Alexandria-based logistics industry digital recruiting and training provider TransForce Group announced last week it has named Dennis Cooke as the company’s president and CEO, succeeding founder David Brome, who now serves as executive chairman.
With more than 30 years of experience, Cooke was most recently president of global fleet management solutions for Ryder System Inc., a commercial fleet management company. In his new role, he will lead the company’s day-to-day operations and strategy.
“Dennis is a proven leader who possesses a deep understanding of transportation and logistics customers, Leon Brujis, partner at Palladium Equity Partners LLC (a private equity firm whose affiliate is TransForce Group’s majority owner) said in a statement. “We believe that these attributes, along with his track record of success in driving cross-functional team performance and achieving customer satisfaction and growth, will be significant benefits to TransForce Group and its large base of carrier customers going forward.”
Cooke joined Ryder in 2011 after a 22-year career with General Electric and related companies, where he served in leadership roles. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
Founded in 1991, TransForce Group offers services including education, training, digital recruiting and compliance and safety to third-party logistics, private fleets and trucking companies.
Tysons-based Fortune 500 company DXC Technology announced Monday it has appointed Raul Fernandez and David Barnes to its board of directors.
Barnes is the former senior vice president and chief information and global business services officer for United Parcel Service (UPS). He also worked with UPS from 2005 to 2011 as senior vice president and chief information officer.
He currently serves as a senior adviser with private equity fund Bridge Growth Partners LLC and is a member of the board of directors for Hertz, Solace Corp. and BackOffice Associates. He will also be a part of DXC’s audit and risk committees.
Raul Fernandez
Fernandez is vice chairman and owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a private partnership that owns the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Washington Mystics, as well as the Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards (for which he serves on the NBA Board of Governors), the Wizards District Gaming NBA 2K team and the Capital One Arena. He was also founder, CEO and chairman of Proxicom Inc. and chairman and CEO of ObjectVideo.
He is a special adviser and limited partner with General Atlantic Partners and Carrick Capital Partners and also sits on the boards of GameStop and Broadcom. He will serve on DXC’s compensation and nominating and governance committees.
“With vast experience in the IT industry and proven leadership abilities, Dave and Raul bring important perspective and insight to our board,” DXC Chairman of the Board Ian C. Read said in a statement. “These additions complement the work that [DXC CEO] Mike Salvino and his leadership team are doing to launch the ‘new DXC’.”
DXC Technology was formed in April 2017 as a result of the merger of Computer Science Corp. and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company has 138,000 employees worldwide and last year had revenues of more than $21 billion.
The Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced Friday it has promoted former state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert J. “Bob” Stolle as its new president and CEO, replacing Ed Albrigo.
A not-for-profit corporation created in 1985 by the Virginia General Assembly, CIT functions as the state government‘s economic development organization for the technology sector.
“Ed has had a transformational impact on CIT and the Virginia innovation ecosystem, from launching new innovative programs in technology and industry areas critical to Virginia, to launching the Virginia Founders Fund to ensuring that Virginia companies continued to receive over $4 million in vital funding during COVID through [the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund], GAP, Smart Communities and Unmanned Systems programs,” CIT Board Chairman Michael Steed, founder and managing partner of Paladin Capital Group, said in a statement.
Stolle was most recently CIT’s senior vice president of policy and regional initiatives and the head of its entrepreneurial ecosystems division.
“Virginia’s entrepreneurship community has grown tremendously during Ed Albrigo’s tenure at CIT, and we are grateful for his dedicated service to our commonwealth,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. “I am pleased to welcome Bob Stolle to lead the agency and its efforts to advance our innovation economy.”
Stolle, who served as secretary of commerce and trade under former Gov. George Allen, today serves on the GO Virginia Guideline Workgroup and is on the executive committee of the University-Based Economic Developers, the GENEDGE Alliance and is on the board of eight regional technology councils in Virginia.
“CIT and the new Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) are in great hands,” Albrigo said in a statement. “Bob knows CIT, the VIPA legislation, VIPA budget and the key stakeholders for VIPA and CIT very well. Our communities and CIT staff highly respect Bob. There is no better choice for the new CIT president.”
Stolle earned an engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and served active duty and in the Reserves as a Navy pilot. He retired with the rank of commander.
The University of Virginia was ranked as the fourth-best public school in the country and had the highest graduation rate of any public school, at 95%.
Eleven Virginia universities made the U.S. News and World Report 2021 list of best universities:
No. 26 University of Virginia
No. 39 William & Mary
No. 74 Virginia Tech
No. 143 George Mason University
No. 160 Virginia Commonwealth University
No. 217 Hampton University
No. 241 Shenandoah University
No. 258 Old Dominion University
No. 298 Liberty University
No. 298 Mary Baldwin University
No. 298 Regent University
William & Mary tied at No. 4 with Princeton University for best undergraduate teaching, according to a university statement.
Of 223 rankings this year, 15 Virginia liberal arts colleges made U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 list:
No. 9 Washington and Lee University
No. 22 University of Richmond
No. 69 Virginia Military Institute
No. 102 Hampden-Sydney College
No. 102 Hollins University
No. 102 Randolph-Macon College
No. 130 Roanoke College
No. 140 Randolph College
No. 154 Emory and Henry College
No. 162 Sweet Briar College
No. 166 University of Virginia-Wise
No. 171 Bridgewater College
No 171 Southern Virginia University
No. 171 Virginia Union University
No. 171 Virginia Wesleyan University
Washington and Lee University ranked No. 16 in the nation as a best value school and the University of Richmond ranked No. 25. The University of Richmond also ranked No. 18 on the most innovative schools list, which” highlights colleges that are making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities,” according to a university statement.
The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority (VSBFA) disbursed only 8% of its available funds in 2018 and just 10% in 2019 for loans, grants and bonds to help small businesses — holding on to $28 million, according to a study released Monday by the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC).
A division of the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, VSBFA offers financing programs including direct loans, support loan programs (encouraging banks to loan to small businesses), as well as grants and conduit bonds for small business growth and expansion. The authority was formed by the General Assembly to provide more financing opportunities for small businesses, since such businesses may be riskier investments and not be as profitable for banks as loaning to large companies.
JLARC released studies Monday examining the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission and the state’s economic development initiatives. Among other findings, JLARC also determined that the VSBFA and the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission had not achieved key goals.
JLARC also offered policy options for changing the definition of small businesses, which would ultimately be up to the General Assembly.
The changing of the definition of small business could affect procurement practices that the state uses to award contracts. One option would be excluding comparatively larger businesses from receiving small business certification by lowering the number of employees and gross receipts that a business may have to qualify. JLARC also offered the option of developing and adopting thresholds based on industry, similar to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
In its report on VSBFA, JLARC noted that the authority operates several financing programs for small businesses but the authority has also taken on the role of overseeing two COVID-19 relief programs that will award $80.3 million to businesses (mostly through federal CARES Act funding). Because the VSBFA has not been meeting criteria to effectively administer financing, JLARC recommends that it should set annual goals for loan program disbursements and direct staff to track and annually report the percentage of loan and grant program funds that are awarded or used.
“It’s very concerning to me that we have funding sitting there that is not being utilized. … If I knew how much we had to lend, our outreach activity would be much more assertive,” said an unnamed person associated with the VSBFA, according to the JLARC study, which also showed that the number of loan applications to VSBFA dropped in half between 2017 and 2018. The decline in applications could be due to a lack of cohesive outreach efforts by the VSBFA to businesses and banks about available funding. According to the JLARC study, many businesses are unaware of the VSBFA and its efforts.
“VSBFA has not established a cohesive plan that identifies specific business groups or banks to contact,” according to the JLARC study. “Without a formal plan, staff conduct outreach ad hoc and largely work with the same businesses and banks.”
And even for those businesses that do apply and receive funding, there is also a lack of formal loan risk policies and a risk assessment tool, which, according to the JLARC study, has led to confusion and “overly conservative loan decisions.” Because of this, one bank told JLARC that it had given up on using VSBFA as a loaning option.
“In the last couple of years I have referred three borrowers to your group, all of which were declined due to poor credit quality. … The last deal we referred, you declined because the credit quality was too good. … I am very confused about your goals in helping small business,” an unnamed bank told JLARC for use in the study.
JLARC recommended that VSBFA implement risk standards and a risk assessment tool to calculate the potential risk of loan applicants.
Under JLARC’s study of economic development initiatives, it found that Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission grant recipients had not been successful in retaining jobs because grant funding hadn’t been properly vetted — and therefore recommended that it should strengthen its due diligence procedures to increase the economic impact of the commission’s Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund.
According to the JLARC study, the opportunity fund has a lower benefit when compared to other Virginia grants due to poor performance on early projects. A high percentage of projects never materialize and grant awards are canceled before funds are disbursed or used, according to JLARC.
The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission’s megasite program has also failed to achieve its goals, JLARC found. Of nine businesses funded by the grants, only two have tenants and full build-out of the projects is expected to take decades, according to JLARC.
“Only half of future employment at the sites is likely to be ‘net new’ employment for the state, with the other half representing relocated employees from elsewhere in the region or the state,” JLARC reported in the study. “Economic benefits for the megasite program are low and are expected to remain low compared with other incentives even if occupancy of the industrial sites increases.” JLARC recommended that industrial sites that receive funding should regularly report job creation and capital investments.
Hampton Roadshousing inventory was down by nearly 47% in August, compared to August 2019, Real Estate Information Network Inc. (REIN) reported Tuesday.
The region’s supply of inventory stood at just 1.97 months in August, which is the lowest recording since REIN began tracking this metric in September 2008.
“Simply stated, if no new listings were added to the market after August 31st, it would take less than two months for the current inventory to sell out,” according to REIN.
The region had 5,105 residential active listings in August, which is 42.15% fewer than the 8,824 listings from last August. The risk of running out of inventory is unlikely, however, because new listings hit the market each day according to REIN. REIN also reported that the number of homes that went under contract in August increased by nearly 35% and residential settled sales (the number of homes closed) also rose 15.37%.
“Usually the real estate market begins to slow as the summer months wind down, vacations wrap up, and kids head back to school,” REIN President Barry Nachman said in a statement. “But if 2020 has taught us anything, this year is not ‘usual.’ Our region’s sales remain strong and there is no sign of a market slowdown in terms of how quickly homes sell once listed in the MLS. Demand from buyers coupled with a low availability of homes on the market suggests that 2020’s current sales trends will continue through the end of the year.”
REIN also reported that residential median sales price increased from $255,000 to $275,000 and the number of foreclosures and short sales in Hampton Roads dropped 2.34%.
An office building in Newport News has sold for $3.4 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced last week.
Located at 11818 Rock Landing Drive in the Oyster Point Park area, the 29,092-square-foot Peninsula Professional Building was 100% occupied at the time of the sale. The building is leased to several tenants including TPMG Behavioral Health, Coastal Prosthetics and Orthotics LLC, and Alliance Solutions Group Inc.
Peninsula Partners LLC purchased the class A office building from Municipal Partners II LLC as an investment.
Teresa Nettles of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled the sale on behalf of the seller. Thalhimer will continue to lease and manage the property.
Construction began last week on “The Midline,” a residential and commercial community to be located two blocks from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station (Silver Line) in Fairfax County, EYA Development LLC announced Sept. 8.
It’s anticipated that 80 townhouses will be completed by early 2021, with an additional 35 to be built during the second phase of construction for The Townhomes at Reston Station. EYA also plans to build two multifamily buildings on the site, to include 300 units and 20,000 square feet of retail space. The property is located across from the Comstock Cos.’ Reston Station development, which houses more than 1,000 residents and includes 5 million square feet of completed and planned commercial space along the Dulles Toll Road.
Rendering courtesy EYA
“There is a strong demand for authentic urban communities at metro stations and for high-quality housing that appeals to young professionals, growing families and empty nesters,“ EYA President McLean Quinn said in a statement. “Reston has a unique history as a thoughtfully planned mixed-use suburb and we are delighted to have secured this site. We are actively seeking other sites along the Silver Line to bring more ‘life within walking distance’ to the region. Our residents will be able to take the Silver Line in either direction for a smooth link to Dulles International Airport, Tysons, or a day in downtown D.C.”
Founded in 1992, EYA has build more than 5,000 homes and 42 urban neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Reston-based Fortune 500 federal contractor Leidos Holdings Inc. announced Thursday it has hired retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams as vice president of defense group logistics, effective immediately.
Williams most recently served as the director of the Fort Belvoir-based Defense Logistics Agency, where he oversaw the Department of Defense’s combat support agency for worldwide logistics and the National Defense Stockpile, an international network of 25 distribution centers, as well as the department’s process for reverse logistics. He oversaw more than 25,000 military personnel and civilians. In his new role, he will be involved with the planning, oversight and execution of logistics of the defense group.
“Darrell brings a deep understanding of our customers’ ‘can’t fail’ missions and an unwavering commitment to their success,” Gerry Fasano, Leidos Defense Group president, said in a statement. “Through his experience directing supply chains for the U.S. military, as well as federal, state, local and international partners, and overseeing the National Defense Stockpile, Darrell has demonstrated strong leadership, supporting optimization and change management.”
Williams graduated from the Hampton Institute’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was commissioned into the Army Quartermaster Corps in 1983. He is also a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College, the School of Advanced Military Studies and the National War College. Williams earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Hampton Institute and his master’s degrees in military arts and sciences, national security and strategic studies as well as business management.
With annual revenues of $11.09 billion last year and 37,000 employees, Leidos is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in technology and engineering services for federal defense agencies.
Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC) on Thursday announced winners of its 2020 CBIC awards, which honor entrepreneurship, and gifted $8,500 in scholarships and grants to three student entrepreneurs and a teacher to support entrepreneurship and science and technology education.
Below is a list of award recipients:
2020 CBIC Educator of the Year: Dominique Morse, a teacher with Albemarle County’s Murray High School and Community Public Charter School.
2020 CBIC Business of the Year: Ting | Charlottesville, which works to expand fiber internet access in the region.
2020 CBIC Entrepreneur of the Year: Cynthia Adams, CEO and Founder of Pearl Certification, which collects data on energy efficient and renewable energy features so that homes can appraise for more at resale or refinancing.
2020 CBIC Innovator of the Year: Welld Health, which delivers wellness programs through connected fitness trackers and devices.
2020 CBIC Startup of the Year: Cardboard Live, an online gaming platform started by Wilson Hunter.
2020 CBIC Student Entrepreneur of the Year: Roman Bohuk of MetaCTF, which runs custom cybersecurity training and exercises for organizations.
2020 CBIC Top Job Creator: CCRi, a data science and software engineering company.
CBIC Partnership of the Year: New Hill Development Corporation and the Fountain Fund, which worked together on Operation Hope, which brings financial education to their client partners.
2020 CBIC Volunteer of the Year: Justin Ritter, Lily Garcia Walton and Hope McCutcheon, who volunteer with the CBIC.
2020 CBIC Social Good Award: Antwon Brinson of Culinary Concepts AB, a culinary school.
The $2,500 scholarships went to Maureen “Quinn” Loftus and Emma Manclark. Scholarships are awarded to two junior or senior high school students who plan to pursue education beyond high school in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math).
The CBIC serves as the Charlottesville region’s technology council and works on technology initiatives that strengthen economic development.
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