium complex, the Tower Villas in Arlington, built in 1974. Condos were such a new concept in that era, Clemente says, that state and local officials didn’t even know what a condominium was.
From that first foray into the housing market, Clemente went on to become one of the largest commercial and residential developers in Northern Virginia, and the many projects that he has undertaken in the past 40 years have helped shape the NoVa landscape, most dramatically at Tysons. There, Clemente has been a prime force behind the transformation of the former small town crossroads into an edge city. In recent years, he has been planning a $1.3 billion mixed-use project, The View at Tysons. Currently delayed because of the pandemic, the project includes plans for the tallest building in Virginia. Clemente’s wife, Juliann, serves as president of the company.
Clemente has also carved out time to be active on the civic front. Most notably, he was instrumental in the creation of George Mason University, for which he later served as a rector and chairman of the board of trustees. He has sat on many prestigious commissions, and is currently a board member of the powerful and influential Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
So, what is the secret to Clemente’s impressive productivity? Taking time off to smell the roses between projects. “Historically, I’ll not do something for six to eight months,” he says, taking that time to travel and get “educated on how the world works.” It’s a yin-yang approach to building a career, but it’s worked for him. “It helps keep me balanced,” he says.
“Get as much education as you possibly can, [but] a lot of good fortune comes to those who work the hardest.” -W. HEYWOOD FRALIN Illustration by Vicente Martí
W. HEYWOOD FRALIN | 80 Chairman, Medical Facilities of
America Inc.; chairman, Retirement Unlimited Inc., Roanoke
“As long as it is fun, I plan to continue.” That’s how Heywood Fralin sums up his decision to keep working full time as chairman of not one, but two, large businesses, both dedicated to senior care. With COVID-19 targeting older adults, Fralin has led his businesses through extremely difficult times of late.
“We faced a tremendous number of challenges,” he says, but, thankfully, the vaccinations have brought “very positive results.”
Fralin’s work ethic was shaped early. As a child, he was expected to do his chores before doing anything else, and by age 13, he was delivering newspapers. “I had a morning route delivering
121 papers,” Fralin recalls. “I had to get up at 4:30 or 5 every morning.” But he didn’t mind. In fact, the job was his idea. “These kinds of things are good lessons for kids,” he says. “It gives them a drive to succeed.”
Fralin’s 60-year-plus career certainly makes him the poster child for that view. After training as a lawyer, the Roanoke native joined the family businesses, and under his guidance both expanded exponentially: MFA Inc., which offers nursing and rehabilitation services, now has about 40 locations, and Retirement Unlimited Inc. operates 10 senior living communities. Fralin’s son William has taken over as president and CEO of both companies.
The senior Fralin is well known across the commonwealth for his civic and charitable endeavors. He serves on both the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, and he has served on the boards of visitors at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, as well as for Virginia Tech. He and his wife, Cynthia, have been outstandingly generous to both schools. In 2012, they donated their collection of American art to U.Va., which subsequently renamed its art museum in their honor. Six years later, it was Virginia Tech’s turn, when the Fralins, along with the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust, donated $50 million to the university for a biomedical research institute. Most recently, the Fralins gave U.Va. $5 million to endow the head football coach’s position.
Looking back at his illustrious career, Fralin says, “The best part of any job is the relationships with the employees and the friendships you develop.”
“Know everything you could possibly know about property and then work like hell.” BARBARA FRIED Illustration by Vicente Martí
BARBARA FRIED | 85 President, The Fried Cos. Inc.,Crozet
“I used to really enjoy rezoning,” says Barbara Fried. That’s not a claim that many folks could probably make, but after 45 years in the real estate development and management business, Fried still finds “the prospect of something new always exciting.”
Fried’s company, based out of the family farm in Crozet with offices in Greene County, focuses on building residential and office complexes, shopping centers and industrial parks, many in the Charlottesville market. It handles about $100 million in new construction projects every year and also manages properties, although it sold off many of its holdings before the 2008-09 real estate crash, Fried says.
An exception to that selloff was Olde Towne Pet Resort, a luxe boarding operation for dogs and cats with three locations in the D.C. metro area. An ardent animal lover, Fried also sponsors a therapeutic riding program on her farm. For most of her long career, Fried ran the pet spa and other enterprises in tandem with her late husband, Mark.
“He was the gas, and I was the brakes,” she says, but since his death in 2010, she had to keep her feet on both pedals. Helping her steer the company into the future are her daughter, Leah, and nephew David Lesser. But Fried remains central to everything the company does. Chief Financial Officer Steve Rotter says he copies her on every email.
Although he says he spares her the gory details occasionally when the company faces “a particular hurdle” or a new project, he consults Fried, and “they bounce ideas back and forth. Forty years of experience can’t be learned in a book necessarily,” Rotter says.
“If you decide to accept a position, give it all you got.” VINCENT MASTRACCO
Other than a stint as a federal law clerk in New York City when he was starting out, Vince Mastracco has practiced business law in Norfolk for more than 55 years. He began his career locally as the second lawyer in what was the solo practice of Leroy T. Canoles Jr. “I wrote to Canoles and told him I wanted to come home and work in Norfolk. Canoles said, ‘I don’t know, we’ll see how we do,’” Mastracco recalls.
How they did, as it turned out, was gangbusters. Their business prospered and grew along with the Hampton Roads region. In 1981, the practice merged with another firm to become Kaufman & Canoles, which now has eight offices and about 100 attorneys. “Timing was on our side,” Mastracco says.
Timing, though, deserves little credit for the game-changing role Mastracco has played in the region as a civic leader and lawyer specializing in mergers, acquisitions and financing. He has been involved in mega-projects such as Chesapeake’s Jordan Bridge, the Midtown Tunnel and the Hilton Norfolk The Main hotel.
As a senior attorney, Mastracco decides when he wants to work these days, offering a flexibility that has allowed him to serve on several boards and commissions, including the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, the Sentara Foundation, Eastern Virginia Medical School Foundation and Virginia Wesleyan University. As the former chairman of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, his influence extended to Northern Virginia, where VEDP played a significant role in bringing Amazon.com Inc.’s East Coast HQ2 to Arlington.
“You want to make sure to be part of something that is productive and good for the community,” Mastracco says. As both a lawyer and a citizen activist, he checks both boxes.
“Be honest and do the right thing, and life will treat you well.” JIM McGLOTHLIN
JIM McGLOTHLIN | 80 Chairman and CEO, The United Co., Bristol
Jim McGlothlin tried to retire when he was 62. “It wasn’t much fun,” he says. “I missed making deals and working with my associates.”
Almost 20 years later, the head of The United Co. (formerly United Coal Co.) is still making deals and still finds it “a thrill to work with really good people.”
After starting his career as a lawyer, McGlothlin, almost on a whim, bid on a floundering coal company. With the help of some partners, including his father, he turned it into a rousing success. In short order, United Coal was producing a million and a half tons of coal annually and brokering almost three times that much. McGlothlin eventually became sole owner of the renamed United Co., which diversified into mine ownership as well as oil and gas holdings in Texas. Never averse to trying something new, McGlothlin also has opened RV parks in Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi.
His latest deal is one of his biggest — McGlothlin and his high school classmate and fellow coal baron Clyde Stacy spearheaded an effort to bring a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to Bristol, a project that local voters overwhelmingly approved last November.
Plans call for the $400 million casino to open as soon as late 2022 on the site of the former Bristol Mall, which is owned by Stacy.
The venture is expected to employ about 2,000 people in the region. “We need these jobs really badly,” McGlothlin says, noting that unlike coal industry jobs, card dealers can’t be outsourced to China. For their efforts to bring the gambling complex to Bristol, McGlothlin and Stacy were recently named Bristolians of the Year by the Bristol Herald Courier.
“It’s a good way to leave our mark, to help the people in our region and our city,” McGlothlin says.
“Bet on the jockey, not the horse.” JIM UKROP
JIM UKROP | 83 Managing director and co-founder,New Richmond Ventures LLC, Richmond
“I don’t hunt, I don’t fish, I don’t go to Florida, and I threw my golf clubs in the ocean, so I have to do something,” Jim Ukrop responds facetiously when asked why he still works. Besides, he adds, “I do what I like to do. It’s not a job.”
What Ukrop calls “not a job” is being “the idea guy” for New Richmond Ventures, the five-person venture capital firm he helped establish in 2012 to help area startup companies.
“I connect the dots,” says Ukrop, who possesses a wealth of connections from a lifetime as one of Richmond’s most prominent businesspeople. “I could never read a balance sheet. I have someone else do that.
I give advice and counsel.”
Before becoming a venture capitalist, Ukrop was president, CEO and chairman of Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc., the eponymous chain of grocery stores that his family operated in the Richmond area from 1937 to 2010. He was an idea guy then too, introducing new concepts such as customer loyalty cards and prepared foods. “No one else had that” at the time, he says proudly.
In 2010, the Ukrop family sold the grocery stores and divested from First Market Bank (now Atlantic Union Bank), which Ukrop co-founded and chaired. Those sales freed up time for his heavy involvement with nonprofits. He has served on more than 20 community boards and has volunteered in a variety of capacities for his alma mater, William & Mary.
Ukrop still is active in several community organizations but is especially passionate about Virginia Learns, a statewide advisory council of business leaders that focuses on K-12 education.
Too many children, Ukrop says, “have already dropped out in their minds way before high school. That’s poor public policy.” Unlike some people of a certain age, he loves younger people, including millennials, he says. Their arrival on the scene means “one less person who likes fruit cake, one less person who likes Smithfield ham, and one less bigot.”
“Be determined to learn all you can.” RICHARD WALLER JR.
RICHARD WALLER JR. | 83 Owner, Waller & Co. Jewelers, Richmond Richard Waller Jr. started working at age 7.
Every day after school, he would go directly to the family watch-repair business, M.C. Waller & Sons, where his job was to wipe down the glass showcase, inside and out. “I made 10 cents a day, and I always had extra money in my pocket,” he remembers.
Fast-forward 76 years, and both Waller and the showcase can still be found at the rechristened Waller & Co. Jewelers on East Broad Street in Richmond. Waller is the third generation of his family to work in the business, which was founded by his grandfather in 1900 as a watch repair business. He has been joined in the enterprise by members of the family’s fourth generation, including sons David and Richard III and his daughter-in-law, Kim. The shop has morphed into a full-inventory jewelry store and a go-to place for members of Black fraternities and sororities in search of Hellenic-themed items, including everything from necklaces, rings and earrings to umbrellas and knee socks.
Last May, about 100 Black university students and members of Greek organizations helped pick up the pieces after the store, one of the oldest Black family-owned businesses in Virginia, suffered damage and theft during racial justice protests that sparked looting and vandalism. After helping with repairs, many of the volunteers took out their wallets to buy merchandise.
Waller was only 17 when he took over the business after the death of his father. He had five younger sisters to support, and “you do whatever is necessary,” he says. He subsequently became a master jeweler and watchmaker.
“I still have a callus from winding 150 watches every morning,” he says. Most watches these days are digital, but Waller also repairs crystals and vintage timepieces, and most days he arrives at the store at 8:15 a.m. for its 10 a.m. opening.
He doesn’t have to be an early bird, but he wants to be there. “I enjoy what I do,” he says.
Bonus profile:
“Try to work with a firm that has a good reputation. Reputation means so much.” HARVEY L. LINDSAY JR
HARVEY L. LINDSAY JR., 92, chairman, Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate, Norfolk
Harvey L. Lindsay Jr. has worked in real estate for a whopping 66 years, but he hasn’t tired of it yet. He continues to come in every day to try to get listings and help make deals.
“I just love the business,” he says, explaining his longevity on the job. Part of the reason for that sentiment is that real estate always has been a family affair for him. After a stint as a Marine serving in the Korean conflict in the early 1950s, he joined his father’s real estate firm.
“My dad was a great real estate man and did a lot of great things,” he says. Today, family remains central to Lindsay and to the business. His sons, Robert M. “Bob” King and William E. King, two sons-in-law, two grandsons and a nephew join him in selling, leasing, managing, financing and developing commercial properties, primarily in Hampton Roads. Lindsay’s definition of family extends into his community, where he has a distinguished history of pursuing social justice.
In the 1950s, he chaired a citizens advisory committee that pushed to reopen Norfolk public schools that had closed instead of integrating. At various times since, he has volunteered for the United Way and served on the board of Eastern Virginia Medical School (then known as the Medical College of Hampton Roads) along with being active in civic institutions such as the former Norfolk Chamber of Commerce. He currently sits on the boards of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation and the Harbor’s Edge Foundation.
In 2018, the CIVIC Leadership Institute presented Lindsay with its Darden Award for Regional Leadership in honor of “his optimism, his regional vision and his commitment to justice for all.” The following year, Old Dominion University recognized his business acumen by naming its real estate program after him. Lindsay’s wife, Frances, passed away three years ago, and he’s had a difficult time coping with the loss.
“Coming in to work helped me through that,” he says, in no small part because it has allowed him to keep “building things that will be of benefit to people in our city and our region.”
Just as Zoom conferences and cloud computing have transformed our pandemic-era work lives, so too is technology changing the nature of influence.
That evolution is perhaps best evidenced by the addition of Reston-based MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor to Virginia Business’ 2021 list of the 50 most influential Virginians. Saylor may not spend his time huddled in cigar smoke-filled country club lounges with wealthy business leaders and politicians, but, along with Elon Musk, he has been one of Twitter’s leading cryptocurrency evangelists, influencing nearly half a million followers.
This year’s list also includes entrants reflecting the importance of diverse leadership, as well as the continuing and growing significance of Northern Virginia’s government contracting community to the commonwealth’s overall economic health.
Read on to learn how each of these leaders is contributing to business and leaving their imprint on Virginia.
Nancy Howell Agee, president and CEO, Carilion Clinic Inc., Roanoke
Agee
Why she is influential: Agee oversees the Roanoke Valley’s largest employer, with 13,000-plus personnel. Carilion Clinic has a $1 billion expansion and renovation plan in the works, including a $500 million overhaul of Roanoke Memorial that would make it one of Virginia’s largest hospitals. A former chair of the American Hospital Association, Agee is also a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates.
Recent developments: Although the COVID-19 pandemic paused Carilion’s expansion plans last spring, the health system has been hard at work on other forms of growth. In July 2020, Carilion completed the purchase of Lexington’s Stonewall Jackson Hospital from the SJH Community Health Foundation. And in October 2020, Carilion received a $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to fund virtual care centers, teleneurology service access and portable telehealth video devices.
Asbury
John C. Asbury, president and CEO, Atlantic Union Bankshares, Richmond
Why he is influential: Following a career working for large financial institutions, Asbury built Atlantic Union into the largest regional bank headquartered in Virginia following mergers in 2018 and 2019. Asbury was elected chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association board of directors last June and he also serves as vice chairman and chairman-elect of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America.
Recent developments: Through both initial rounds of federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) relief loans, Atlantic Union Bank helped more than 11,400 small businesses obtain more than $1.7 billion in funding. Atlantic Union also made undisclosed donations supporting inclusion and equity in 2020, which the bank said represented its largest-ever philanthropic gifts. The bank reported net income of $152.6 million for 2020, with $19.6 billion in assets.
G. Robert Aston Jr., executive chairman, TowneBank, Portsmouth
Aston
Why he is influential: A former president of Commerce Bank, Aston co-founded TowneBank in 1999 and helped it grow to become the largest regional bank in Hampton Roads and one of the biggest banks in the state. With 42 offices throughout Virginia and North Carolina, TowneBank had $14.63 billion in total assets at the close of 2020.
Recent developments: In June 2020, TowneBank and Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters jointly purchased the 22-story Norfolk Southern Tower in downtown Norfolk from the Fortune 500 railroad corporation, which is in the process of migrating its corporate headquarters to Atlanta. TowneBank also made the Forbes 100 Best Banks in America list for the third consecutive year, ranking No. 16 position on the 2021 list. The bank assisted 6,500 businesses in securing more than $1.1 billion in PPP relief loans during the pandemic and added a branch in Chesterfield County. It has two Charlotte, North Carolina, locations slated to open this year.
Barkin
Thomas I. Barkin, president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond,Richmond
Why he is influential: Barkin, who has led the Richmond Fed since early 2018, oversees monetary policy and regulation and payment services for the bank as well as the Fed’s information technology organization. This year, he became a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the bank’s chief monetary policy body. Previously, Barkin was a senior partner and CFO at the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. and served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Recent developments: Barkin’s primary concern about the pandemic is the impact it’s had on the labor market. Fiscal policy, he says, should prioritize people who are “close to the edge.” Although he expects more bumpy months ahead, Barkin calls the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Until clearing that tunnel, though, he expects the Fed will spend about $120 billion per month in bond purchases and maintain interest rates near zero through 2023.
Gilbert T. Bland, chairman, The Giljoy Group, Virginia Beach
Bland
Why he is influential: In 1985, Bland founded a fast food franchise business that owns and operates more than 70 Burger King and Pizza Hut restaurants, employing as many as 2,000 people. He’s also been a major voice in Virginia through board memberships. In 2018, he became president and chairman of the Urban League of Hampton Roads, which supports social and economic equality for African Americans and other minorities to the larger community. He serves on the Randolph-Macon College Board of Trustees and the boards of Sentara Healthcare and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.
Recent developments: Bland’s community volunteer duties expanded to include an appointment as chairman of the new Virginia African American Advisory Board in 2019 in the wake of Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal. The 26-member board advises the governor on issues of importance to Black Virginians, including health, education and business. In October 2020, the board issued its first annual report, focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on Black communities, businesses and public health.
Boykin
Jennifer Boykin, president, Newport News Shipbuilding, and executive vice president, Huntington Ingalls Industries,Newport News
Why she is influential: Boykin became the first woman president of the Newport News shipyard in 2017, coming from a marine engineering background. Part of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding is the leading industrial employer in Virginia. With about 23,000 employees, it is currently working on the U.S. Navy’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract — $22.2 billion, shared with General Dynamics Electric Boat — to build nine Virginia-class Block V attack submarines.
Recent developments: As a large employer, the shipyard saw dramatic changes in its work schedules last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, moving from three shifts to two shifts in May 2020. Meanwhile, NNS continued work on its large backlog of projects that include the submarine contract. Boykin also was named to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s new Board of Visitors last year; she is a 1986 graduate.
Victor Branch, Richmond market president, Bank of America Corp., Richmond
Branch
Why he is influential: Branch, who joined Bank of America in 1984, has served as its Richmond market president since 2015, responsible for 25 branch offices, a technology and operations center and 2,000 employees. A William & Mary alum, he has an extremely active civic life. He serves on the university’s board of visitors and also sits on the boards of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, ChamberRVA, Venture Richmond and Virginia’s Gateway Region.
Recent developments: In December 2020, Branch was honored as one of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s People of the Year. Two months later, he penned a guest column for Virginia Business, calling on the business community to continue the momentum of last year’s racial justice discussions and make long-term commitments to increase equity and diversity and end discrimination.
Carlson
Teresa Carlson, vice president, worldwide sector and industries, Amazon Web Services, Herndon
Why she is influential: As the founder of AWS’s public sector business, Carlson helped establish the company as the world’s most ubiquitous cloud platform. After the CIA moved to AWS cloud services in 2013, many organizations followed suit; today, AWS works with more than 7,500 government agencies, 14,000 academic institutions and 35,000 nonprofit organizations around the world. AWS recently expanded Carlson’s purview, giving her responsibility for its largest regulated industry customers, including financial services, energy services and telecommunications. She also oversees AWS training and certification programs, including global inclusion and diversity initiatives, and advises Amazon’s policy wing on global issues.
Recent developments: Following the February news that AWS CEO Andy Jassy would succeed Jeff Bezos as Amazon’s second CEO, speculation broke out as to whether Carlson might rise to AWS’s top spot. (Others rumored to be in the running include AWS vice presidents Peter DeSantis and Matt Garman.) Carlson could have an edge, having led the 2020 launch of a new business segment dedicated to accelerating innovation in the aerospace and satellite industry, sectors of particular interest to Bezos.
C. Daniel Clemente, founder, chairman and CEO, Clemente Development Co. Inc., Tysons
Clemente
Why he is influential: This seasoned Northern Virginia real estate developer has played a major role in making Tysons a Northern Virginia edge city. He founded his firm in 1986 after careers in banking and law. A former George Mason University rector and board of trustees chair, Clemente currently serves on the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s board.
Recent developments: In February 2020, Clemente Development secured the remaining land for its $1.3 billion, 3 million square-foot, proposed mixed-use development, The View at Tysons. However, the ambitious project has been put on hold as the company waits to see if demand for office space revives following the pandemic. Located near the Spring Hill Metro Station, the project includes a proposal to build the 600-foot-tall Iconic Tower, which would be the tallest building in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., region, as well as 1,400 apartments priced as affordable workforce housing.
Davenport
Benjamin J. Davenport Jr., chairman, First Piedmont Corp. and Davenport Energy Inc., Chatham
Why he is influential: Davenport joined his family’s namesake energy company in 1964 after graduating from Virginia Tech. He has overseen its expansion from a small family-owned company to a major provider of propane, fuel oil and retail gasoline equipment to more than 30,000 commercial and residential customers in Virginia and North Carolina. Davenport established First Piedmont Corp., a full-service waste-management company, in 1969. A loyal Hokie, he has served on Tech’s board of visitors and on the boards of the Tech Foundation and Carilion School of Medicine.
Recent developments: Last April, Davenport received the 2020 Sorensen Institute Leadership Award in recognition of his efforts to revitalize the Southern Virginia economy and for his championship of Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, created in partnership with Virginia Tech.
William B. “Bill” Downey, CEO, Riverside Health System, Newport News
Downey
Why he is influential: For nearly a decade, Downey has overseen the massive Eastern Virginia health care system that employs more than 9,500 people and includes almost 700 providers and seven hospitals, plus nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities. During his tenure, Riverside has undertaken a number of ambitious building projects, including a $90 million expansion of the Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News and a $50 million renovation and expansion of Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester.
Recent developments: Downey lends a prodigious amount of time to civic organizations and has served on the boards of many, including the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the Virginia Symphony, the Hampton Roads Economic Development Authority and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Last year, the Hampton Roads Community Action Program presented him its 2020 Community Builders award in recognition of his positive impact on the region.
DuVal
Barry DuVal, president and CEO, Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Richmond
Why he is influential:In the 11 years that DuVal has served as president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, he’s grown its membership from 847 in 2010 to more than 27,000, including an additional thousand this past year. A former state secretary of commerce and trade, he is also a past mayor of Newport News and was president and CEO of Kaufman & Canoles Consulting LLC.
Recent developments: Last year, DuVal and the chamber released its pandemic best practices report, “Blueprint for Getting Virginians Back to Work,” supported relief for small businesses and lobbied for businesses to be protected from pandemic-related lawsuits. DuVal also continues to be a vocal advocate against the repeal of the state’s right-to-work laws. This year, the chamber is developing a statewide economic development strategic plan, Blueprint Virginia 2030.
James W. Dyke Jr., senior advisor, State Government Relations, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, Tysons
Dyke
Why he is influential: A former secretary of education under
Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, Dyke wields significant influence in state politics as a lobbyist for three universities: George Washington, Marymount and the foundation at George Mason University. He also serves on the board of GO Virginia, a state-funded economic initiative promoting regional collaboration and private-sector investment in economic development.
Recent developments: Dyke served as one of three co-chairs of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation’s Back to Work Virginia task force created last year. In December, the group recommended that the state make child care available to all Virginians by 2030, regardless of income. “For Virginia to recover and prosper, we cannot go back to business as usual with a child care system that fails to provide equitable access to affordable, quality care for working families. Virginia can do better and we will do it together,” said Dyke, who is also an advocate for topics ranging from yearlong public education to racial equity and bipartisanship.
Fairbank
Richard Fairbank, founder, chairman, CEO and president, Capital One Financial Corp., Tysons
Why he is influential: Fairbank co-founded McLean-based Capital One in 1994, growing it from a startup into a Fortune 100 company that’s one of the 10 largest banks in America, with $421.9 billion in assets. A billionaire who has served as Capital One’s CEO since 1994, Fairbank hasn’t taken a base salary since 1997. He previously served as chairman of MasterCard’s U.S. board of directors.
Recent developments:Early in the pandemic, Capital One caught heat from business customers for its slow rollout of PPP loans, processing just 196 loan approvals during the federal relief program’s April 2020 first round. The pandemic also accelerated the bank’s trend of closing branches in favor of digital transactions, with Capital One filing more than 50 branch closure applications in the last half of 2020. In October 2020, the bank announced a five-year, $200 million commitment to advance economic growth and socioeconomic mobility in underserved communities. Capital One started 2021 on a bad note, however, being hit with a $390 million federal civil penalty for willfully violating anti-money-laundering requirements between 2008 and 2014.
Thomas F. Farrell II, executive chairman, Dominion Energy Inc., Richmond
Farrell
Why he is influential: Farrell has led the state’s largest utility since 2006, transitioning from its CEO to executive chairman in October 2020. Dominion is a major player in state politics and Farrell is one of Richmond’s best-known and most powerful executives, though not even his influence could save his proposed $1.5 billion Navy Hill downtown development plan, which Richmond City Council killed in early 2020.
Recent developments: As one of the state’s most powerful leaders, Farrell chairs the state GO Virginia board, which allocates funding for economic development projects across Virginia. In April 2020, he also was appointed as Altria Group Inc.’s chairman of the board, a non-executive position. Last summer, Dominion pulled the plug on its $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline and sold its gas transmission and storage business to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for almost $10 billion. As part of a state initiative to shift to carbon-free energy production by 2050, Dominion last year completed the pilot phase of its proposed $7.8 billion, 2,640-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach. Scheduled for completion in 2026, it will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm.
Fralin
Heywood Fralin, chairman, Medical Facilities of America Inc., Roanoke
Why he is influential: A former University of Virginia rector who was also a longtime member of the U.Va. and Virginia Tech board of visitors, Fralin chairs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and is a director of the Virginia Western Community College Educational Foundation Board. Fralin and his wife, Cynthia, are noted philanthropists who donated $50 million in 2018 to Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke. U.Va.’s art museum is also named for the couple, who donated their collection of American art to the university in 2012. As a businessman, Fralin oversees 40 nursing home facilities in Virginia and North Carolina and is co-chairman of Retirement Unlimited Inc., which has six assisted-living facilities in the commonwealth.
Recent developments: In December 2020,Fralin and his wife pledged $5 million to endow U.Va.’s head football coaching position, which is now officially known as the Fralin Family Head Football Coach. Matching funds will create a permanent endowment of $7.5 million.
William F. “Billy” Gifford,CEO, Altria, Richmond
Gifford
Why he is influential: In April 2020, following the retirement of former CEO and Chairman Howard Willard, Gifford took the helm of the tobacco giant, which reported net revenues of $26.2 billion in 2020, a 4.2% increase from 2019. The Henrico County-based Fortune 500 parent company of cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA (where Gifford was president and CEO) holds a 35% stake in San Francisco- based e-cigarette producer Juul Labs Inc., having invested $12.8 billion in the company in 2018. Gifford also serves on the board of directors for Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, in which Altria holds an equity stake.
Recent developments: In November 2020, Altria converted its nonvoting shares of Juul to voting shares but said it didn’t plan to take a more active role on the board until a federal antitrust complaint was resolved. A month later, Altria announced its third-generation IQOS tobacco heating system device, which is being marketed as less harmful for one’s health than traditional cigarettes, had been approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Gilliland
Amy Gilliland, president, General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Falls Church
Why she is influential: Gilliland was named president of GDIT in 2017 and a year later, the General Dynamics Corp. subsidiary doubled in size with the largest acquisition in company history: the $9.6 billion purchase of Falls Church-based IT services company CSRA Inc. Gilliland now is a high-profile leader overseeing an organization of nearly 30,000 employees, including 8,250 in Virginia, that delivers critical mission capabilities for the civilian government, defense and intelligence communities. A third-generation military veteran, she served in the U.S. Navy and worked as a public affairs officer at the Pentagon before joining General Dynamics in 2005.
Recent developments: In government contracting circles, one of the biggest stories of 2020 was the fact that GDIT retained the $4.4 billion, 10-year Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract, which had previously been awarded to CSRA. Under the contract, GDIT will support the largest deployment of Microsoft Office 365, and the first in a classified environment. GDIT also secured a $695 million IT contract for the U.S. Army’s Europe headquarters, in addition to being selected as a prime contractor on a $3.3 billion global support contract for the State Department.
Robert Gray, chief, Pamunkey Indian Tribe, King William
Gray
Why he is influential: Chief of the Pamunkey Tribe since 2015, Gray has partnered with Tennessee billionaire investor Jon Yarbrough on two casino projects: one in Norfolk that is moving ahead after a local referendum passed last November, and a proposed resort in Richmond.
Recent developments: The city of Richmond began accepting proposals for casino projects in late 2020, with an operator and site expected to be selected this summer. Local voters will weigh in with a November ballot referendum. The tribe has purchased land in the Manchester neighborhood on Richmond’s South Side. Meanwhile, work starts soon on the tribe’s $500 million casino in Norfolk, with about 1,500 jobs and $185 million in annual revenue expected. Gray says the project will lead to increased prosperity for members of his tribe and the community where it will be operating the casino.
Harmon
Jonathan P. Harmon, chairman, McGuireWoods LLP, Richmond
Why he is influential: A Gulf War veteran who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Harmon has led Virginia’s largest law firm since 2017. McGuireWoods has 24 offices across the U.S., Europe and Asia, employs close to 900 attorneys and made $853.5 million in total revenue in 2020. A respected trial attorney, Harmon represents several Fortune 500 companies and previously led the firm’s business and securities litigation department.
Recent developments: Last summer, Harmon participated in a one-on-one discussion with Ibram X. Kendi, best-selling author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” for a webcast, and the firm received Bank of America’s Law Firm Diversity & Inclusion Award. Amid widespread racial equity protests, Harmon penned a June 2020 column in The Wall Street Journal about grappling with racism and discrimination. In a December 2020 interview with Virginia Business, Harmon acknowledged how hard last year was for many people: “If there had been just one of the events — pandemic, social unrest, political divisiveness — any one of those things would have been enough. You find out a lot about who you are as a leader when you go through challenging times.”
Victor Hoskins, president and CEO, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, Fairfax
Hoskins
Why he is influential: Since landing Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters deal for Arlington County in 2018, Hoskins has been laser-focused on bringing economic prosperity not only to Fairfax County, where he moved in August 2019, but to the entire Northern Virginia region. In 2019, he started working with 10 Northern Virginia jurisdictions to establish the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, which will help the region compete for large projects and promote economic development cooperation.
Recent developments: In 2019, Hoskins took his magic touch to Fairfax County, which, since his arrival, has snagged major deals from Microsoft Corp., Google LLC, Facebook Inc., Amazon Web Services and Volkswagen Group of America. A $64 million Microsoft investment will establish a new software development and R&D regional hub at Fairfax County’s Reston Town Center, creating 1,500 jobs, and Volkswagen Group of America Inc. signed a 20-year lease agreement in Reston Town Center, where it will be the anchor tenant in Boston Properties’ under-construction 1.1 million square-foot development. [See interview, Page 24.]
Jones
Dr. J. Stephen Jones, president and CEO, Inova Health System, Falls Church
Why he is influential: Jones oversees the operation of five not-for-profit hospitals and several other health care assets, all located in Northern Virginia. Inova, which has 18,000 employees and serves 2 million patients annually, is the highest-rated large health system in the nation, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Jones isn’t just an administrator. A professor of urology at the University of Virginia, he consistently ranks among the top 1% of the nation’s cancer physicians and urologists.
Recent developments: In December 2020, Inova announced plans to build a $1 billion medical campus on the 52-acre site of the vacant Landmark Mall in Alexandria, eventually replacing Inova’s existing hospital there. The new hospital will be one of only three Level II trauma centers in Northern Virginia. The 4-million-square-foot site will include a medical office building and residential, retail, commercial and entertainment developments.
Nazzic S. Keene, CEO, Science Applications International Corp., Reston
Keene
Why she is influential: Keene leads SAIC, a major government contractor with 2020 revenues of about $7.1 billion and 25,500 employees worldwide. She joined SAIC in 2012 and rose through a series of leadership roles before becoming CEO in mid-2019. Barely six months into leading SAIC, she oversaw the company’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Unisys Corp.’s federal business unit. Keene sits on the Inova Health System Board of Trustees and is a member of ADP’s board of directors. She’s also a familiar face in local philanthropy, previously serving on boards of nonprofits such as Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Capital Partners for Education, Year Up National Capital Region and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
Recent developments: Keene was one of a handful of CEOs of federal contracting firms who publicly called for unity following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In February, SAIC won an $830 million contract to provide engineering services for the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aviation & Missile Center.
Kern
Howard P. Kern, president and CEO, Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk
Why he is influential: Leading Sentara since 2016, Kern oversees one of Virginia’s largest health systems, with 12 hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina and about 30,000 employees. Sentara also became majority owner of the Virginia Premier health plan after striking a deal with VCU Health System in spring 2020.
Recent developments: In August 2020, Sentara announced its intention to merge with Greensboro, North Carolina-based Cone Health, which will produce a health system with $11.5 billion in combined revenues. Kern will oversee the larger company, which will remain headquartered in Norfolk. And in January, Kern announced Sentara’s $10 million investment and partnership with Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and Eastern Virginia Medical School to start a School of Public Health and support other public health initiatives in the Hampton Roads and Peninsula areas.
Justin G. Knight, president and CEO, Apple Hospitality REIT Inc., Richmond
Knight
Why he is influential: As CEO of Apple Hospitality REIT, Knight oversees 235 hotels, mainly Marriotts and Hiltons, in 34 states. He is vice chair of the board of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and additionally serves on the boards of Richmond’s Valentine Museum and Venture Richmond, which supports the state capital’s downtown businesses.
Recent developments: In December 2020, Apple Hospitality received a 2019 Hilton Legacy Award for being a top performer for the Hilton Garden Inn brand. That honor, however, preceded the arrival of the pandemic, which brought Apple Hospitality a 55% revenue drop in 2020. In response to the crisis, Knight consolidated operations, postponed nonessential projects, reduced operational costs and renegotiated service contracts. With the vaccine rollout beginning, however, Apple’s business-traveler-oriented hotels have begun to rebound, and stock advisers at The Motley Fool picked the REIT as one of their top 10 investments for 2021.
Krone
Roger A. Krone, chairman and CEO, Leidos Holdings Inc., Reston
Why he is influential: Since 2014, Krone has served as the top executive at Leidos, a Fortune 500 government contractor that reported $11.1 billion in 2019 revenue and employs 37,000 people. The pilot and aerospace engineer also has 22 years under his belt with The Boeing Co. and 14 years with General Dynamics Corp. His time with Leidos has seen both major acquisitions and contract awards, including the 2016 purchase of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business for $4.6 billion.
Recent developments: In February, Krone became the first eight-time winner of Executive Mosaic’s prestigious Wash100 Award, which recognizes the most influential leaders in government contracting. Just a month before, Leidos completed its $215 million, all-cash acquisition of Reston-based information technology services company 1901 Group. That’s not to mention roughly $4 billion in major federal contracts Leidos landed in late 2020 and early 2021.
John R. Lawson II, executive chairman, W.M. Jordan Co., Newport News
Lawson
Why he is influential: For 32 years, Lawson served as president and CEO of the construction company his late father co-founded, rising to executive chairman in 2018. During his tenure, the company has grown its annual revenue from $25 million to more than $500 million, but his power is even more evident in the greater Hampton Roads community. The 2018 Virginia Business Person of the Year leads a company that works on projects including the Ferguson campus at Newport News City Center, Liebherr USA’s expansion in Newport News and the Measurement Systems Lab at NASA Langley Research Center. In November 2020, he joined the National Academy of Construction.
Recent developments: W.M. Jordan is constructing a 14-story mental health care facility in Norfolk, set to open in 2022, for the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. The company in late 2020 started construction on the new Embassy Suites Hotel, the final piece of the Cavalier Oceanfront Resort in Virginia Beach. The company also provided construction management services for the $125 million, 305-room Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront, which opened last June and is also part of the Cavalier renovations.
Mastracco
Vincent J. Mastracco Jr., partner, co-chair, Real Estate Strategies Group, Kaufman & Canoles PC, Norfolk
Why he is influential: Considered one of the top securities and corporate finance attorneys in the Tidewater region, Mastracco has been practicing law for more than 55 years as a member of the equally venerable firm of Kaufman & Canoles. He also has been involved in many significant commercial developments in downtown Norfolk. As the former chair for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s board of directors, he was on a team that helped bring Amazon’s HQ2 to Northern Virginia. Mastracco is a trustee of both the Sentara Foundation, which responds to the health care needs of the Hampton Roads area, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, and law degrees from the University of Richmond and New York University.
Recent developments: Mastracco continues his community service as a board member of the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable, the Community Leadership Partners and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
Terri McClements, senior partner and partner candidate development leader, COVID-19 executive project management officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, McLean
McClements
Why she is influential: McClements has spent more than three decades serving in various leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), from overseeing high-performing markets to developing its human capital and talent program. In 2017, McClements was named to lead the Big Four accounting firm’s mid-Atlantic practice, which encompasses more than 4,000 employees in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
Recent developments: Last September, McClements left her role as market managing partner to lead two initiatives. As head of PwC’s Partner Candidate Development program, she’s responsible for developing the firm’s future leaders in a three-year pipeline program. McClements was also assigned to lead PwC’s COVID-19 response, which included the development of products and technology to assist the company’s clients with contact tracing, risk management and other aspects of guiding a business through the pandemic.
McDuffie
Mary McDuffie,president and CEO, Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna
Why she is influential: McDuffie leads the world’s largest credit union, with more than 9 million members, $135.7 billion in assets, 22,100 employees and 344 branches. She has been with the credit union for more than two decades and became president and CEO in January 2019. During her time with the organization, she oversaw the launch of the credit union’s first mobile app — just one example of the credit union’s “digital first” mindset. In 2020, Navy Federal was ranked as one of the best places to work in IT.
Recent developments: In July 2020, Big Four accounting firm KPMG ranked Navy Federal No. 4 on its annual list of top 10 U.S. brands for customer experience excellence — a fitting accolade as McDuffie has made improving customer service one of her top priorities. Expansion has also been a priority for Duffie, who’s overseen the openings of 20 additional branches in the last couple years.
Jim McGlothlin, chairman and CEO, The United Co., Bristol
McGlothlin
Why he is influential: A Southwest Virginia native, McGlothlin was known for 40 years as a coal mining magnate, but today he’s forged a second act as a co-developer of Bristol’s forthcoming $400 million casino resort, in partnership with Hard Rock International and fellow former coal executive and developer Clyde Stacy. McGlothlin and his wife, Frances Gibson McGlothlin, have also been major donors to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and to McGlothlin’s alma mater, William & Mary.
Recent developments: Voters in Bristol overwhelmingly approved a November 2020 referendum allowing the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to move forward, along with three other resorts across Virginia. The casino is expected to produce 2,000 jobs and generate $130 million in annual revenue. McGlothlin and Stacy, who began pursuing the idea of a casino in 2018, are credited with bringing about a change in the state’s commercial gambling laws in 2020 that opened Virginia’s doors to casinos.
Milliken
John G. Milliken, chairman, Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners, Arlington
Why he is influential: Milliken has chaired the Virginia Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners under five Virginia governors. He previously led the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, served as Virginia secretary of transportation and was an Arlington County supervisor from 1981 to 1990. Since he rejoined the port authority in 2014, it has leveraged nearly $1.5 billion to modernize and expand the port through infrastructure projects that will extend through 2024, including dredging to make it the deepest port on the East Coast, able to handle the largest cargo ships.
Recent developments:Milliken shepherded the VPA through a pivotal transition year in 2020, overseeing the process of choosing Stephen A. Edwards as the successor to VPA President and CEO John F. Reinhart, who retired in January after seven years. A longtime maritime executive, Edwards is the former president and CEO of TraPac LLC, which operates port terminals in California and Florida.
Stephen Moret, president and CEO, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Richmond
Moret
Why he is influential: Moret played a key role in landing Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in 2018, described as the largest single economic development deal in U.S. history. Named by Virginia Business magazine as its 2019 Virginia Business Person of the Year, Moret is a tireless promoter of Virginia as a great location for business, helping to reclaim Virginia’s status as CNBC’s top state for business in 2019.
Recent developments: Essentially the state’s point person on economic recovery, Moret and his VEDP staff have been working with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce to update Blueprint Virginia 2030, a comprehensive long-range plan for Virginia businesses that’s expected to be presented in 2022. Business Facilities ranked Virginia third for workforce development last August, citing VEDP’s two-year-old Virginia Talent Accelerator Program for workforce training.
Nassetta
Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.,Tysons
Why he is influential: Nassetta, a 37-year industry veteran who also chairs the World Travel & Tourism Council, has been a prominent voice in business media during the last year, discussing the hotel industry’s prospects for economic recovery from the devastating losses it suffered during the pandemic. He’s also talked about how the industry may change as a result, evolving to host more high-quality “hybrid” conferences that will have in-person attendees while also broadcasting virtually to larger remote audiences. Nassetta is in charge of a portfolio of more than 17 hotel brands, encompassing 6,100 properties in 119 countries and territories. The company had 173,000 employees prior to the pandemic.
Recent developments: Last June, as the pandemic settled in, Hilton laid off 2,100 of its 9,600 corporate employees. For third quarter 2020, it posted a 61% loss in revenue compared with the previous year. Nassetta doesn’t expect his company to recover to 2019 levels for two or three years, but, he adds, “We’re not crying in our milk. We’ve got a business to run. This too shall pass.”
Phebe Novakovic, chairman and CEO, General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church
Novakovic
Why she is influential: Last year, Forbes ranked Novakovic the 27th most powerful woman in the world in recognition of her position as head of the Fairfax County-based aerospace and defense company, a behemoth with more than 100,000 employees and annual revenues nearing $38 billion. Novakovic is a member of the executive chairman’s circle of Ford’s Theatre and chairs the board of the Association of the U.S. Army.
Recent developments: In December 2020, Virginia Business chose Novakovic as its 2020 Business Person of the Year. That same month, she was tapped to serve on the board of JPMorgan Chase & Co. General Dynamics landed several major contracts in late 2020, including being named as one of three prime contractors for the State Department’s Global Support Strategy contract vehicle, which has an estimated value of as much as $3.3 billion over the next decade, as well as a $695 million contract to provide IT services to the U.S. Army.
Pesicka
Edward A. Pesicka, president and CEO, Owens & Minor Inc., Richmond
Why he is influential: Owens & Minor was already a longtime Fortune 500 company when the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying demand for personal protective equipment elevated it to more national prominence. Pesicka, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2019, rose in profile as Owens & Minor accelerated and expanded production of N95 respirators, surgical and procedure masks, face shields and isolation gowns. Pesicka joined other executives in the medical and pharmaceutical industries in a task force with President Donald Trump and federal officials about how to speed the PPE supply chain. Standing next to Trump, Pesicka addressed the press during a March 2020 Rose Garden task force briefing about the emerging pandemic.
Recent developments: Like many other companies, Owens & Minor moved to telework during the pandemic, ultimately deciding in November to pull stakes on its call center at Richmond’s Riverfront Plaza and sublet the space instead. Owens & Minor continues to pursue public-private relationships: In January, the day after the new president’s inauguration, the company sent a news release in which Pesicka thanked President Joe Biden for expanding and encouraging the use of face masks.
Mike Petters, president and CEO, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News
Petters
Why he is influential: Petters leads America’s largest military ship-building company. HII employs more than 42,000 people, and reported $9.4 billion in 2020 revenue. Petters previously was president of what was formerly Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and has worked in the Newport News shipbuilding industry since 1987. He is a member of many boards, including the Aerospace Industries Association, the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, the National Association of Manufacturers and others.
Recent developments: Huntington Ingalls carried on despite the pandemic, keeping pace with its 2019 performance. For 2020, it had built a backlog of $46 billion in contracts to fulfill, a decrease of less than $1 billion from the year before. Additionally, in January, HII completed the first phase of construction on its $47 million Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence campus, a manufacturing and research facility to develop underwater drones.
Rozanski
Horacio D. Rozanski, CEO, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean
Why he is influential: Rozanski, who started out as an intern in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Buenos Aires office in 1991, has played an important part in Booz Allen’s growth into a global technology and consulting powerhouse. He guided Booz Allen through the separation of its government and commercial sides into two companies, its initial public offering in 2010, and a strategic transformation that redirected Booz Allen’s portfolio toward mission-critical, high-margin solutions. Booz Allen has cultivated a diverse workforce, adding members of underrepresented groups to its board and leadership teams at more than twice the rate of its competitors. A dedicated philanthropist, Rozanski chairs the board of directors for Children’s National Medical Center and is a board member for CARE USA. He also serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience and the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board.
Recent developments: In April 2020, Rozanski was awarded the prestigious Horatio Alger Award, recognizing Americans who have succeeded despite adversity.
Buddy Rizer,executive director, economic development, Loudoun County
Rizer
Why he is influential: Loudoun’s economic development leader is also the self-styled “Godfather of Data Center Alley,” reflecting the fact that the county has the world’s largest concentration of data centers. More than 70% of all internet traffic passes through the county’s Ashburn area and companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. are continually building more there. Rizer sits on the boards of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Northern Virginia Community College Foundation.
Recent developments: The increased demand for cloud services and streaming video from remote workers during the pandemic caused some data center development projects to get fast-tracked in 2020, Rizer has said. The coronavirus crisis also had Rizer focused on aiding the county’s small businesses. Loudoun doled out millions in relief funds via its COVID-19 Business Interruption Fund and allocated $250,000 in federal CARES Act money to help local restaurants offset costs for switching to outdoor dining service.
Salvino
Mike Salvino,president and CEO, DXC Technology, Tysons
Why he is influential: Founded in April 2017 as a result of the merger of Computer Science Corp. and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., DXC employs 138,000 people worldwide and reported 2020 revenues of more than $19 billion. A former CEO of Accenture Operations who has written regularly about leadership for Chief Executive magazine, Salvino joined DXC in May 2019. During his seven-year tenure at Accenture, he went from a bad first year to growing revenues by 20% and he says he’s taking DXC on a similar “transformation journey.”
Recent developments: DXC divested its state and local health business to private equity firm Veritas Capital in March 2020 for $5 billion in cash. In January, DXC received an unsolicited $10 billion bid for all DXC shares from Paris-based IT company Atos SE, but Salvino and DXC’s board declined, saying the offer was too low and they think DXC has far more potential.
Michael J. Saylor,chairman, president and CEO, MicroStrategy Inc., Tysons
Saylor
Why he is influential: With more than 460,000 Twitter followers, software CEO Saylor is one of the top proponents of bitcoin as a safe-haven investment, and he’s preached that gospel in interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg Television. An inventor, author and philanthropist, Saylor has said, “The destiny of money is to be encrypted.”
Recent developments: Saylor puts his money where his tweets are: His software company spent $675 million purchasing more than 70,000 bitcoins last year, making it one of the first public companies to convert cash holdings into cryptocurrency. By mid-February, the company’s bitcoins had increased in value to roughly $3.6 billion. And the company announced plans in February to purchase $900 million more in bitcoin to add to its treasury reserve.
Smith
Steven C. Smith, CEO, Food City, Abingdon
Why he is influential: Smith’s father started out with a single Piggly Wiggly store in Grundy in 1955. In 2001, his son took over the family business, which became known as Food City, and expanded its portfolio to include more than 120 stores and 17,000 employees. Food City has posted $2.6 billion in annual revenues and operates in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia under the names Food City and Super Dollar Supermarkets. Smith plans to open the company’s first store in Alabama in April 2021. Food City is known in Southwest Virginia for its annual sponsorship of two NASCAR races at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Food City 500 and the Food City 300.
Recent developments: Food City was named employer of the year for 2020 by the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Career Development and Transition for its commitment to providing opportunities to students with disabilities. Its pharmacies are partnering with the government to offer free COVID-19 vaccinations as they become available.
Clyde Stacy, CEO, Par Ventures LLC, Bristol
Stacy
Why he is influential: A former coal mining executive who headed Rapoca Energy Co., Stacy is a prominent developer and investor in Bristol, his hometown. He purchased the vacant Bristol Mall for $2.6 million in 2018, and it’s there where he and longtime friend Jim McGlothlin, CEO of The United Co., will be building the $400 million Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which was approved by Bristol voters in November 2020.
Recent developments: Along with the casino (one of four approved last year in local referendums across Virginia), Stacy also is an investor in Dharma Pharmaceuticals, a CBD processing facility currently housed at Bristol Mall. In October 2020, the company was the first in Virginia to dispense medical marijuana after the General Assembly loosened cannabis laws. Dharma plans to relocate to Washington County this year to make way for the casino.
Thompson
Warren Thompson, president and chairman, Thompson Hospitality Corp., Reston
Why he is influential: Thompson is the founder of the nation’s largest minority- owned food and facilities management company, which he started in 1992 after working for Marriott Corp. and buying 31 Bob’s Big Boy restaurants from the company. A University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumnus, Thompson has served on U.Va.’s board of visitors and other influential boards. In December 2020, he was named to Richmond-based Performance Food Group Co.’s board of directors.
Recent developments: Last year was difficult for the food service and hospitality industries, Thompson Hospitality included, which was forced to lay off about 75% of its workforce last spring. Staffing levels are back up, but are still at about half of 2019’s peak employment, Thompson said in January. But 2020 did have a few bright spots, including the company’s November acquisition of Reston-based Matchbox Food Group for $11.6 million. Thompson also served on Gov. Ralph Northam’s COVID-19 Business Task Force, advising the governor on strategies for assisting businesses harmed by the pandemic.
Tamika L. Tremaglio, greater Washington managing principal, Deloitte, McLean
Tremaglio
Why she is influential: Since 2017, Tremaglio has managed 12,000 employees in the greater Washington area for Deloitte. An active public speaker and fashion trendsetter who is highly visible in the D.C. region, she joined the Big Four accounting firm in 2010. She serves on the boards of Tuskegee University, United Way of the National Capital Area and is a past board member for The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Washingtonian magazine has named her one of the region’s most powerful women.
Recent developments: In 2019, Tremaglio was named to the advisory board of the WNBA’s players union, alongside former Georgia U.S. Rep. Stacey Abrams and Vanderbilt University men’s basketball head coach Jerry Stackhouse. Among other initiatives, board members advised the union during negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement in January 2020 that tripled players’ salaries. The WNBA and its union have become more powerful since, with its support of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign against Atlanta team owner Kelly Loeffler, the former Republican senator of Georgia, cited as a turning point in the Democrat’s runoff win in January 2021.
VandeHei
Jim VandeHei, co-founder and CEO, Axios Media Inc., Arlington
Why he is influential: VandeHei began his career as a journalist writing for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. In 2006, he co-founded Politico, disrupting media coverage of national politics. VandeHei reprised the act in 2016 by co-launching Axios. It began with a focus on short, punchy news items delivered via email newsletters — currently read by 1.4 million subscribers — but has since expanded to podcasts and an HBO cable television series.
Recent developments: In 2020, Axios earned more than $60 million in revenue. HBO expanded its Axios series from short blocks of episodes to year-round production of biweekly shows. Axios expanded into local news with branches in Charlotte, Denver, Des Moines, Tampa Bay and Minnesota’s Twin Cities. In early 2021, it launched AxiosHQ, a communications platform designed for businesses to adapt the Axios house style for internal communications.
Kathy Warden, chairman, CEO and president, Northrop Grumman Corp., Falls Church
Warden
Why she is influential: Having previously held leadership roles at General Dynamics Corp. and Veridian Corp., Warden joined Northrop Grumman in 2008; she has served as CEO and president since January 2019. A past chair of the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, she serves on the board of visitors at her alma mater, James Madison University. She also chairs the Aerospace Industries Association board and serves on the boards of Merck & Co. and the global nonprofit Catalyst Inc., which works to advance women in corporate leadership and advocates for equity and inclusion.
Recent developments: Despite the challenges of 2020, Northrop closed its fourth quarter with a 17% revenue gain over the previous year. During 2020, the company increased sales by 9% to $36.8 billion and had net awards of $52.9 billion, outpacing analysts’ projections. In December 2020, the company sold its federal IT and mission support services business to Herndon-based Peraton for $3.4 billion in cash. Since November 2020, the company has won two major Air Force contracts potentially worth a combined $8.4 billion over the next decade.
Williams
Ardine Williams, vice president of HQ2 workforce development, Amazon.com Inc., Arlington
Why she is influential:After Williams’ first career in tech came to an end in 2014, Amazon lured her out of retirement from Intel Corp. to lead its effort to hire 23,000 workers for cloud computing subsidiary Amazon Web Services. Building on that success, Amazon placed her in charge of workforce development for its $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington, where it’s committed to hiring 25,000 workers by 2030. Williams has become one of Amazon’s most familiar faces in Virginia, traveling around the state to speak with businesses and hopeful job seekers.
Recent developments: While other companies have used the pandemic to enact a permanent move to telework, Amazon expressed a commitment to retaining physical offices for its corporate workers. In a year when Amazon grew its global workforce to 1.3 million, creating more than 400,000 jobs in the U.S. alone last year, Williams is helping the company scale its upskilling programs, including Amazon’s latest commitment to provide free training in cloud computing skills to 29 million workers globally.
Pharrell Williams, Grammy-winning recording artist and performer, developer and founder of the Something in the Water festival, Virginia Beach
Williams
Why he is influential: After rising to international prominence for his music hits (“Happy,” “Blurred Lines,” “Get Lucky”) Williams, a Virginia Beach native, has become increasingly known for his business ventures in the commonwealth. In 2019, he launched Something in the Water, a three-day music festival in Virginia Beach. Williams is also involved in developing the $325 million Atlantic Park surf park and entertainment venue at the Oceanfront.
Recent developments: Though the 2020 Something in the Water festival was canceled because of the pandemic, Williams has stayed busy. His surf park is expected to break ground in 2021, he’s working on a proposal to redevelop Norfolk’s Military Circle area and he spoke at Gov. Ralph Northam’s news conference last year announcing that Juneteenth would become a state holiday. In December, William launched Black Ambition, a nonprofit initiative to provide support for minority entrepreneurs launching startups.
Conventional wisdom used to hold that all politics is local, but that’s not really the case anymore. The extreme polarization on display during the recent presidential and U.S. Senate and House races has infected state and local politics, and Virginia’s November 2021 gubernatorial election promises no respite from that.
“The broad point is that the national environment matters,” says Kyle D. Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political newsletter and website from the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Jennifer Nicoll Victor, an associate professor of political science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, agrees with Kondik about the outsized influence national politics is having on state and local races. The present climate, she says, is making it “harder for candidates to distinguish themselves” from national politicians in the same political parties. She thinks, however, that the governor’s race being held in an off year possibly could lessen the spillover.
For Rich Meagher, an associate professor of political science at Randolph-Macon College, “the big story for both parties in the governor’s race is the middle versus the edges.” Just as in the recent national races, he says, Democrats will have to decide how progressive they want to be, and Republicans how moderate.
Will the Democrats go with an establishment figure such as former Gov. Terry McAuliffe? Or will voters feel it is time for new faces and more diversity, as represented by candidates such as the “two Jennifers” — state Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan and former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy?
And on the GOP side, will voters opt for a traditional candidate, such as Del. Kirk Cox, a former speaker of the House whom Meagher describes as “a reasonable person who can get things done,” or will they prefer the red-meat populist Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase?
Victor thinks that the contentious, divisive nature of the 2020 presidential election might make Chase a more credible candidate than in years past, but Kondik disagrees with that assessment. Chase’s aggressive, racially charged style of politics is not viable in Virginia anymore, he says. For even moderate Republicans to win the governorship in a now-blue state, he believes that they not only would have to retain their dominance in rural areas but make inroads into the suburbs, and that, he says, “is a heavy lift.”
Stephen J. Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, also comes down on the side of moderation in how he sees the gubernatorial race shaping up on both sides. For Democrats, he expects it to be McAuliffe “versus everyone else.” For Republicans, Farnsworth advises the party to look north for guidance. Traditionally, the GOP has not prevailed when they have nominated more extreme candidates, he says. Better, Farnsworth suggests, to look to the example of incumbent Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican who won the governorship of one the nation’s bluest states.
As to the issues that might dominate the race, Farnsworth expects that, just as in the recent national elections, COVID-19’s ongoing effects will make the economic recovery the biggest focus. Concerns about police conduct and law and order also will be in the spotlight, just as they were in the presidential race.
Of course, as Farnsworth points out, the parties won’t be choosing their nominees until this summer, with the Democrats holding a June primary and the GOP choosing by a convention. “The candidates,” he says, “will have plenty of time to make a case.”
Here’s the latest on where the 2021 gubernatorial race stands:
DEMOCRATS
Del. Lee Carter
Del. Lee J. Carter
A Marine veteran and two-term state delegate who represents most of Manassas and part of Prince William County, Carter is the only self-described Democratic Socialist seeking Virginia’s Democratic nomination for governor. “It’s no secret that Virginia is divided, but it’s not red vs. blue. It’s the haves and the have-nots. One side has the lawyers and the lobbyists, but Virginia needs a governor that’ll fight for the rest of us,” Carter wrote in a Jan. 1 tweet announcing his candidacy. Carter was the state co-chair for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and co-sponsored a successful bill that caps monthly insulin medical copayments at $50.
Justin Fairfax
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax
Normally, a lieutenant governor would be sitting in the catbird seat when making a bid for the governorship. But Fairfax’s situation isn’t typical — not when the first paragraphs of news stories announcing his decision to run for the commonwealth’s top job inevitably cited two allegations of sexual assault that were made against him in 2019. No charges have been brought, and Fairfax has denied any misconduct, yet the situation has cast a pall over his campaign. The former federal prosecutor’s platform calls for “justice, fairness and opportunity” for all Virginians, with an emphasis on support for Medicaid expansion and police reform. If elected, Fairfax, 41, would be Virginia’s second Black governor. (Gov. L. Douglas Wilder was first, in 1990.) As of the second quarter of 2020, Fairfax’s campaign had raised less than $20,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP).
Jennifer Carroll Foy Contributed photos
Jennifer Carroll Foy
Foy likes to tell voters about how her grandmother shaped the trajectory of her life. “If you have it, you have to give it,” her grandmother told her, and for Foy, “it” has entailed being a groundbreaker from the get-go. The former state delegate who represented Prince William and Stafford counties was one of the first African American women to graduate from Virginia Military Institute, which is now the subject of a state probe into an alleged culture of racism. Foy, 39, went on to become a magistrate judge and then a public defender. Now, she wants to become the nation’s first Black female governor and she’s serious about landing her party’s nomination. In December, she resigned from the House seat she had held since 2017 in order to focus on her gubernatorial bid. As a delegate, Foy helped get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified and supported the successful effort to expand Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians. She believes in gun safety laws, better pay for teachers and protecting the environment. As of the second quarter of 2020, Foy’s campaign had raised more than $800,000.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe
Gov. Terry McAuliffe
Virginia voters scarcely need to be introduced to McAuliffe. The 63-year-old former governor has been a ubiquitous force in national and state politics for 40 years. On the campaign trail in early 2020, President-elect Joe Biden called McAuliffe “the once and future governor.” McAuliffe has built a reputation as a stalwart of his party and a strong advocate of Democratic values, but as an older, white, establishment male, some in the party think it’s time for him to step aside in favor of a new generation of politicians personified by his declared rivals for the Democratic nomination. Still, the multimillionaire’s ability to raise money is legendary, starting with his decision at age 22 to wrestle an 8-foot alligator in exchange for a $15,000 contribution to then-President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign. (McAuliffe beat the beast, but Carter lost anyway.) The Washington Post reported McAuliffe had more than $2 million in his campaign war chest when he announced his run in early December 2020.
Jennifer McClellan
Sen. Jennifer McClellan
McClellan, 48, is a familiar face in Richmond, having spent 14 years in the state legislature, first in the House of Delegates for 11 years and then since 2017 as a state senator for the 9th District, which includes Richmond, Charles City County and portions of Henrico and Hanover counties. A corporate lawyer for Verizon, she has built a reputation as a pragmatist. She was a key player in the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, a rollback of abortion restrictions and passing the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which commits the commonwealth to generating its electrical power from carbon-free sources by 2050. Criminal justice reform, health care and education rank high on her agenda. McClellan is partly an establishment figure — her mentor is U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine — but she also can lay claim to being a member of the increasingly diverse left-of-center faction of her party. If elected, she would be the first African American female governor in the country. According to VPAP, her campaign raised close to $500,000 during the first half of 2020.
REPUBLICANS Declared
Sen. Amanda F. Chase
Sen. Amanda Chase
The first candidate of either party to throw a hat in the gubernatorial ring, the highly controversial Chase, 52, spent much of 2020 as the only formally announced GOP candidate. The far-right state senator from Chesterfield County briefly flirted with running as an independent in December, after the state GOP decided to hold a gubernatorial convention instead of a primary, a move some saw as intended to prevent her from gaining the nomination. But she quickly reversed course, affirming her intention to run as a Republican. A fervent Trump supporter, she called on the president to declare martial law and stay in office after his defeat. The pugnacious senator was kicked out of the Chesterfield Republican Party and refuses to caucus with Senate Republicans. Her opponent, Del. Kirk Cox, has said Chase’s “antics have long grown more than tiresome,” and a GOP senator’s aide formed an anti-Chase political action committee, the Unfit Virginia PAC. Chase is a passionate Second Amendment defender and champion of family values and religious liberties. She opposes COVID-19 restrictions, mask-wearing and mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, tweeting: “I will fight this with everything that is in me — so help me God.” She’s also known for making inflammatory and racially charged statements, such as claiming in a November 2020 Facebook post that the Democratic Party of Virginia “hates white people.” Two of her supporters made headlines after being arrested in November for carrying firearms outside a Philadelphia polling place. As of mid-July 2020, Chase had raised more than $225,000.
Del. Kirk Cox
Del. Kirk Cox
Former Speaker of the House Cox has been a force in state politics for more than 30 years. Before the blue tsunami of the 2019 election stripped Republicans of their leadership roles in the state legislature, the representative of the 66th District had served as house speaker and majority leader. “During my leadership tenure, you can point to a Virginia that was very, very well run,” he told a conservative news site, The Virginia Star. Cox, 63, is a traditional conservative: strongly pro-business, pro-law enforcement and anti-abortion. The retired high school government teacher did tread on some GOP toes in 2018, though, when, as speaker, he oversaw the expansion of Medicaid. Still, Cox showed his staying power in 2019 by being reelected in a radically redrawn district that could have turned blue. As governor, Cox has said he would seek to spend $50 million to raise law enforcement salaries. Cox is well-liked among the party stalwarts, and his mild-mannered demeanor could appeal to mainstream voters. In December, former state Sen. Bill Carrico of Grayson County set aside his own 2021 gubernatorial ambitions to endorse Cox, telling The Roanoke Times, “I believe Kirk’s the right man, and I believe he’s the one who can put Virginia forward economically for everyone and bring forth a more safe and secure state.”
Sergio de la Peña (U.S. Army photo by Monica King/Released)
Sergio de la Peña
A Fairfax County resident who served in the Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense, de la Peña is a Mexican native who immigrated to the United States and served 30 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a colonel. He said in his announcement that he supports President Donald Trump and claims the American dream “is under assault.” In the Department of Defense, he oversaw Western Hemisphere affairs and oversaw the funding of defense cooperation for the U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command. According to his DOD bio, he was the chief of the international affairs division of the U.S. Northern Command J59, responsible for military to military guidance of training, sales and other activity with Canada and Mexico. He also served in Chile and Venezuela and was an air defense officer, and is an ROTC graduate of the University of Iowa.
Snyder
Pete Snyder
Following a year of buzz over whether he would enter the race, Charlottesville-area venture capitalist Pete Snyder formally announced on Jan. 27 that he would seek the GOP nomination for Virginia governor. A former Fox News contributor, Snyder made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 2013 and chaired Ed Gillespie’s unsuccessful 2017 gubernatorial campaign. The William & Mary graduate founded Arlington-based social media marketing firm New Media Strategies and sold it in 2007 to Meredith Corp. for $30 million. He’s now chief executive of Disruptor Capital, a venture capital firm focused on innovative technologies and entrepreneurs. In response to the pandemic, Snyder and his wife, Burson, co-founded the Virginia 30 Day Fund, a nonprofit which provides small, forgivable loans to help small businesses weather the pandemic. The endeavor is separate from political considerations, Snyder says: “This is a time for us to be helping each other.”
Glenn A. Youngkin
Glenn A. Youngkin
Youngkin, 54, resigned his longtime position as co-CEO of Washington, D.C.-based investment firm The Carlyle Group in September 2020 in order to focus on “community and public service efforts.” In early January, the political newcomer declared he was running for the Republican nomination. With an estimated net worth of about $254 million, Youngkin could decide to self-fund his campaign. In an interview with The Washington Post, Youngkin’s campaign manager, Garrison Coward, said, “The political insiders have been smothering Virginians’ best interests with their special interests. Glenn is a breath of fresh air that will bring conservative solutions to everyday problems.”
In summer 2020, Youngkin and his wife launched the nonprofit Virginia Ready Institute to retrain workers idled by COVID-19. Youngkin is a longtime Republican donor, and he attended middle school in Chesterfield County before receiving degrees from Rice University and Harvard Business School. He also is part of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus Advisory Board, among other nonprofit governing boards. Before joining Carlyle in 1995, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Co.
Undecided
Sen. Emmett Hanger
Sen. Emmett Hanger
In September, Hanger created a political action committee, Virginians for a Better Tomorrow, to push for a constitutional amendment on nonpartisan political redistricting. Voters approved the amendment in November. The 72-year-old Hanger, who represents Staunton, Augusta County and other areas of the Shenandoah Valley, has said he will announce whether he will run for governor before the General Assembly session opens on Jan. 13. He has been a member of the legislature since 1982, first as a delegate, then as a senator. “When I started, I considered myself to be one of the most conservative members, and I don’t think my views have changed,” he says. Since then, however, more members of his party have moved “considerably to the right of me,” he says. Being labeled “moderate” used to bother him, but Hanger now considers “moderate” a synonym for “reasonable.” A believer in limited government and fiscal restraint, Hanger has been known to reach across the aisle to get things done. To the dismay of many in his party, he supported the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Also considering a run
Princess Blanding, the sister of an Essex County high school biology teacher who was killed by a Richmond police officer during a mental health crisis in 2018, announced in December a third-party bid for governor. An advocate for criminal justice reform, Blanding is running as a candidate for the Liberation Party, a party created following the killing of her brother, Marcus-David Peters. She is a science teacher from Middlesex County.
Mike L. Chapman, a three-term Republican Loudoun County sheriff, is openly considering a run to push back against what he calls “a false narrative” about law enforcement. He adamantly opposes citizen oversight bodies like those greenlighted in 2020 by the General Assembly to investigate police misconduct complaints.
Neil Chatterjee was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before being demoted from the post in November 2020 by President Donald Trump. In May, Chatterjee, a Republican, created a Facebook group pitching a “hypothetical” run for governor. He told Politico he was “just playing around,” but the former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not formally ruled out a run.
Pete Doran is a free-market stalwart who chairs the pro-GOP political organization Let’s Win, Virginia! He is the former CEO of the nonprofit Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), which advocates for public policy to encourage an economically vibrant, strategically secure and politically free Europe.
Republican U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, whose term ended Jan. 3, has formed an exploratory committee to examine a run as an independent after the GOP did not renominate him for his House seat representing the Fifth District, Virginia’s largest geographic congressional district. The one-term congressman was censured by his party for not supporting its positions on spending and immigration, as well as officiating a same-sex wedding and not backing Trump’s voter fraud claims. He’s been a vocal critic of Trump and congressional Republicans.
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