NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE 2021 VIRGINIA CFO AWARDS!
Each year, Virginia Business presents awards to chief financial executives in four categories:
Nominations must be submitted by midnight on May 7, 2021.
Amid recent criticism from local officials and Virginia residents over the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout so far, Gov. Ralph Northam acknowledged citizen frustration and said the state is accelerating its efforts “to get more shots in more arms more quickly” and will also be “significantly expanding transparency.”
“I understand your frustration,” Northam said during a news conference Wednesday. “I know you’re out of patience and I am as well. Everyone across the country is tired of the pandemic. We all want to put COVID behind us and get back to normal. We know that vaccines are the way out and everyone wants to get the shot now, and I get that.”
In the past week, state legislators and local elected officials have blasted Northam for the bumpy vaccine rollout, with Chesterfield County supervisors calling the process “totally defective,” and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission saying the vaccination campaign has been “inconsistent” and “causing confusion and frustration” for citizens.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data examined by Becker’s Hospital Review, as of Tuesday, Virginia was ranked second from last in the country based on the percentage of distributed doses that have been administered in the state, 45.15%. VDH’s most recent data, which is about a day ahead of the CDC’s, shows an improvement at 49.2%. At the beginning of January, Virginia’s distributed dosage rate hovered below 25%.
Speaking Wednesday, Northam said that Virginia has administered 594,828 shots so far, placing Virginia at No. 11 out of the 50 states for the total number of doses administered. The state has also met its initial goal of providing 25,000 vaccinations per day and is averaging around 26,000 per day.
Northam reminded Virginians that the first COVID-19 vaccination in the nation occurred just six weeks ago, on Dec. 14, 2020. Virginia has prioritized the vaccine administration, with the first doses earmarked for the roughly 500,000 health care workers and residents in long-term care facilities across the commonwealth. More than 520,000 doses of the two-injection vaccines have been delivered to that population at this point, Northam said Wednesday.
On Jan. 14, Northam expanded the eligibility pool for vaccinations to include all residents 65 and older, as well as younger people with certain health conditions, causing statewide demand to grow significantly, far outpacing the approximately 105,000 weekly doses the state has been receives from the federal government. Many localities have waiting lists for vaccines, and residents around the state have overwhelmed health districts, pharmacies and hospitals with calls, trying to make appointments.
During his Wednesday news conference, Northam said that expansion was driven by outgoing Trump administration officials who told governors that the federal government would reduce vaccine shipments to states that didn’t expand eligibility to those 65 and under. The only problem, Northam says, is that two days after being told to make that change, the states then learned that the federal government did not possess a vaccine reserve that the Trump administration had said existed. “That,” Northam said, “made a confusing situation even more confusing.”
The Biden administration has pledged to boost the weekly vaccine supply to states by 16% starting next week and is providing states with vaccine supply data for a month in advance instead of week to week, as was the case previously, the governor said.
Northam also said that all hospitals in the commonwealth should have administered first doses of the two-step vaccine to health care workers by now.
“There’s no excuse for first doses to be sitting there unused. Get them out and get them in arms now,” Northam said, adding that his administration was also working with hospitals and local health districts to ensure they are not holding on to excess vaccine supplies for second doses, which aren’t needed until about three weeks later. The state intends to reallocate those doses to localities in need of first doses. This should result in a 20% increase in vaccinations in Virginia this week, he said.
Virginia hospitals have administered a little under 318,000 vaccine doses to hospital staff, health care workers, essential workers and other eligible Virginians since mid-December 2020, said Dr. Michael P. McDermott, president and CEO of Mary Washington Healthcare in Fredericksburg and the immediate past chairman of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
In an effort to increase transparency about the state’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Northam said that his administration has advised local health districts that 50% of the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses should be allocated to adults ages 65 and older and 50% should be allocated for a group including frontline essential workers, people ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities, and people in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps.
State Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, has often spoken critically about the slow vaccine rollout on the Senate floor. In a Jan. 20 letter to Northam, DeSteph complained that Virginia Beach had not yet entered vaccination phase 1b, which allows vaccinations of people age 65 and older, younger people with health conditions and essential workers including school employees, first responders and grocery workers, among other workers.
“Why is the largest city in Virginia still in 1a?” DeSteph asked in his letter. “We have everything we need to administer the vaccine. The numbers on the VDH’s website suggest that there are currently over a half-million doses distributed throughout the state and ready to be used.” As of Monday, the entire state had entered phase 1b.
Although a state advisory team started work last September on planning the vaccination campaign — getting more than 2,000 pharmacies, health districts, hospitals and other facilities ready to give vaccinations, as well as planning future vaccination events with assistance from the Virginia National Guard — the governor did not name a vaccine coordinator for the state until earlier this month.
Over the past two weeks, Dr. Danny Avula, director of Richmond and Henrico County’s health departments, has led the effort to speed up vaccinations and also track down information on vaccinations that hasn’t been entered into the state vaccination database — a significant issue involving paperwork delays, redistribution of some doses based on need, and a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to vaccinate long-term care residents and employees that skips over the state system, leaving some vaccinations unaccounted for on the VDH site. Also, residents of nursing homes and care facilities with outbreaks of the virus have to wait to be vaccinated.
Last week, Avula assigned a 10-person team to track down that data and make sure it’s reflected on the state vaccine dashboard, which is updated daily.
Avula has said the ultimate aim is to vaccinate an average of 50,000 people a day in Virginia and achieve 70% to 80% immunity, but that the pharmaceutical companies will not be able to produce enough vaccine until at least March to achieve that goal. The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it was “on the cusp” of securing 200 million more doses of the Moderna and Pfizer Inc. vaccines currently available in the United States, bringing the available supply to 600 million doses by this summer — but this would not help the current pinch felt in Virginia and other states. District health directors are warning that it will take the state at least until March or April to vaccinate everyone in group 1b, which makes up about half of the state’s 8.5 million population.
Avula said that aside from his direction from Northam to speed up vaccination efforts now and make sure vaccine information is up to date and accurate, his other task is to make sure the infrastructure is in place to deliver shots to 50,000 Virginians per day later this spring and early summer.
Toward that effort, the House of Delegates unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that expands the number of people qualified as eligible COVID-19 vaccine administrators during a state of emergency, including trained health care volunteers, nurse practitioners, practical nurses, medical students and pharmacy technicians. The measure also protects vaccinators from being liable for injury or death resulting from a vaccination, except in the case of gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Also, the city of Richmond announced Wednesday that Mayor Levar Stoney tested positive for COVID-19, but that he has experienced only mild symptoms since Monday. “While I do not feel 100%, I am thankful that my symptoms are currently manageable and will continue to work from my home to ensure the continuity of city government,” he said in a statement.
Virginia’s patient satisfaction rate held steady in a recently released nationwide survey, but just three hospitals in the commonwealth received the highest marks. Overall, Virginia patient satisfaction trails the national average by just 2%.
The patient satisfaction scores come from the annual Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The Virginia results of the latest survey are shown on Pages 42-43. It’s important to note that the survey was conducted in 2019, assessing patient satisfaction prior to the coronavirus pandemic. The results are provided by Virginia Health Information, a Richmond-based nonprofit organization offering an array of data on hospitals, nursing facilities, physicians and health insurers in the commonwealth.
In addition to the patient satisfaction survey, VHI annually provides Virginia Business with service line reports showing patient discharge volume by region for a wide variety of hospital procedures.
The national satisfaction survey asks patients two questions:
How do they rate their hospitals overall?
And would they recommend the hospital to friends and family?
The highest ratings in answer to the first question are 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. The highest recommendation in response to the second question is: “Yes, definitely.”
In answering both questions in 2019, 80% or more of respondents gave top ratings to three of 82 Virginia acute-care hospitals: Carilion Giles Community Hospital in Pearisburg, Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church and Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. Carilion Giles Community Hospital and Virginia Hospital Center also received top marks in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 surveys.
Additionally, another five hospitals scored 80% or better on one of the two questions in the 2019 survey: Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital in Onancock, Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Smyth Community Hospital in Marion and University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.
The Virginia average percentages for top ratings in the latest survey were 71% for the first question (unchanged from the 2018 survey) and 70% for the second question (also unchanged from the previous year). The national averages for the 2019 survey were 73% for the first question and 72% percent for the second.
In the 2019 survey, data was unavailable from four hospitals, and an insufficient number of patients took the survey at four other facilities.
The service line reports on Pages 44-50 show consumers which hospitals are the market leaders in their regions in terms of patient discharges for a variety of procedures. VHI suggests that patients seek additional information about their options and needs from health care providers. Not all hospitals provide the same types of care.
VHI also publishes regional and statewide costs for dozens of services to help consumers compare expected costs. These and other details about Virginia hospitals.
DHL Supply Chain, a contract logistics company with its North American headquarters in Ohio, is investing $72 million to establish a mid-Atlantic distribution center in Stafford County’s Venture Business Park, creating 577 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.
The company will build a 500,000-square-foot high-bay facility for its Real Estate Solutions unit. Virginia competed with Maryland to land the project.
“This significant investment and the addition of 577 new jobs come at a critical time when we are focused on rebuilding our economy and getting Virginians back to work,” Northam said in a statement. “The ongoing pandemic has underscored the value of supply chain management and delivery services during times of crisis. With our central East Coast location and advanced transportation infrastructure, our commonwealth offers unparalleled advantages for businesses, and we are proud to support the company’s new high-tech operation in Stafford Country.”
A subsidiary of parent company Deutsche Post DHL Group, a German publicly traded company with more than $76 billion in revenue in 2019, DHL Supply Chain employs approximately 36,000 people in the United States. The company offers a portfolio of industrial supply chain management, warehousing, transportation and value-added logistics services. The company’s Real Estate Solutions unit develops turnkey warehousing solutions for customers.
“Virginia has strong transport links catering for all modes of transport, access to a high-quality workforce and an above-average level of GDP per capita, which contributes to an attractive investment environment for DHL Supply Chain’s Real Estate Solutions unit,” said Carl DeLuca, head of real estate Americas for DHL Supply Chain. “We are excited to build on the company’s presence in this market, and are grateful to Gov. Northam and his team, as well as the local authority of Stafford County, for the support they have provided to DHL on this project. We look forward to developing a solution that will deliver 577 jobs to the region and further enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of Virginia as a logistics hub.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Stafford County to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved a $1.7 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Stafford County with the project. DHL Supply Chain is eligible to receive benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for full-time jobs created by the project. The Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide funding and services to support employee training activities.
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eHealth Technologies Inc., a provider of medical record and image retrieval and clinical intelligence services, is investing $375,000 to establish a customer support center in Scott County that will create 160 jobs, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.
Based in Rochester, New York, eHealth Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax County-based private equity firm Aldrich Capital Partners, which acquired the company in 2019. eHealth Technologies serves more than half of the nation’s top 100 hospitals. Its health system clients in Virginia include UVA Health, VCU Health and Inova Health System. The company’s eHealth Connect platform directly provides a patient’s external records, images, and pathology slides to health care providers, which, according to eHealth Technologies, can reduce a patient’s wait time for critical care from weeks down to days.
The average annual pay at the customer support center will be $36,500, and eHealth Technologies is working closely with the Scott County Economic Development Authority to locate a site for the facility, according to Will Payne, director of InvestSWVA, a public-private economic development marketing organization for Southwest Virginia that has been working since November 2019 with eHealth Technologies to land the project.
“The growth of telehealth during the pandemic has created an increased demand for companies like eHealth Technologies that provide innovative solutions to streamline health information and enhance patient care,” Northam said in a statement. “Southwest Virginia is proactively working with its higher education partners to equip the workforce with 21st century skills, and this announcement is a reflection of that progress. We thank eHealth Technologies for creating 160 new jobs in Scott County, and stand ready to support their success as they work to deliver much-needed services to hospital systems and health care organizations across the nation.”
“This expansion in Southwest Virginia is the right next step in our strategic growth plan,” eHealth Technologies CEO Jeff Markin said. “We appreciate the support received from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission-backed InvestSWVA team, and we are excited to grow our partnerships around the commonwealth of Virginia. This Scott County expansion will enable eHealth Technologies to strengthen our focus on helping the clinicians we serve get seamless access to the health care information they need — when they need it — for the benefit of patients receiving critical care.”
Mirza Baig, founding partner of Aldrich Capital Partners, said in a statement, “During strategic planning sessions with the executive team at eHealth Technologies, we identified the need to open a new office location to support our ambitious growth goals. We evaluated numerous options and are proud to announce Southwest Virginia will be home to our fourth … site in the state. After investments in Richmond-based Paymerang and Hampton Roads-based Decisions.com, we are looking forward to building multiple, world-class teams in Virginia.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Scott County, InvestSWVA, Mountain Empire Community College and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission to secure the project for Virginia. Northam approved a $626,500 incentive grant for the project from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $94,000 for the project and eHealth Technologies also is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, which is administered by the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
“Project Navigator proves that taking a disruptive approach to economic development results in strategic wins,” Payne said. “Our InvestSWVA team is proud to partner with eHealth Technologies and Aldrich Capital Partners, because they see great value in Southwest Virginia’s workforce and our region’s ability to help them grow.”
InvestSWVA brought Mountain Empire Community College into discussions with eHealth Technologies to ensure that the company would have a pipeline of health information management graduates for the customer support center.
“eHealth Technologies will be a game changer for talent development in Southwest Virginia,” said Kris Westover, president of Mountain Empire Community College. “MECC has a successful track record of preparing the region’s workforce for careers in health information management, and we are proud to partner with eHealth Technologies on developing a well-trained workforce that will ensure the highest level of customer service and, ultimately, patient care.”
Launched in cooperation with the Virginia Bar Association, the Legal Elite polls lawyers licensed to practice in Virginia each year, asking them to identify which of their peers are the top attorneys in a variety of legal specialties.
Virginia Business’ Legal Elite has 20 categories of legal specialties, double the number featured on the first list in 2000.
The 20 attorneys who have appeared in all 21 editions are listed on the following page. Half of the long-term honorees hail from Central Virginia, while six are based in Hampton Roads and four are in Northern Virginia.
Three firms are well-represented. The group includes four lawyers from Willcox & Savage PC in Norfolk: Allan G. Donn, William M. Furr, Thomas G. Johnson Jr. and Conrad M. Shumadine.
McCandlish Lillard PC in Fairfax has two lawyers on the long-term list: R. Peyton Mahaffey, the firm’s president and managing partner, and Ralph M. Tener.
Williams Mullen also has three long-term honorees: William D. Bayliss and Calvin W. “Woody” Fowler Jr., who are based in Richmond, and Thomas R. Frantz, the firm’s chairman emeritus, in Virginia Beach. In compiling the Legal Elite, Virginia Business contacted more than 14,000 attorneys and more than 50 law firms, directing them to a balloting website, which was available only during the annual voting period.
This year’s Legal Elite includes 1,377 lawyers, about 22.5% of the 6,118 attorneys who were nominated by their peers this year. Voting participation rose again this year, with the number of ballots cast growing to 1,875 from 1,453 in 2019. Attorneys cast a total of 33,498 separate votes across all 20 legal specialty categories.
Virginia Business also profiles a representative from each category. Profile subjects are among the top vote getters in each group, but scores are not the sole criterion.
Click on category to see complete list and profile.
On Nov. 4, Virginia Business magazine held our 14th annual Political Roundtable event, sponsored by Cox Communications. Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster moderated a virtual discussion with a panel of five statewide political experts, who debated the latest developments in the November presidential election and what it means for Virginia and the nation.
Hear what this year’s panelists had to say about the presidential election and who they think will come out as the ultimate winner.
Richmond-based Dominion Energy has filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the operating license for its North Anna nuclear power station for an additional 20 years.
In operation since 1978 and 1980, North Anna’s two reactor units are currently licensed to operate until 2038 and 2040. The renewal would have the reactor units licensed to operate through 2058 and 2060, at which time the reactors would be more than 80 years old. In 2019, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the first license renewals that could see nuclear plants in operation for up to 80 years to Florida Light & Power’s Turkey Point nuclear plant in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Located in Louisa County, Dominion’s North Anna nuclear power plant has two nuclear units that are capable of generating 1,892 net megawatts, or about 20% of the electricity delivered to Virginia customers. It primarily generates electricity for customers in the Richmond region and Northern Virginia.
“Our application to renew North Anna Power Station’s licenses for another 20-year period is good news for our customers, the regional economy, and the environment,” said Dan Stoddard, Dominion’s chief nuclear officer, in a statement released Friday. “Our customers will benefit from continuing to receive safe, reliable, affordable, and carbon-free electricity from the station through 2060. Renewing the licenses for both of our nuclear units in Virginia is critical to the company meeting the Virginia Clean Economy Act’s requirements for zero-carbon electricity by 2045, as well as the company’s net zero by 2050 commitment. It also positions Virginia for continued economic growth and will help the Commonwealth remain a leader in the production of clean energy among other states in the mid-Atlantic and South. It supports more than 900 high-paying jobs at the station and produces additional economic and tax benefits.”
Dominion’s other Virginia-based nuclear plant, the Surry Power Station, filed in 2018 for a similar renewal for the two reactor units at the Surry County facility, which originally went online in 1972 and 1973. That application is still under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Combined, the North Anna and Surry nuclear plants produce 31% of the electricity produced for Dominion’s 2.5 million Virginia customers.
The North Anna and Surry nuclear reactors were both initially licensed to operate for 40 years and received an additional 20 year extensions in 2003.
If you called your local mayor or city manager — or, better yet, the governor — how quickly would your call get returned?
That thought experiment was just one of several questions I had in mind as we were compiling this, our first annual edition of the Virginia 500.
Assembling a list of the state’s most powerful and influential leaders by sector, we took into account a variety of considerations, including — but not limited to — annual revenue, newsworthiness, community involvement, diversity, number of employees (in Virginia and worldwide) and how large a presence the organization has in the commonwealth.
Some of the people on this list are well-known, longtime corporate and community leaders, with decades of experience. Still others are new to their roles but are on the list due to the prominence of the positions they hold or the scope of their responsibilities.
It’s also important to note that, while many of the people on this list are highly accomplished, inclusion in the Virginia 500 is not an endorsement by Virginia Business. It is simply recognition of a person’s power, influence and importance within their chosen field.
Readers will also notice that some sectors are represented by far more people than other sectors. These decisions were based on factors such as how many large companies or organizations are in a given industry within Virginia and how that sector contributes to the commonwealth’s gross domestic product. Some sectors are largely dominated by a single company. Due to this, we limited the number of executives from a single company and its subsidiaries to three entries.
We noticed some interesting patterns emerge as we assembled the Virginia 500. For example, power runs in some families. We have at least four sets of siblings (the Cohens, Fines, Ukrops and Xus) represented on the list, as well as two father-and-son pairs (the Robertsons and Harvey Lindsay Jr. and his adopted son Bob King).
This project was inspired by business publications in other states: Florida 500 by Florida Trend and Dallas 500 by D CEO. I am particularly grateful to Florida Trend Executive Editor Mark Howard for his time and insights.
We began the initial work on this project in summer 2019. Our selection process started with informally reaching out to select business leaders and economic development officials to solicit nominations. However, the majority of this list was assembled by staff research, based on our own knowledge and publicly available sources such as the Fortune 500 and Inc. 5000 lists, annual reports, earnings reports, media articles and news releases.
We sent electronic surveys to about 750 people we were considering for the Virginia 500, asking them to provide information such as their educational background, civic involvement, company revenue and staffing information. We also posed some Proust Questionnaire-like queries to the executives under consideration. Their answers were interesting and illuminating, providing us a glimpse into their personalities, passions and private lives. We received nearly 300 responses, which were invaluable tools in assisting us in making our determinations.
Despite our methodology, this list of Virginia’s top business, education and government leaders is still somewhat subjective. Our list might not match up exactly with your list. In a business-friendly state with an abundance of thriving companies and executives, it’s impossible to include every leader of consequence, even within a list of 500. So we look forward to hearing your thoughts about who should have made the cut.
After all, there’s always next year.
The U.S. Navy awarded Reston-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) a $171.5 million contract to continue providing training solutions, including virtual and synthetic training environments, as part of the Fleet Deployment Training Program supporting the U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Command and associated commands and activities, the Fortune 500 defense contractor announced Thursday.
“SAIC is proud to continue to bring sailors from across the globe together through live, virtual and constructive training environments to enhance Navy tactics and training required to certify the readiness of units and Battle Groups to meet deployed mission requirements,” Jim Scanlon, SAIC executive vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Group, said in a statement. “Based on our responsive and high-quality past performance, we can assure the fleet that SAIC remains highly committed to the mission success of the Navy and our warfighters.”
SAIC employs more than 25,000 people and has pro forma annual revenues of $7.1 billion.
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