Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

byline: Sydney Lake

General Dynamics wins $99M FAA contract

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded Reston-based Fortune 100 defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. a $99 million contract to provide URC-300E transceivers as part of its Emergency Transceiver Replacement (ETR) program, the company announced Thursday.

The program replaces current legacy radios with very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) radios for civil and military air traffic control communications.

“The URC-300E is another example of our team’s dedication to delivering technologies and products that support the FAA’s efforts to continuously improve the national airspace and safety of flight,” Bill Ross, a vice president of General Dynamics Mission Systems, said in a statement.

General Dynamics employs 100,000 people worldwide and reported $39.4 billion in 2019 revenue.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

 

Northrop Grumman wins $84.5M NASA contract

NASA announced Thursday it has awarded an $84.5 million contract to Falls Church-based Fortune 500 defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. to provide propulsion support and products for spaceflight missions.

Under the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract, Northrop Grumman will provide support and products at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The contract brings NASA and the European Space Agency one step closer to completing the Mars Sample Return (MSR), which includes a Sample Retrieval Lander mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission. 

“Bringing Mars samples back to Earth will allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars, and will allow future generations to study them using technology not yet available,” according to NASA.

Northrop Grumman employs more than 90,000 people and reported $33.8 billion in 2019 revenue.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

 

U.Va. gets $5M gift to establish scholarship for PVCC students

An anonymous $5 million gift to the University of Virginia will be used to provide scholarships to Piedmont Virginia Community College students who wish to transfer to the university, U.Va. President Jim Ryan announced Friday.

The endowed fund will provide scholarships to PVCC students who have been selected as U.Va. University Achievement Award recipients. The scholarship covers full in-state tuition and fees and will be called the Piedmont Scholars Program.

“We have always had a strong relationship with PVCC, and this scholarship program will make that relationship even stronger, while at the same time providing support for students at both schools,” Ryan said in a statement.

The first cohort of Piedmont Scholars will be selected from fall 2021 applicants. U.Va. anticipates that 25 scholarships will be awarded annually. Each year, approximately 150 students transfer from PVCC to U.Va. The gift will also go toward a summer bridge program for PVCC transfer students to adjust to U.Va.’s academic and social environment before the fall semester.

“This innovative gift addresses two of the university’s main priorities — recruiting top prospective students and increasing access and affordability for undergraduates,” Stephen Farmer, U.Va. vice provost for enrollment, said in a statement. “It will bring to Grounds outstanding students from all walks of life — students who will make everyone around them better.”

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Virginia Tech to lead DoD’s new Acquisition Innovation and Research Center

The U.S. Department of Defense has selected Virginia Tech as one of three schools to lead its new Acquisition Innovation and Research Center (AIRC).

The AIRC is funded by the DoD and directed by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. The goal of the center (which also includes the New Jersey-based Stevens Institute of Technology and Georgetown University) is to unite higher education expertise to increase efficiency in the department’s acquisition system.

Researchers will study how to better acquire quality products and resources used by the armed forces. Virginia Tech will also develop policies to expedite that acquisition process.

“This center is not about engineering the next-generation radar,” Laura Freeman, an AIRC executive team member and Virginia Tech associate professor of statistics, said in a statement. “It’s about helping the government obtain the next generation radar efficiently, while making the most of citizens’ tax-paying dollars, and ensuring the DoD can acquire that radar at the speed of relevance to operational missions.”

Other executive team members include Dinesh Verma and Thomas McDermot, both of the Stevens Institute of Technology and Systems Engineering Research Center, and Bill Rouse of Georgetown University.

“In the future, the center will look to add more universities to the collaboration as one of the center’s core values is to combine efforts within the defense and commercial acquisition community nationwide and worldwide to generate a marketplace of innovative ideas,” Verma said in a statement.

In April the center will hold the Acquisition Innovation Forum, where researchers can learn more about AIRC’s research on digital transformation and acquisition.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Huntington Ingalls names new executive VP

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Friday its board of directors has elected Kari Wilkinson to serve as executive vice president of HII and president of HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division, effective April 1. She will succeed Brian Cuccias, who announced his April 1 retirement.

Cuccias took on his role in 2014, and before that had served as vice president of amphibious ship programs and vice president of program management. He began his career in 1979 as a financial analyst with Litton Data Systems on several Navy programs.

Wilkinson has served as Ingalls’ vice president of program management since 2016. In her new role, she will report directly to Chris Kastner, HII executive vice president and chief operating officer. During her 25-year career, she has worked in engineering, business development and equipment processes in the shipbuilding industry.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan and her master’s degree in business administration from Temple University.

HII is the nation’s largest military shipbuilding company, employing more than 42,000 people worldwide.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Germany-based workforce tech developer buys Vienna AR developer

TeamViewer, a German workforce technology developer, announced Tuesday it has acquired Vienna-based augmented reality software developer Upskill.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Founded in 2010, Upskill provides technology that uses smart glasses and handheld devices to help manufacturing, inspection and auditing workers for customers including The Boeing Co. and Merck & Co. Its investors include Accenture Ventures, Cisco Investments, Boeing HorizonX, GE Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. TeamViewer has more than 550,000 subscribers for its remote connectivity platform. 

“By acquiring Upskill, we strengthen our capabilities in enabling digital transformation across all verticals and parts of the value-chain as the company is focusing on complementary use cases and industries such as aerospace, pharma and life sciences, insurance and claims management and retail,” TeamViewer CEO Oliver Steil said in a statement. “The enterprise [augmented reality] market is huge and growing rapidly and we are perfectly positioned to tap that potential.”

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Tempur Sealy to invest $16.7M in Scott County manufacturing facility

Bedding product designer, manufacturer and distributor Tempur Sealy International Inc. will invest $16.7 million to expand its Scott County operation, creating 25 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.

“Southwest Virginia has been an ideal base of operations for Tempur Sealy for nearly 20 years because of the region’s proximity to major interstates and access to the company’s customer base,” Northam said in a statement. “As one of the largest employers in the area, this expansion will allow the company to increase production capacity to ensure the future viability of its Scott County plant.”

Headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, Tempur Sealy operates two manufacturing facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Scott County employing more than 5,000 people in the U.S. Virginia competed with New Mexico for the project. The company employs 300 people at its Duffield facility, which opened in 2001.

“As our manufacturing sector continues to thrive, Virginia’s commitment to job training and providing a skilled workforce pipeline ensures our valued businesses have the talent they need to grow,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball said in a statement. The expansion is expected to be completed by 2022.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Scott County and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) to secure the project for Virginia. Northam approved a $110,000 Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund grant to help Scott County with the project. The company is eligible for Virginia Enterprise Zone Program benefits. The Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide training activity support and funding.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

 

 

University of Richmond names new president

The University of Richmond announced Thursday its next president will be Kevin F. Hallock, who currently serves as dean and professor of strategy and business economics at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business. 

He will succeed Ronald A. Crutcher, who in September 2020 asked the board of trustees to begin a search for his successor, with plans to have a new president take office no later than July 1, 2022.

Hallock will join the university in fall 2021 and also serve as a professor of economics in the Robins School of Business and have affiliated faculty appointments in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law program in the School of Arts and Sciences. Following his term as president, Crutcher and his wife, Betty, will travel to Berlin for a sabbatical year and he will then return to the university as a professor.

Hallock earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his master’s degree and doctorate from Princeton University, both in economics. He started his career as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined the Cornell faculty in 2005. In 2018, he was appointed as dean of the SC Johnson College of Business.

“Kevin is a dynamic and hard-working leader with a strong track record of building consensus and bringing people together around a shared vision and purpose,” Paul Queally, rector of the board of trustees, said in a statement. “We are confident that as president he will help us to continue to strengthen our leadership position among liberal arts institutions nationally.”

Hallock has also served as chair of the Department of Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell, where he later served as dean. His research focuses on gender pay gap, compensation design, compensation in nonprofits, executive compensation, layoffs, labor market discrimination and disability in labor markets. He has authored or edited 11 books and more than 100 publications. 

“From the creative work and research among the faculty, the intellectual energy and curiosity of the community and the intense focus on the holistic development of students and care for their well-being ─ Richmond drew me in, and I couldn’t look away,” Hallock said in a statement.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Jobless claims stayed flat last week in Va.

As the state approaches the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s presence here, initial jobless claims remained essentially unchanged from the previous week, according to figures released Thursday by the Virginia Employment Commission. Continued claims fell slightly.

During the week ending Feb. 27, 12,155 Virginians filed initial unemployment claims, compared to 11,944 from the week prior. 

Last week, 63,998 Virginians remained unemployed, which represents 41,795 more claims filed compared to the same period in 2020, but approximately a 1% decrease from the previous week’s filings. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits. 

“The continued claims total is mainly comprised of those recent initial claimants who continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the VEC.

More than half of the claimants who filed for benefits last week (and the prior four weeks) reported being in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade and health care and social assistance industries, according to the VEC.

The regions of the state that have been most impacted continue to be Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. 

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of initial unemployment claims, for the week ending Feb. 27:

  • Richmond, 582
  • Virginia Beach, 510
  • Fairfax County, 501
  • Norfolk, 463
  • Prince William County, 346
  • Newport News, 312
  • Chesapeake, 294
  • Chesterfield County, 283
  • Alexandria, 274
  • Hampton, 258

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 745,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 216,982 initial claims during the same week last year.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Avantus Federal names new board member

Avantus Federal, a McLean-based IT defense contractor, announced Tuesday it has appointed former Engility CEO Lynn Dugle to its board of directors. 

Dugle was chairman and CEO of Chantilly-based Engility before its 2019 acquisition by Reston-based Science Applications International Corp. During her career, she also served in several executive leadership positions with Raytheon. Dugle earned her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and her master’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin.

In October 2020, McLean-based defense contractor E3/Sentinel LLC announced it would operate under the Avantus Federal name. Avantus had operated as E3/Sentinel since 2018, following the merger of E3 Federal Solutions and The Sentinel Co. The company offers data engineering, advanced analytics and software development services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Intelligence Community.

 

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.