Fairfax-based SRA International Inc., an IT solutions and professional services provider, is acquiring part of the government services business of Reston-based Qbase LLC, a privately-held software products and services company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition includes a segment of Qbase’s government services business involving IT support solutions and professional services for government agencies involved in health care, homeland security and law enforcement. The deal will add 230 new employees to SRA’s workforce.
“The acquisition of key Qbase services and programs is a natural fit for SRA,” SRA President and CEO Bill Ballhaus said in a statement. He said the deal will “further strengthen SRA’s presence in the health IT, homeland security and law enforcement markets.”
Completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to occur in April.
The Richmond-based litigation law firm Spencer LLP changes its name today (March 30) to Spencer Shuford LLP.
The name change reflects the addition of partner Mark Shuford, who joined the firm in 2013. The firm also has added two associates in recent months. Jeffrey Newhouse and Lee Floyd.
The firm, begun by founding partner Chris Spencer, said the addition of new attorneys reflects the diversification of its expertise beyond its core product- liability defense capabilities.
he firm has defended automobile manufacturers in many high-profile, high-dollar product liability cases.
Shuford has more than 28 years of broad commercial litigation experience in federal and state courts in Virginia and across the country. Shuford also adds his administrative law practice to the firm’s litigation expertise.
Shuford previously worked in Richmond with litigation groups at two other firms, LeClair Ryan and Kaufman & Canoles.
Newhouse, formerly of Winston & Strawn in New York and Latham & Watkins in Washington D.C., joined the firm in August. He focuses on complex commercial litigation, with experience in class-action defense in a variety of industries and practice areas.
Floyd, previously with Jackson Kelly in Charleston, W. Va., joined the firm in March. She has defended clients in mass tort and class-action litigation.
A Chicago woman with kidney failure was on a waiting list for 11 years because her body’s chemistry made it difficult to find the right match for a transplant. The Richmond-based United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), however, was able to locate the right kidney for her only a few weeks after a new allocation policy went into effect in December.
Brian Shepard, the CEO of UNOS, says the new system gives such difficult-to-match patients a better shot at finding the donated kidneys they need anywhere in the U.S. “For some of those folks, if they don’t get this kidney, the next one that matches them might be years from now,” he says.
Since 1984, UNOS, a private nonprofit organization, has managed the nation’s organ transplant system under contract with the federal government. With a workforce of about 330 people, UNOS handles the U.S. transplant waiting list, matching donors to recipients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. About 123,000 patients need transplants annually, but only about 28,000 receive them. Nearly 80 transplants take place daily, but about 18 people waiting for transplants die each day.
Shepard became CEO of UNOS in late 2013 after serving as its chief operating officer and interim CEO. Before joining UNOS in 2010, he was director of policy under Gov. Tim Kaine (now a U.S. senator).
In deciding his next move when Kaine’s tenure ended, Shepard considered a number of options. “When I looked at them, I kind of realized they all had a public-service aspect — the work was meaningful — but they also had real intellectual, complicated challenges.”
Complicated challenges at UNOS include developing policies governing the allocation of donated organs after extensive deliberations. In addition to revising its policy on kidney transplants, which represent about 80 percent of all transplanted organs, UNOS is considering changes to its policy on liver transplants and is initiating rules for hand and face transplants, which remain relatively rare in the U.S.
While UNOS holds a contract with the federal government, the majority of its revenue comes from fees paid by transplant centers. In fiscal year 2013, for example, UNOS had revenue of $46 million, of which the federal contract represented $3.2 million, or nearly 7 percent.
April is National Donate Life Month, during which many events across the country are planned to focus on organ donations. In marking its 30 years of operation, UNOS is unveiling a new logo this month while collaborating with the Richmond-based Retail Merchants Association on an educational campaign and holding the inaugural United for UNOS 5K and Fun Run at Innsbrook in Glen Allen.
Away from UNOS’ headquarters, Shepard is an avid baseball fan who coaches his sons’ Little League teams. A long-range project has been taking the boys, ages 9 and 11, to all of the Major League Baseball parks during summer vacations. “We’re a little over half way through the list,” Shepard says.
A native of Roanoke, Shepard is a graduate of Virginia Tech who is now studying for an MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Virginia Business interviewed Shepard on Feb. 16 at his office in Richmond. The following is an edited transcript.
Virginia Business: How did UNOS wind up being in Richmond? Shepard: The allocation system [for donated organs] … was a ground-up, a grass-roots effort. This really comes from the transplant community … Individual transplant centers would start to do transplants with donors that had come through their own hospitals. As technology evolved, people realized, if you put the kidney in a box of ice, you could probably get from VCU to Henrico Doctors’ [Hospital]. Then as the technology got better, they started to say, “We could get all the way to Washington, so I’ll call you if I can’t use the [donated organ], if you’ll call me when you can’t use it.” Individual, voluntary networks sort of grew up all over the country.
They started to get a little larger, and we ended up with multistate networks. By 1984, the federal government said, “Look … it’s time we had a single, national system.” The Democrats had control of the House, and the Republicans controlled the Senate at the time, and so the compromise was, “Yes, it’s going to be a government-mandated, national system, but it’s going to be run in the private sector, and we’re going to contract with somebody.”
It was the regional group based in Richmond called the Southeastern Organ Procurement Foundation that took the lead in calling other regional groups and saying, “Look, if somebody is going to do it, it ought to be us; it ought to be the transplant community. Let’s put together our own organization to bid for this contract.” We won that contract in 1984 and have held it through multiple rebids.
VB: When the contract comes up for rebid, do you have other competing bids? Shepard: Other folks have bid before, [but] it’s difficult to find the collection of skill sets that we have developed in order to do the contract. We’ve got a very large IT team, but we’ve also got nurses in the site survey department that go out and check on hospitals. We’ve got a group of policy writers. We’ve got the 24/7 organ center. We’ve got a department full of biostatisticians. It’s hard for somebody to put all those pieces together.
VB: You’ve recently implemented a new policy on allocating kidney donations. How is it different from what was in place before? Shepard: There are a couple of big differences … There are some folks who are just chemically very difficult to match [for transplanted organs]. If we can find a kidney that matches those folks, regardless of where it is in the country … the new system gives them even more priority. For some of those folks, if they don’t get this kidney, the next one that matches them might be years from now … In the first six weeks of using the system, [the new policy] seems to be delivering kidneys to those folks.
The other [change] is that we are attempting to give the kidneys that are likely to last the longest to the candidates who are likely to survive the longest. So the best 20 percent of kidneys are offered first to the 20 percent of candidates who are likely to live the longest based on medical data and their age and other things like that.
VB: What’s the general wait time for somebody needing a kidney? Shepard: Nationally, it’s probably around four years. And in some of the large, urban areas, it’s longer than that … There was a woman in Chicago … who had been waiting 11 years because she’s just almost impossible to find the right chemistry [in a donated kidney]. With the new system, we found one for her in just a few weeks. Some of that is luck, but she had a much bigger pool to draw from. It was not a local kidney that matched up.
VB: You are about to embark on a new branding effort. What’s your goal there? Shepard: This is mostly about our communication with the transplant community. And it’s to tell the transplant community … we are building on 30 years of history here, and so it’s not a complete overhaul from what we used to look like, but we’re not exactly the same as we have been. There are some things we’re going to do differently moving forward from here. …
We’ll keep tuning up the allocation system. We’ll keep watching out for patient safety. But we’re really putting an increased emphasis on how the community works with our system …
How should we deliver information? How do we get them what they need to make the decisions? How do we make sure they’re not wasting time and money in the hospital setting that should otherwise be spent on patients, just because our system is not adapted for a new way they do business? …
We’re making those adjustments to be connected to the transplant community in a way that I think will ultimately make them better able to take care of their patients.
VB: And by transplant community, we’re talking about transplant centers … Shepard: Transplant centers, the docs who work there, the organ procurement organizations that go out and recover the organs, those folks.
VB: How about visibility as far as recruitment of employees? Shepard: That is a big deal for us, especially right now as we’re looking for IT [people]. We’re a nonprofit, so we don’t have shareholders banging on us, but also we’re running the IT infrastructure that connects all the nations’ hospitals and matches donor organs and recipients. So it matters whether we can get the right people.
VB: Is that hard? You’re competing with major companies for IT people. Shepard: Sure. We don’t compete with Capital One for market share, but we sure compete with them for IT staff. But I think our mission-driven focus really helps us. We’re salary and benefit competitive, but the mission really is what sets us apart. A lot of times we’re able to attract folks from other jobs that don’t give that sense of fulfillment that comes from working here.
VB: [UNOS is] talking about policies for hands and face transplants. Have there been any policies before? Is this something totally new? Shepard: This is completely new. The federal government changed the regulation around transplants last July to clarify that these were, in fact, organs …
We have now some basic membership requirements. We have some basic tiebreaker rules in place if an organ were to be provided and two candidates were actually good fits for it. But at this stage, that doesn’t happen … we don’t have those kinds of volumes [for these types of transplants] going on in the United States. There are a dozen [face transplants] total, and maybe two dozen hand transplants in the history of the United States …
We want to make sure that we’re able to provide sort of enough infrastructure around [these transplants] so that it is safe and that it is fair … These are pretty exciting medical discoveries; we want to let that unfold.
VB: One of the things that we mentioned in the story a couple of years ago was that … the number of organs offered for transplants was relatively flat while the demand keeps rising. Is that still the case? Shepard: It is. We’re actually in the middle of a strategic planning process now … We’re going to adopt the next three-year strategic plan starting in June … We really touch so many pieces of the puzzle [in the transplant community] that it’s time we took an active role in seeing what we can do to increase the number [of donations].
And as the infrastructure folks [in allocating organs], that might mean something different than just advocating for more donors. We can look at: Does the way that we measure performance outcomes cause some centers not to use organs on the margins because they’re afraid their overall score will go down? And if that’s true, can we change the metric? Can we make the offer system work faster so that if you do have an organ that’s hard to place, it’s not eight hours later, it’s only two hours later? … Can we provide education to transplant centers about the benefits of using organs donated by older donors?
We’re about to release a study on deceased donor potential that suggests that, given the demographic trends in the United States, the organic growth in donors [is] just not going to be there. If we want more donors, we will have to do something different. We can’t wait for that to come to us … So we’ll need to be looking at using older donors. We’ll need to be more creative in some of the stuff we’re doing if we want more organs to be transplanted.
VB: I’m told that in some countries like Spain and Belgium they have an opt-out system where it’s automatically assumed that you’re going to be a donor when you get your driver’s license … whereas it’s an opt-in system here. Is there any opportunity or possibility of going to a system like they have overseas? Shepard: I doubt it, and I’m not sure that it would help. They have a different sort of cultural baseline to work from. There are 58 organ procurement organizations [OPOs] in the United States. They each have a territory, so they’re roughly the size of a state … Some of them perform better than Spain. Some of them perform worse. So really it’s about the underlying demographics. It’s about the way the [organ procurement organization] goes about doing its job. It’s about the people that live in the area. It’s not as simple as saying, “Well if everybody opted in …” because OPOs are regularly able to get families to consent to donation even if the [deceased] persons hadn’t clearly made that decision in their lifetime. So it’s not just the number that [do commit to donating organs] in advance. It’s helpful to do it in advance. It makes it easier on the family … But it’s not the only way to get through a process. It’s not a magic bullet. And it’s not something I anticipate the United States would do anytime soon.
VB: Now, one issue that has been advanced a couple of times is the idea of compensating donors or the family of donors. Is that in the same realm of “never going to happen”? Shepard: I think it’s unlikely. I think it’s an emotional decision for people to make. I don’t think that people’s reasons to [donate organs] or not really revolve around a few dollars. I do think, particularly with living donors, that there are some efforts that have been useful and some more that we can do to make sure that [making a donation] doesn’t cost them money — from replacing their lost wages to making sure their health insurance covers [the procedure allowing a donation] to making sure they’re not paying for their own tests, follow-up tests or something like that … I do think there are probably some additional things that we could do in that area. We don’t do any of it directly, but the transplant community does. But I don’t think direct payments, particularly for deceased donors, are on the table in the near future.
VB: Do you think there will ever be a time that organs are bought and sold? Shepard: If we ever got to incentives, I would think you would have a single national standard of some kind, and it would happen through the system. Because the idea of some people being able to bid more for an organ than other people is really contrary to the values of the entire system. I wouldn’t see anything like that happen. I think even a regulated system of incentives is unlikely. But I certainly don’t think sort of an open market is ever going to happen.
VB: Is there anything that we haven’t touched upon that you wanted to bring up? Shepard: I think we’ve got 30 years’ worth of history, and it’s an exciting time because we’re figuring out how to honor that history while we creatively look to the future. And the folks here couldn’t be any better to work with. It’s just a fabulous team of people.
An old joke offers this explanation for the odd pose of George Washington’s statue on Richmond’s Capitol Square. Mounted on a horse, Washington’s head is cocked toward the Capitol as he points toward the South.
He is glaring at the General Assembly and pointing toward the State Penitentiary, old wags would say.
The reference to the State Pen gives you some idea of how old the joke is. A fixture in downtown Richmond for nearly 200 years, the prison was demolished in 1992. And, of course, Virginia’s elected officials aren’t sent to a state penitentiary. They face federal prison sentences instead.
In the past four years, former Del. Phil Hamilton, former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, all have been convicted on federal charges. Hamilton is serving a 9½-year sentence for bribery and extortion while the McDonnells are free on bond as they appeal their corruption convictions to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The McDonnells’ downfall shook the General Assembly, which can’t seem to figure out how the “Virginia Way” went wrong. An unwritten code of conduct, the Virginia Way is supposed to hold elected officials to high standards of civility and deportment. McDonnell was the first of 72 Virginia governors to be convicted of a crime.
The legislature has been reluctant to acknowledge that, in relying on officials’ sense of integrity, the Virginia Way permitted shockingly lax state ethics laws. During the past two legislative sessions, the General Assembly has made half-hearted efforts to mend those laws.
The first attempt was derided as “Swiss-cheese” reform because of its many loopholes. The legislature made a second pass this year after the McDonnells’ embarrassing trial. The resulting bill on Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s desk includes some improvements.
It reduces a cap on the value of gifts received by state and local government officials from $250 to $100, while requiring any gift worth $50 or more to be disclosed. Travel also must be preapproved by a Conflicts of Interest Advisory Council.Knowingly violating the law is a Class 5 felony while inadvertent mistakes are subject to civil penalties.
But the legislature still hasn’t gotten it right. There is no cumulative cap on gifts, for example. Legislators apparently can accept as many gifts under $100 as they like as long as they report them.
The most egregious omission in the new bill is the independent ethics commission requested by McAuliffe. This body would have investigative and subpoena powers — in other words, real teeth.
The Conflicts of Interest Advisory Council will only advise legislators on ethical issues while referring citizen complaints to the House and Senate ethics panels. In sum, the council is more of a lapdog than watchdog.
The ethics commission isn’t McAuliffe’s only unfulfilled request. He also had asked for the establishment of a bipartisan commission that would redraw legislative and congressional districts after the 2020 Census. Most states give that power to their legislatures, which are very reluctant to give it up. (In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court now is deliberating an attempt by Arizona’s legislature to abolish that state’s independent redistricting commission, which was established by a voter referendum in 2000.)
Legislators throughout the country follow a time-honored political practice in redistricting — they draw the boundaries to benefit themselves and thwart the opposing party. In essence, they choose their voters rather than take the chance that voters will choose someone else. The result is gerrymandered districts that are overstocked with voters from one party or the other.
A federal court has ruled that the Virginia congressional redistricting maps drawn by the legislature after the 2010 Census are unconstitutional. They lump too many minority voters into Virginia’s 3rd District (a seat held by Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott) while leaving too few in surrounding districts represented by Republicans.
Rather than comply with the court decision and redraw the district, the legislature is appealing the ruling. They want to keep the “safe” districts they have created.
Safe seats, however, lead to internecine warfare in low-turnout party primaries. Legislators and members of Congress are more afraid of zealots in their own party than they are of voters in a general election. They know any attempt at compromise with the opposing party will be branded as treason. The result is endless partisan bickering and gridlock, in Richmond and in Washington.
Passage of the new ethics bill leaves McAuliffe with the choice of signing it, revising it or vetoing it. Who would have guessed before last year that McAuliffe, the master fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, would be the person trying to hold the General Assembly to higher ethical standards?
If the bill becomes law without an ethics commission, the public can be reassured that there is at least one body independent of the legislature that is keenly interested in making sure that it cleans up its act: the U.S. Justice Department.
If legislators are content with the ethics law they have drawn up, they at least should reposition Washington’s statue to bring it up to date. It should be pointing west toward the federal courthouse.
Member One Federal Credit Union has bought a 3.2 acre site in central Roanoke for $2.5 million.
Roanoke-based Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group announced the sale, adding that the property could provide additional space for the growing credit union.
The site is the longtime home of Roanoke Auto Spring Works Inc., at 401 Williamson Road NE across from the Berglund Civic Center. The property includes three brick buildings.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to expand the area around our corporate campus,” Frank Carter, the president and CEO for Member One, said in statement. “The purchase reinforces our commitment to the area — we’re from here and we are staying here.”
The credit union’s corporate campus currently includes its headquarters, main retail center, administration building and a real estate center.
Member One is a member-owned financial institution that has been in operation for more than 70 years. It has more than 80,000 members in Southwest and Central Virginia,
Member One has $700 million in assets, 12 branch locations and a national ATM network.
Roanoke Auto Spring Works property is in central Roanoke near the intersection of Interstate 581 and Route 460.
Virginia’s unemployment remained unchanged in February at 4.7 percent.
February’s rate represents a drop of six-tenths of a percentage point from the same month in 2014.
The national jobless rate for February was 5.5 percent.
All of the figures have been seasonally adjusted, meaning they take into account seasonal changes in the labor market.
Virginia’s labor force expanded in February for the second consecutive month, rising by 8,438 workers.
Total nonfarm employment rose by 11,600 jobs in February to 3.798 million. The private sector expanded by 10,600 jobs while the public sector added 1,000 jobs.
Employment increased in nine major industry divisions during the month while declining in two more. The biggest jump occurred in professional and business services, up 3,700 jobs to 678,000.
The largest job loss occurred in manufacturing, down 1,000 jobs to 232,700.
Simmons Equipment Co., a manufacturer of battery-powered mining equipment, plans to invest $1 million to expand its Tazewell County operation.
The project is projected to create more than 30 jobs in the coming years.
S & S Machinery introduced its first battery-powered coal-mining scoop in 1968. The company’s market share in battery-powered scoops is about 80 percent.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Tazewell County, the Tazewell County Industrial Development Authority, and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority to secure the project.
The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission approved up to $1.14 million in funding. That money will be invested over time through the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center Foundation in Abingdon for use in the company’s planned R&D and commercialization activities.
Additional funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
Fairfax-based First Virginia Community Bank plans to increase its number of shares 25 percent through a stock dividend.
The bank’s board of directors has approved the five-for-four split of its common stock, which will raise the number of outstanding shares from 5.19 million to about 6.49 million.
The bank said the stock split is intended to: stimulate a more active market in the common stock; maintain the stock’s affordability for small investors; and increase overall shareholder value.
Each shareholder of record on 5 p.m. on April 5 will receive an additional one-quarter share for each share of common stock held. The distribution of the new shares is scheduled to be completed on or about April 30.
Founded in 2007, First Virginia Community ended last year with net income of $4.1 million, an increase of $1.9 million or 85.5 percent compared from $2.2 million in 2013.
The bank has $604 million in assets and operates offices in in Arlington, Manassas, Reston and Springfield in addition to Fairfax.
Marshall Hotels & Resorts Inc., a Salisbury, Md.-based hotel management and services company, has broken ground on the construction of Appomattox Inn and Suites, a 56-room hotel in Appomattox.
The boutique hotel, which is expected to open this fall, is owned by a group of Appomattox investors, COJANA LLC. It will be managed by Marshall Hotels & Resorts.
Mike Marshall, president of Marshall Hotels and Resorts, said the hotel is the first new-build hotel property in the past two decades for the Appomattox area.
The Appomattox Inn and Suites will have a lounge, fitness room and conference center that will accommodate approximately 150 people, outdoor pool and fitness room.
Virginia Beach-based Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. has signed a contract to acquire a 74,038-square-foot Georgia shopping center for $12.35 million.
The deal for the Beaver Ruin Village in Lilburn, Ga., represents a purchase price of about $166.81 per square foot.
Built in 1976 and renovated in 1996, Beaver Ruin recently underwent capital improvements, which included repairs to the parking lots, the replacement of several HVAC units and the installation of a new roof for over 20,000 square feet of the shopping center.
The property is nearly 95 percent leased, with tenants such as Chase Bank, State Farm Insurance, T-Mobile, Firehouse Subs and Sally Beauty Supplies. The shopping center also includes three outparcels leased by McDonald’s, Popeyes, and Captain D’s.
Lilburn is about 30 miles north of Atlanta in Gwinnett County, which has a population of 805,321 people.
Wheeler REIT specializes in income-producing assets, such as community centers, neighborhood centers, strip centers and free-standing retail properties.
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VB: What’s the general wait time for somebody needing a kidney?