byline: Virginia Business

As the founder of the largest woman-owned business in the greater Washington, D.C., area, Bohan has been breaking glass ceilings since before the phrase was invented.

Inspired by her honeymoon cruise on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1970, she founded her company in 1972 with one employee. It has grown it into a billion-dollar company with offices worldwide.

Last year, she was named the first recipient of the American Society of Travel Advisors’ newest honor, the Icon Award, and was previously named to Washingtonian’s Most Powerful Women in Washington list. She also was honored with the 2023 Hall of Fame Cruise Industry Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cruise Lines International Association, and received a lifetime achievement award from Travel Weekly magazine in 2021.

A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, Bohan also was a co-founder of Space Adventures, a space tourism company that has ferried a small number of clients to the International Space Station since 2001.

Omega, which owns Cruise.com, one of the largest sellers of cruises online, and Travtech, a technology development company, was named to the Washington Business Journal’s 2023 Fastest Growing Companies list. The firm’s travel service offerings also include its wholly owned meeting, conference and event management services.

Garcia, the ex-wife of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is now his part-time neighbor in the horse country of Virginia’s Orange County. Although the couple divorced in 2008 and both are remarried to different partners, Garcia still is the movie star’s global strategic adviser and co-owns Seven Bucks Productions, their film and television production company.

She also started GSTQ, a lifestyle and fashion brand, in 2021, and steers a portfolio of other brands in business, entertainment and food.

In 2023, a corporate entity tied to Garcia acquired Tivoli, a 120-year-old mansion and horse facility on 181 acres in Somerset. It’s next door to Johnson’s property, which he operates as a working horse farm.

Garcia has producer credits on numerous TV and movie projects involving Johnson, including “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” “Ballers” and an upcoming live action version of  “Moana.” In March, she became a co-owner of the United Football League, a spring pro football league created from the merger of the XFL — which she and Johnson co-owned — and the United States Football League.

Reared in New Jersey by Cuban immigrant parents, Garcia graduated from the University of Miami’s business school.

A look at Baird’s defense and government sector business for 2023 shows that the year proved challenging, with merger and acquisitions down by 24%. Even so, the team managed to close 12 M&A transactions valued at more than $7 billion in aggregate. 

In 2024, Baird advised Herndon’s LinQuest, an engineering, data analytics and digital integration services company and a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity investment firm, on its sale to Texas-based KBR, a provider of engineering and technology solutions for governments and companies. The $737 million acquisition was announced in July. 

An organizer of Baird’s 6th Annual Defense & Government Conference, Stack spoke about the state of the market at the November 2023 event, which drew more than 1,000 executives. 

Before joining Baird, Stack worked for more than two decades in the government services, aerospace and defense sector at California-based investment bank Houlihan Lokey. She is a Duke University graduate who also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Stack sits on the Inova Health and the Northern Virginia Technology Council boards.

After a 2022-24 stint as speaker of the House during Republicans’ two-year control of that chamber, Gilbert returned to the position of minority leader after Democrats narrowly retook power this year following the 2023 elections.

The Shenandoah Valley conservative is a key ally to Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the General Assembly, where Gilbert has served since 2006. In recent years, he’s been the party’s most powerful member of the House, fending off leadership challenges from Del. Terry Kilgore.

A former public prosecutor for Lynchburg city and Shenandoah, Warren and Frederick counties, Gilbert is now in private practice. He has been named legislator of the year by the Virginia State Police Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Sheriff’s Association, and The Family Foundation. He’s also been recognized for his voting record by groups including the National Rifle Association and American Conservative Union. In 2022, he received an A-plus from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce for his pro-business stances.

Representing parts of the Richmond and Hampton Roads suburbs, as well as the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, Republican Wittman is wrapping up his eighth term in the U.S. House and will face Democrat Leslie Mehta in November for the chance to serve a ninth.

A former environmental health specialist and field director for the Virginia Department of Health’s shellfish sanitation division, Wittman has worked his way up the political ladder from the Montross Town Council to the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, Virginia House of Delegates and eventually Congress.

While Wittman condemned “the acts of violence and destruction that occurred at the Capitol building” on Jan. 6, 2021, he voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s electors that year and also joined an amicus brief for a Texas case challenging the legitimacy of electors in four states.

Wittman co-chairs both the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Caucus and the House Rural Broadband Caucus. This spring he helped launch a new Defense Modernization Caucus. He also is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and chairs the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

In 2023, Lunn was promoted to president of the Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA’s Capital Division, which includes 18 hospitals across three states, including Virginia. In November, officials celebrated the opening of the new Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Salem’s LewisGale Medical Center.
The next month, workers began construction on a freestanding emergency room in the New River Valley.

A pulmonologist, Lunn was formerly CEO of HCA’s Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals in Richmond. He also previously was president and CEO of Tulane Health System in New Orleans. Additionally, Lunn was assistant dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine.

Lunn received his bachelor’s degree in history from Tulane University and his medical degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. HCA reported about $64.97 billion in 2023 revenue, compared to $60.23 billion in 2022.

BOOK I’D RECOMMEND: I recently bought “Aesop’s Fables” because I read that Lincoln often read it and retold the stories, and he would often use parts of their wisdom to teach others.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I used to live in London.

Fortune 500 health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor is in the process of moving its headquarters to Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center after selling its Mechanicsville building to the Virginia Department of Transportation for $33.5 million. 

Pesicka, who became the company’s chief executive in 2019, announced in 2023 an “operating model realignment program” to increase profits and reduce costs, and the company later laid off 61 workers in Massachusetts. Owens & Minor reduced net debt by $577 million last year, while also reporting revenue of $10.3 billion. That’s an increase from $9.95 billion in 2022. Pesicka’s total compensation was about $8.4 million in 2023.

In June, Owens & Minor reported in a securities filing that its chief financial officer, Alexander Bruni, resigned at the company’s request and would depart in early September. The reason was not publicly disclosed. And in July, the company entered an agreement to acquire Florida home-based care business Rotech Healthcare Holdings for $1.36 billion in cash.

Pesicka spent 15 years at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he served in several leadership roles.

FAVORITE TEAM: Cleveland Browns

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES: Education doesn’t always come from the places you expect it. Family, friends and teammates often also have something to teach you.

Fisher Auto Parts, one of the nation’s largest automotive-parts retailers with 500 locations, is a family affair. Blair Coiner, Bo Fisher’s grandfather, founded the company in 1929 as a small auto-parts sales concern, and it grew under the leadership of Fisher’s father, Art, who died in 2004.

A James Madison University graduate, the younger Fisher joined the company in 1992 and was serving as president at the time of his father’s death. He was unanimously elected CEO and chairman of the board, and has led the company, which changed its name to Fisher Auto Parts in 1983, to tenfold, debt-free growth in the past two decades.

Fisher also serves as chairman of Federated Auto Parts, which Art Fisher founded. In that role, he created the Art Fisher Memorial Scholarship program for students in the automotive aftermarket industry, and the Art Fisher Memorial Award, which annually honors a member of Federated Auto Parts who has contributed to its success.

In November 2023, Northwood University honored Fisher as a leader in industry education during its annual Automotive Aftermarket Management Education Awards luncheon in Las Vegas.

A William & Mary alum, White has been at the helm of the Virginia Maritime Association since 2018. He began working with the advocacy organization in 2003, representing the interests of the state’s maritime, logistics and transportation companies. White also serves as executive vice president and secretary for the Hampton Roads Shipping Association and as secretary and treasurer for the National Association of Maritime Organizations.

With the Port of Virginia’s completion this year of the shipping channel’s widening project and the deepening segment expected to be complete in fall 2025, the VMA is focusing on encouraging more workforce training in the state. Also of concern is how recent attacks on freighter ships in the Red Sea could impact the nation’s supply chain. In March, the Port of Virginia also handled increased cargo after Baltimore’s Key Bridge collapsed when a freighter collided with it, temporarily closing the city’s port.

In December 2023, a William & Mary study reported that the state’s non-military maritime industry is responsible for 1 in 5 jobs in Virginia, and more than $8 billion in state and local taxes in fiscal 2022. 

Collier served in the U.S. Army from 2004 to 2008 and was an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper before starting his career path. From 2012 to 2018, he was employed in ChemTreat’s marketing division. He left to become president of McCrometer, a flowmeter manufacturer and Danaher subsidiary out of California. In 2020, Collier returned to ChemTreat as senior vice president of marketing and technology. In 2021, he became the company’s president.

Founded in 1968 and acquired by Danaher in 2007, industrial water treatment company ChemTreat employs about 2,000 people in Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Among its customers are food and beverage companies, health care facilities, chemical manufacturers, and oil and gas processors

In March, the company was presented the Platinum Safety Award from Highwire. This award is given to companies who score between 95 and 100 on Highwire’s Safety Assessment and is achieved only by the top 5% of Highwire contractors.

Collier has a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech in industrial and systems engineering and received his MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.