After 32 years leading regional tourism efforts, Richmond Region Tourism President and CEO Jack Berry will retire on June 30. The organization’s board has named Executive Vice President Katherine O’Donnell as his successor, effective July 1.
“The Richmond Region has enjoyed tremendous success over the past few decades on the tourism front, largely due to the unwavering support from local leaders and our incredible community,” Berry said. “I have been blessed to lead an organization full of talented and dedicated professionals — which includes the extraordinary Katherine O’Donnell — and together we share the legacy of our achievements.”
During his long tenure, Berry was instrumental in the establishment of the Greater Richmond Convention Center, which opened in 2003. In fact, Berry, a past Richmond Times-Dispatch Person of the Year honoree, has sometimes been called “Convention Jack” to differentiate him from the former mayoral candidate and Hanover County administrator of the same name. Though the convention center is overseen by an authority, Richmond Region Tourism monitors the performance of its third-party venue and food management contractors, as well acting as the agent for sales, marketing, promotion and advertising for convention center events held more than 18 months after the booking date.
Katherine O’Donnell. Photo courtesy Richmond Region Tourism
A Georgetown University graduate, Berry began his career working for the Independent Players Association, an indoor winter pro tennis circuit, before becoming a sales rep for the Norfolk Scope arena. In 1988, he moved to Richmond, where he became sales manager and later general manager of the Richmond Centre, the convention center’s forerunner. He became president and CEO of Metropolitan Richmond Convention & Visitors Bureau — now Richmond Region Tourism — in 1992.
His achievements also include the passage last year of a regional tourism improvement district that generates $8 million annually for local tourism marketing and promotion. He also oversaw the creation of Richmond Region 2030, a 10-year regional master plan for tourism.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for the unparalleled role Jack has played in building the thriving regional tourism industry that we all benefit from today,” said Lisa Sims, board chair for Richmond Region Tourism. “His legacy of accomplishments is unprecedented, not least of which is the incredibly strong staff he leaves to carry on the mission. Katherine O’Donnell is an experienced, knowledgeable, respected leader who is perfectly positioned to lead our region’s tourism efforts and continue the organization’s impressive trajectory. As we wish Jack all the best in his retirement, we also celebrate Katherine’s new role.”
O’Donnell joined Richmond Region Tourism in 2002. Before being named the organization’s second-ranking executive in 2018 with responsibility for day-to-day operations, her previous positions included serving as director of marketing and vice president of community relations. A native of Winston-Salem North Carolina, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and is a certified destination management executive.
There are certainly many professionals who help people through personal or family crises, but no other provides direct aid to us from cradle to grave in the same way as medical doctors.
Whether it’s to deliver your first child or treat a loved one with cancer, choosing a doctor can be a monumental decision. And with four major medical schools statewide, Virginia is home to a host of talented physicians deserving of recognition for their achievements in research and treatment.
In compiling this inaugural edition of Virginia’s Top Doctors, Virginia Business contacted more than 10,000 medical professionals through a variety of outreach methods, including via health systems and medical associations. Virginia Business contracted with Colorado-based media research and analytics firm DataJoe to conduct balloting. Casting their ballots on a website that was available only during a monthlong voting period, physicians were asked to identify which of their peers were the top doctors across 60 categories of medical specialties.
This year’s Top Doctors specialty categories include a total of 1,163 doctors, 18.3% of the 6,366 doctors who were nominated by their peers this year. Additionally, Virginia Business’ editors chose representatives from 15 medical specialties to highlight in brief Q&A profiles. Based on input from physicians and health systems to this first balloting, Virginia Business plans to expand categories for next year, including a wider range of pediatric specialties.
Launched in cooperation with the Virginia Bar Association in 2000, Virginia Business’ Legal Elite polls lawyers licensed to practice in Virginia each year, asking them to identify which of their peers are the top attorneys across 21 categories of legal specialties.
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 that was available only during the annual voting period. Virginia Business contracted with Colorado-based media research and analytics firm DataJoe to conduct balloting.
This year’s Legal Elite categories include a total of 1,530 lawyers, 29.6% of the 5,174 attorneys who were nominated by their peers this year. Attorneys cast 1,359 ballots, making 23,885 separate votes across all 21 legal specialty categories. Virginia Business’ editors chose a representative from each legal category to highlight in a brief Q&A profile.
To better reflect the changing legal landscape, Virginia Business has added a new, 21st specialty category for Intellectual Property, separating the practice from the revamped Cybersecurity/Data Privacy/Technology category.
Additionally, the 18 attorneys who have appeared in all 24 editions are recognized separately. Ten are from Central Virginia, while five are based in Hampton Roads and three are in Northern Virginia. Two firms are well-represented in this list of 24-year honorees, with three attorneys each. Willcox & Savage has Allan G. Donn, William M. Furr and Thomas G. Johnson Jr. Williams Mullen also has three longtime 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.
Going the distance: The 18 lawyers who have made the list every year since 2000
Just a word of friendly warning: Our November cover story is one of the strangest tales ever told. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So, if any of you feel you do not wish to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance to … well, we warned you.
With that tongue-in-cheek nod to the introduction from Universal Pictures’ 1931 horror classic “Frankenstein” behind us, I confess that I’m writing these words in October, smack in the middle of that autumn month filled with ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night. And it’s appropriate to reference “Frankenstein,” given that this month’s cover story by Virginia Business Associate Editor Katherine Schulte is concerned with humanity’s quest to artificially replicate intelligence and how the business community hopes to harness that lightning-fast technology for increased productivity and profits — topics that can induce feelings ranging from excitement to dread.
Two of the most common refrains I’ve heard about artificial intelligence this year are these: “You may not lose your job to AI, but you will lose your job to someone who knows how to use it,” and “The opportunity outweighs the fear.”
To be sure, from the moment OpenAI unveiled its ChatGPT generative AI platform to the public one year ago, there have been strong scents in the air of both fear and money.
ChatGPT has passed the nation’s standardized bar exam, scoring better than 90% of lawyers who took the test. It’s been used to diagnose illnesses, research legal precedents and write everything from e-books and marketing emails to Excel formulas and computer code.
Personally, I’ve used it to draft business letters and marketing materials. I find its efforts can generally be too effusive, but even requiring a little tweaking, it admittedly has saved me some time. Similarly, I’ve tasked ChatGPT with organizing large groups of data into spreadsheets. For those chores, the results have been a bit more uneven. ChatGPT can spit out a spreadsheet in a couple minutes or less, but it’s kind of like having a speedy college intern who requires some hand-holding and may be prone to mistakes. Sometimes, in its eagerness to please, ChatGPT will invent missing data without understanding that’s not helpful or appropriate. Other times, it may place data in the wrong rows or columns. However, even with correcting ChatGPT’s work, a job that might have taken me two or three hours on my own only took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
And while Virginia Business isn’t using AI to write news stories — sorry to disappoint, but this column was written by a ho-hum human — you may have guessed that the striking art adorning our cover and illustrating its accompanying feature story this month were generated using artificial intelligence.
The past year has seen dramatic improvements in AI art tools such as Midjourney and Adobe Firefly, which have learned from a huge body of existing images (mostly by human artists) to generate new artwork. With Adobe’s latest updates, a minimally skilled user like myself can generate startlingly creative works. In Photoshop, I can take a pastoral farm photo and instantly replace a barn with photorealistic cows just by typing in those words; it will appear as if the barn had never been there. That’s fantastic if I’m creating generic illustrations, but that might be problematic if I’m a real estate agent who’s marketing a specific property and decides to spiff it up to look better than reality. Because we humans are operating this tech, it is as rife with possibilities for productivity as it is for misuse. As Schulte reports in her story, Virginia companies from accounting firms to health care systems and law firms are exploring not only real-world applications for generative AI, but also how to install virtual guardrails around it.
Like Dr. Frankenstein, the geniuses who are spawning today’s AI tools are hardly pausing to consider the ramifications before sending their creations shambling into the world. And like Frankenstein’s lightning-birthed monster, generative AI’s existence presents a host of ethical questions that are fast following behind it.
While working on a cellular tower a few years back, Kyle Mullins got what he describes as the “call of a lifetime” — an invitation to work on the first two pilot wind turbines for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
A Navy veteran who received a telecommunications technical certification from Texas A&M University, Mullins was working as a cell tower technician, a job that sometimes had him climbing towers taller than the Washington Monument, when he was recruited as a contractor for Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind. He worked in maintenance and construction as Ørsted built the twin 6-megawatt, 600-foot-tall wind turbines for Dominion 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach in 2020. That in turn led him to onshore wind turbine maintenance jobs in Maryland and West Virginia for Nordex, and a stint as a line worker for Dominion.
Now, based out of Yorktown, Mullins is running his own business, Coastal Wind Services, which is focused on maintaining and inspecting massive wind turbine blades, as well as related rope-access work and certification training. He’s anticipating a hurricane of business from projects like Dominion’s $9.8 billion, 176-turbine offshore wind farm off Virginia Beach, slated to begin construction in 2024, and proposed offshore wind projects in North Carolina.
“Once the turbines start getting into place … hopefully business will be booming,” says Mullins, who is also partnering with Virginia Beach-based Hush Aerospace on developing an autonomous aerial drone for offshore wind blade inspections.
Coastal Wind Services is one of several Virginia-based energy industry startups, many of which are capitalizing on the national drive for net-zero carbon emissions and electric grid transformation toward renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
Virginia is one of 22 states to pass clean electricity laws in agreement with the Paris Climate Accords’ aim of mitigating the impacts of climate change by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Passed in 2020, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) requires all electricity in Virginia to be produced from carbon-free power sources no later than 2050. (Aimed at increasing grid reliability and reducing consumer power costs, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a state energy plan in 2022 that called for a rethinking of VCEA mandates to include a mix of power sources, including nuclear and natural gas.) Similarly, the Biden administration has also set a 2050 national goal for net-zero carbon emissions, including reducing U.S. government emissions 65% by 2030 and transitioning to an all-electric federal vehicle fleet by 2035. And as of last year, nearly 60% of Fortune 500 CEOs said their companies plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
This push to a greener grid has kicked off an entrepreneurial drive for innovative solutions to meeting and facilitating these ambitious energy goals.
“The opportunity is kind of endless in many regards,” says Braden Croy, program director of Ashland-based Dominion Energy Innovation Center (DEIC), an independent nonprofit accelerator and incubator for Virginia energy startups.
Gaps to fill
Founded as a partnership between Activation Capital, Hanover County, the Town of Ashland and the nonprofit’s signature sponsor, Dominion Energy, DEIC runs an accelerator for eight to 10 energy-related startups per year that are partnered with mentors from Dominion Energy. DEIC also offers startup events, networking opportunities and space for coworking and research and development.
Virginia has some unique opportunities for energy startups, given that it has the world’s largest concentration of data centers, which require vast amounts of energy.
The commonwealth “has one of the largest — if not the largest — electricity load growth projections in the United States, primarily driven by the data centers up in Northern Virginia, but also all of our heavy manufacturing and advanced manufacturing,” Croy says. And “as we have more and different types of generation brought online, that poses a planning problem and management problem,” but also a host of opportunities for entrepreneurs from a variety of backgrounds.
Among those is Michael Beiro, founder and CEO of Linebird, which manufactures the Osprey NPS, a nonconductive payload system that attaches to commercial drones used in aerial power-line inspections by contractors and utilities. Linebird also produces “end effectors” — swappable tools that can be used with the payload system to perform a variety of tasks on live power lines, such as conducting contact inspections of compression connectors. Likening the tools to bits for a drill, Beiro is developing end effectors that can handle jobs like removing bird nests, trimming vegetation or cutting down damaged electric lines.
Michael Beiro’s company, Linebird, produces a payload system and tools used on aerial drones for power-line inspection and maintenance. Photo by Caroline Martin
A member of DEIC’s first accelerator cohort in 2020, Beiro developed the idea for Linebird out of work he was doing when he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University. “Being in the [DEIC] cohort helped us get momentum,” not to mention valuable face time with Dominion Energy personnel, says Beiro, whose company is based out of DEIC’s Ashland coworking space.
“Virginia has a well-developed ecosystem to support startups,” says Susan Ginsburg, CEO of Alexandria-based Criticality Sciences and a member of DEIC’s 2021 cohort. Her company, which provides metrics and analysis promoting the resilience of utility systems, received a $75,000 Commonwealth Commercialization Fund grant from Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. and a $100,000 federal grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, with another $400,000 NIST grant pending.
A lawyer and infrastructure resilience expert, Ginsburg was a senior counsel on the 9/11 Commission and was part of the team that produced the first presidential policy directive on critical infrastructure security and resilience. “When I began reading and looking into the science of critical infrastructure protection, I saw there was a major gap to fill,” says Ginsburg, noting that there are no federal standards for utility resilience.
Criticality Sciences’ NetResilience platform performs analyses of systems like electric grids or public water systems, and provides metrics on resilience. It also identifies assets that are vulnerable to critical failures that can lead to events like the massive blackouts seen during the February 2021 winter storm in Texas that led to hundreds of deaths.
A member company in this year’s DEIC cohort, Arlington County-based ElectroTempo announced in August that it had raised $4 million in seed funding. ElectroTempo’s software platform provides planning and intelligence data for building out electric vehicle charging networks. Lead investors in the current funding round included Buoyant Ventures, a Chicago-based, woman-owned venture capital firm focused on tech startups that help fight climate change, and Zebox Ventures, an Arlington-based fund associated with international shipping company CMA CGM Group. (ElectroTempo was in the first cohort at the Zebox America accelerator.)
“Our customer is anyone who’s investing in the infrastructure around [vehicle] electrification,” says ElectroTempo co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Finch. So far, that has included the Port of Virginia, which is using the system to support its growing fleet of electric industrial vehicles and to calculate anticipated demand. CEVA Logistics, a subsidiary of CMA CGM, is another customer.
Pearl of wisdom
It also helps a company get off the ground when the founders have industry experience. Cynthia Adams was already well-connected in Virginia’s energy sector before 2015, when she co-founded her current business, Charlottesville-based Pearl Certification, which provides third-party home energy efficiency certifications across multiple platforms, primarily for home sellers and builders. Pearl has certified more than 162,000 homes across the United States, including about 7,400 in Virginia. It also provides required third-party certification of contractors’ work for a federal rebate program for home energy efficiency upgrades passed in 2022 under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Pearl’s CEO, Adams previously co-founded the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council, a nonprofit advocacy group, and also led the nonprofit Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP), which promotes energy efficiency in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
After raising $250,000 from angel investors, Adams and Pearl President Robin LeBaron left their jobs to found Pearl, which has since raised about $29 million in venture capital funding and now has about 50 employees. “We’re really getting somewhere with the business and are super-excited about our future,” Adams says.
While Pearl has grown since its founding, starting an energy-related company in Virginia isn’t necessarily easy, Adams explains. Often, startups devoted to businesses such as installing solar panels may initially benefit from federal rebate programs or grants for which funding can later run out. “If the programs are super-complex, complicated, administrative-heavy and really need the rebate only to function, then I think we’ve missed an opportunity to grow businesses, we’ve missed an opportunity to lower carbon emissions, because the money will start and the money will stop,” she says.
In turn, she suggests embracing public-private partnerships to develop energy efficiency programs across the state.
“There’s a huge amount of federal dollars through tax credits. If there were ever a time for an enterprising entrepreneur to get into the energy space, it’s now,” she says. “It’s important to identify what your value [proposition] is and what pain point you are solving. But if it’s tied to energy efficiency or renewable energy, you’ve got some terrific tailwinds to kick a business off.”
Regional opportunities
Expanding the field of energy industry startups in Virginia will require “a little bit more education and startup coaching to get folks understanding that before you’re there selling, you have to go and understand the market,” says Jerry Cronin, executive director of the OpenSeas Technology Innovation Hub at Old Dominion University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It’s about “getting innovators to do that upfront as opposed to immediately going into sales mode.”
“The opportunity is kind of endless in many regards,” says Braden Croy, program director of Ashland-based Dominion Energy Innovation Center, a nonprofit accelerator and incubator for energy startups. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
OpenSeas works with startups and small businesses to help solve problems within the maritime space. Hampton Roads’ burgeoning offshore wind industry is a major focus for the hub, which also concentrates on shipbuilding and port operations. Two of the biggest challenges in the startup energy space in Virginia, Cronin says, include attracting more businesses to the space and educating individuals about the current holes in the industry.
“One of the issues with offshore wind right now — and this is something recognized by the Department of Energy — is that it’s close on the horizon, but it’s still on the horizon,” Cronin says. “Next year, we’re going to start putting more turbines out there, but it’s still a very young industry. The Department of Energy is having issues with attracting people into that space when it’s sort of ‘hurry up and wait,’ versus something like solar, where there’s a lot going on right now.”
A state grant program announced in July, the Virginia Offshore Wind Supplier Development Grant, is aimed at encouraging existing Virginia manufacturers to develop and produce goods to support the offshore wind industry in Virginia as well as nationally. But encouraging smaller suppliers to enter the space as startups will require more targeted training efforts and funding, Cronin says.
Another region ripe for energy startup growth is Southwest Virginia, where the public-private Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning & Technology Accelerator) Lab initiative is focused on reimagining previously mined land as space to develop new energy ventures such as hydrogen production, small modular nuclear reactors, solar power generation and advanced energy storage. The initiative’s partners include the Virginia Department of Energy, the Southwest Virginia Energy Research and Development Authority, InvestSWVA and utilities Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power.
The Delta Lab is “essentially a matchmaker to all local, state and federal partners, funding partners, utilities — you name it,” says Will Payne, director of InvestSWVA and managing partner of economic development consulting firm Coalfield Strategies.
“Everything we do — every project that we take on — we view through the economic development lens,” Payne says. “It’s not just about research for the sake of research. We’re about that next phase where something that needs to be deployed, needs to be a pilot and tested in the field.”
While being a startup energy company in Virginia is an adventure, Mullins says, one of the biggest challenges is gaining entry to the supply chain. Organizations like DELTA Lab, OpenSeas and the Dominion Energy Innovation Center exist to help the industry thrive.
“Don’t be afraid to reach,” Mullins says. “Ask questions. I wouldn’t be in the position I am now without the people I reached out to.”
Editor’s Note:This story has been updated and corrected to reflect that Coastal Wind Services owner Kyle Mullins received a technical certification from Texas A&M University.
James Madison University is where Angela Reddix says she found “my tribe, the godmothers of my children” — and also her future husband, Carl, whom she met on her first day on campus.
“All those relationships came from JMU,” says Reddix, founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm. “I believe I owe my success to James Madison University — my confidence, my ability to navigate this world. There’s not enough that I could give to show my appreciation to James Madison University.”
Last year, Angela Reddix made a down payment on her debt of appreciation to JMU when she and her husband contributed $1.1 million to establish the new Reddix Center for First Generation Students and a scholarship endowment, also in support of first-generation students.
Carl Reddix, who studied management and graduated in 1988, was a first-generation college student, while Angela, who graduated in 1990 with a business administration in marketing degree, was a second-generation student. Nevertheless, Angela Reddix says, “I understand from being the child of a first-generation college student how important it is, particularly when you are at a predominantly white university … that there is a support system there for you, and that you have the resources so that you don’t feel that you have to navigate that space all on your own.”
Located in the five-story Student Success Center and officially opened in November 2022, the Reddix Center offers first-generation students space for individual or group study sessions, a lounge where they can relax and meet friends, and even a place to prepare and store food. The center’s staff provides students with information about the university and helps them connect with campus resources and opportunities such as social events and career workshops. The Reddixes also plan to be personally involved in the center’s programming.
“We’ve already been able to see a good bit of community building among first-generation students and that’s something that’s been pretty cool to see,” says Jordan Cherry, a graduate student in sports and recreation leadership who mentors first-gen students through JMU’s Centennial Scholars Program.
A first-generation student himself, Cherry says it’s important for such students to have a regular gathering place and a base where they know they’ll be able to find help and make friends with others in their situation.
“A lot of the time, first-generation students … feel like they’re going through this game of college alone, and that couldn’t be further from the truth because there are a whole lot of other first-generations feeling exactly what they’re feeling,” he says. “We want to reinforce that there is a community of first-generation students who are going through the same struggles and alleviate some of those stresses and help them realize there’s a lot of resources that JMU has for them.”
Building community
The Reddix Center is designed to foster a feeling of community by providing first-generation students with a place where they can meet, get help from faculty and staff, and access special programs designed with their needs in mind. These include a one-credit-hour class called University Studies 102 that allows students to explore a major, minor or career.
“It gives them an opportunity in a structured environment, in a class setting, to have conversations with their peers and with a faculty member about the choices that they’re making as far as their career and major path,” says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney.
Another program will cover financial literacy, from how to create and manage a budget to how to evaluate job offers to what their retirement goals should look like. It will be taught by JMU’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office staff as well as some alums, he says. There will also be programs devoted to helping students achieve academic success in areas where they may be struggling.
“That’s probably a first for us,” Mooney notes. “Certainly, the university has offered programs like this in the past, but we’re partnering and collaborating with offices across campus in some of our student support units to build programming specific to our first-generation students. Many of these programs are often offered or facilitated by people who are first-generation students themselves who want to come back and give back and be able to help students across that pathway.”
Mooney is working with the school’s admissions team to get the word out about the Reddix Center to prospective students and their parents.
“I’m a first-generation student and I would have loved to have a center like this accessible to me in college,” says Melinda Wood, the university’s director of admissions and associate vice president for access and enrollment. “I think it really shifts the narrative … and makes folks think about JMU differently because they know that there’s a support structure and there will be students who look like them that are a part of the center.”
However, the center is just one of several efforts by JMU to attract and retain first-generation students, who accounted for 12.2% of fall 2022 enrollment, or 2,707 students out of a total enrollment of 22,224.
JMU’s first-generation student enrollment has increased around 9% over the past decade. That’s helped James Madison’s enrollment grow at a time when many other higher education institutions are seeing declines due to demographics, rising tuition costs, anxieties about student debt and growing doubts about the value of higher education.
Foreground, L to R: Yasmine Rodriguez, a Reddix Center graduate assistant, talks with Valley Scholars students Destiny Campbell and Tessa Souder. Photo courtesy James Madison University
Total fall 2022 enrollment at JMU was nearly double its fall enrollment of 11,343 a decade earlier. Meanwhile, total enrollment at all Virginia colleges and universities fell from 539,319 in fall 2012 to 519,531 in fall 2022, a nearly 3.7% drop, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
“As universities, we want students from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives to attend our institutions, and first-generation students and their experiences offer another lens or life experience that a group of students can bring to our campus,” says Mooney, “and I think it’s important to have their voice on campus as well.”
The university also began allowing prospective students to apply using the Common Application two years ago.
“Joining the Common Application really has opened the doors to so many more students being aware of JMU and having the opportunity to apply to the institution with just one central application platform,” says Wood. “We’re seeing greater numbers of students apply to JMU, and then having this amazing story to tell in the future [about the Reddix Center] is going to help us with those recruitment initiatives.”
‘Journey to achieve’
JMU began reaching out to first-generation students in 2004 with the Centennial Scholars Program (CSP), which provides financial assistance and an academic support network for underrepresented students. Started by former JMU President Linwood Rose, CSP was aimed at increasing diversity at the university. CSP offers full scholarships to Virginia college students who meet financial need requirements. Recipients also receive academic support, peer mentoring, interaction with faculty mentors, cultural enrichment activities and career-oriented workshops.
“We would describe those students as academically talented, highly motivated, but also Pell-eligible students,” says Mooney. “Almost all are also first-generation students.”
CSP requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA, perform community service and participate in campus activities. Each cohort has about 50 students and more than 730 of them had graduated as of June 2022. The graduation rate for the last three cohorts was 87%, and at least 35% of those students have gone on to medical school, law school and other graduate programs, according to JMU’s website.
Special classes offered through the Reddix Center helps first-generation college students with career and financial planning, says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney. Photo courtesy James Madison University
In 2014, JMU launched the Valley Scholars program, a college-readiness program for economically challenged students from the surrounding area. It’s focused solely on first-generation, financially eligible middle and high school students showing academic promise in JMU’s partner school districts. (These include school systems in the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Waynesboro and the counties of Augusta, Page, Rockingham, and Shenandoah.)
Valley Scholars students are selected in the spring of seventh grade and begin participating in the program’s educational and cultural enrichment opportunities in eighth grade. They also attend a weeklong summer camp between ninth and 10th grades. The goal is to equip them with the skills they’ll need to be successful academically and to increase awareness and access to colleges and universities. Those who graduate from high school having completed the program receive scholarship support to attend JMU.
Overall, the graduation rate for students in the Valley Scholars program is more than double that of Pell-eligible, first-generation students nationally, Mooney says. It’s around 75% to 80%, compared with a national graduation rate of around 30%.
“For many students, certainly the financial support is incredibly important, but building community is also critical,” Mooney says. “Students recognize that they’re not alone in their journey to achieve their degree. They have the opportunity to connect to other students. They have the opportunity to connect to other staff members and to faculty members, and develop those networking connections that are necessary to say, ‘Hey, you know, I get it. I understand the challenges that you have, the obstacles that you’re facing, and we’re here to help you.’”
James Madison University — At a glance
Founded
A public research university in Harrisonburg, James Madison University was founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women. It was renamed Madison College in 1938 in honor of President James Madison and became James Madison University in 1977. Located in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and divided by Interstate 81, JMU’s 728-acre campus is known for its distinctive bluestone buildings, as well as Newman Lake near Greek Row and the university’s 125-acre Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, which has numerous gardens and wooded areas with 100-plus-year-old oak and hickory trees.
Enrollment*
Undergraduate: 20,346
Graduate: 1,878
Student profile*
Male | female ratio: 41% | 59%
International students: 1%
Minority students: 22%
Academic programs*
JMU has 76 undergraduate and 53 master’s degree programs, two education specialist degrees and eight doctoral programs. Fields range from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing.
Faculty*
Full-time: 1,070
Part-time: 393
Tuition, fees, housing and dining**
$25,840 approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan for incoming freshmen.
Hands down, the most unintentionally funny of the alarmist stories about remote work must be the June “news” articles warning that by 2100, teleworking would result in a generation of obese, hunchbacked, prematurely aged people with swollen eyes, their hands permanently stuck in clawing gestures from using a mouse.
Lest you worry that your great-great-grandchildren will evolve into Microsoft-proficient C.H.U.D.s, it’s probably good to note that these stories, trumpeted by tabloids like the New York Post, were the result of a 3D model produced by a U.K. office furniture manufacturer, Furniture at Work. Their solution? Ergonomic office furniture!
While there’s plenty to pick apart here — why does using a mouse at home versus an office result in clawed hands? — these stories are typical of pushback to fast-moving social and technological changes. As reported by Virginia Business Associate Editor Courtney Mabeus-Brown in our September cover story, remote and hybrid work models expedited by the pandemic are here to stay, but the effects of that — from vacant office space, empty downtown districts and less convention travel to potential impacts on company culture or employee mental health — are resulting in a transition that’s not easy for every person or industry.
Pivotal changes also can result in strong emotional responses that aren’t always based on facts. Take, for example, reports that an Amazon.com senior vice president, Mike Hopkins, spoke in favor of in-office work during a July company meeting by saying, “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.”
There are numerous, contradictory studies around remote work, and some are suspect, depending on whether the entity supporting the study has a dog in the fight, like Furniture at Work. But you can count on one thing: Coming generations will be increasingly comfortable working remotely via a host of digital platforms, and they will not accept that work must be limited to specific locations or even times.
Remote work is hardly a new concept; one of the first media depictions of it occurs in the 1984 film, “2010: The Year We Make Contact,” in which Roy Scheider’s character uses a portable computer while sitting on a beach. “2010” was based on the writings of sci-fi novelist and futurist Arthur C. Clarke, who in 1964 uncannily predicted the rise of remote work and its impacts, telling the BBC that he believed that by the 2010s, businesspeople “will no longer commute — they will communicate. They won’t have to travel for business anymore. They’ll only travel for pleasure.”
Change is difficult, but it’s inevitable. How we respond and adapt to it proves whether we’ll be viewed as forward thinkers or the last buggy whip makers on the block.
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Packaged with this month’s issue, you’ll find copies of our annual Virginia 500 issue, listing the commonwealth’s most successful and powerful leaders. In addition to being a handy reference to Virginia’s top power players by industry, it provides a fascinating look at the journeys executives take to success.
Also this month, keen-eyed readers may notice that we have begun eliminating most corporate designations (Inc., Corp., Co., etc.) from company names in our stories. Following the lead of The Wall Street Journal and other publications, Virginia Business’ editors have decided to make this change in favor of readability and streamlining copy. (There will be exceptions for clarity or when the suffix is an important element of a company’s identity.) It’s hoped this move will eliminate some of the “alphabet soup” that can make sentences clunky and unwieldy.
When I give my elevator speech about the Virginia 500, it usually starts this way: It’s like the Fortune 500, but instead of companies, it’s about people.
Unlike the Fortune 500, which ranks companies by gross revenues, this is a more subjective list. Compiled via staff research, we catalog Virginia’s 500 most powerful leaders across 19 major sectors, ranging from real estate and manufacturing to higher education and federal contracting. There is not a nomination process, and we do not rank executives.
Some of the list is determined by position — if you’re the Virginia-based top leader of a Fortune 1000 corporation, you’ll likely find yourself on the Virginia 500. Other factors we consider include career achievements, company revenue, the number of employees a leader oversees, the scope of their responsibilities, and their involvement and prominence within their industry and community.
When I discuss the Virginia 500, I also explain that this is journalism, not public relations or advertising. Our editors choose who makes the list, which leaders we write about and what we say about them. The Virginia 500 is not an award or an endorsement; it’s simply a recognition that a person holds a position of power and influence. Though most appreciate being on the list, a very small number wish not to be included. There isn’t an opt-out process, however.
For the sake of expediency and organization, we condense related industries into overarching categories. One example is the real estate section, which also includes architecture and engineering, construction and development.
Because business along Virginia’s borders is fluid, we include executives who have direct responsibility for Northern Virginia but who work in Washington, D.C. But while a host of federal officials call Northern Virginia home, we don’t include those whose focus is solely on federal business and who don’t work in the commonwealth or play a role directly in Virginia’s interests.
Finally, we do not adjust this list for diversity or geography. Our aim with the Virginia 500 is to report an accurate picture of who holds the most power in business, government, nonprofits and higher education in Virginia. As such, this list skews white and male, reflecting the larger demographics of American business leadership.
This year, a record eight Black CEOs lead Fortune 500 companies, making up 1.6% of Fortune 500 leaders. By comparison, the Virginia 500 has 45 Black leaders, or 9% of the list. (Black or African American people make up 21.7% of Virginia’s population, according to 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data.) There are 68 people of color on the 2023 Virginia 500.
As for gender, there are 102 women leaders on the Virginia 500, accounting for 20.2% of the list. Comparatively, a record 53 women CEOs head up Fortune 500 companies this year, marking the first time that women have made up more than 10% of the leadership of the top U.S. companies.
It also shouldn’t come as a surprise that economic power in the Old Dominion is mostly clustered within the “Golden Crescent” of Northern Virginia (representing 40.6% of Virginia 500 leaders), Central Virginia (29.4%) and Hampton Roads (18.8%).
This year’s Virginia 500 had an 18.6% turnover rate, featuring 93 new leaders. While fewer than 10 were added to the Living Legends section, which recognizes lifetime achievement, most newcomers to the list have succeeded retiring or exiting executives.
For those of us who haven’t ascended to the lofty heights of those represented here, there is an aspirational joy to reading about the career journeys of the leaders in these pages.
I am disappointed in your June 2023 workforce article, “Pride in their work.” In it, you perpetuate misinformation that the left-leaning press has been pushing on Americans.
Two specific examples:
Reference to the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” law — This bill does not use the word “gay” in it, and the law is to prohibit schools from teaching/discussing sexual preferences, etc., with lower elementary grade pupils. It is leaving it up to the parents if they want to get into that subject so early.
Gender-affirming care — All the state of Florida is saying is that children cannot be subjected to sex change surgery, puberty blockers, etc. There are no restrictions on adults doing so, nor on counseling of children with questions.
I enjoy the magazine and learn a lot from it, but let’s not become political and biased in a “news” story.
Ted Krueger
Amherst
Editor’s note: While it’s accurate that Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law does not contain the word “gay,” it does use the phrases “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The Associated Press has referred to the law as “Don’t Say Gay” in headlines, but in stories, the AP notes that label has been used by the law’s critics, context that was missing from its mention in this story. The article’s reference to gender-affirming medical care cited restrictions in “several states,” not just Florida. As of mid-August, 22 states, including Florida, have established restrictions or bans on gender-affirming medical care for minors. The article did not refer to age or type of care.
To submit a letter to the editor, please send your email of no more than 250 words to Richard Foster at[email protected]. Letters chosen for publication may be edited for clarity, word count and grammar.
Virginia Business’ 2023 Virginia CFO of the Year award winners represent large and small businesses and large and small nonprofits.
Large business|Cindy Yao, CFO and executive vice president Markel Food Group, Richmond
A while back, Cindy Yao and the other executives at Richmond-based Markel Food Group underwent a 360-degree feedback exercise. Yao, the company’s chief financial officer and executive vice president for the past decade, found that she was viewed as the company’s heart.
“People come to me to solve problems and when they feel they need help, and when someone … needs a caring person there to help them grow,” says Yao, who’s known for putting together gift baskets for employees and their family members who are going through tough times.
An independent subsidiary of Henrico County Fortune 500 insurance holding company Markel Group Inc., Markel Food Group is a $350 million company with about 1,000 employees worldwide. It provides automated industrial equipment and consulting services to food processing companies.
Markel Food Group, Yao explains, is the parent of three “pretty much autonomous companies” — AMF Bakery Systems, Reading Bakery Systems, and Solbern. In addition to being the parent company’s CFO, Yao serves as CEO for Reading, Solbern and AMF Bakery Systems’ AMF China division. “I bring them structure and I helped them to be more organized [in] thinking about strategy,” Yao says.
Born in Shanghai, China, and fluent in the Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghai dialects, Yao has overseen over the past two years a doubling of revenue and profits of the company’s business in China, where it’s aiming to become the leading supplier of industrial bakery equipment.
Yao earned her MBA from the William E. Simon School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, her master’s degree in accountancy from Virginia Tech and her bachelor’s degree in English literature from East China Normal University.
Before joining Markel, Yao served for almost a decade in executive finance positions with eye care company Bausch + Lomb.
In 2019, she received the Corporate Leadership Award from NaisA Global, a nonprofit organization that connects and provides mentorship to future Asian business leaders.
At Markel Food Group, Yao has implemented structural changes, including designing its governance structure. She also oversees Markel Business System, the framework that governs the company’s strategies for operations, staff and growth.
“Rolling out the system, you change the culture, you create a collaboration among the companies,” Yao explains. “We have a very systematic way to look at growth, look at the costs and look at people engagement.”
Additionally, she serves as dean for Markel Business Systems Leadership University, an internal executive leadership development program she founded.
It all speaks to her support and passion for mentoring “high potential” younger workers.
“To be a good manager, you have to care about people. You truly have a goal to have an impact on somebody’s life and career,” she says. “Your goal is to help people grow and to improve their life.”
Yao also serves as a mentor to MBA students at the University of Richmond, where she has led discussions about course material, reviewed résumés and offered job advice. And she volunteers with the VCU Massey Cancer Center and joined its advisory board in May.
“I look forward to contributing to the community,” Yao says. “We all do better when our community does better.”
Read more about Virginia Business’ 2023 Virginia CFO of the Year award winners:
RELATED STORY:2023 CFO trends — talent shortages and AI
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