byline: Virginia Business

As VEDP’s leader since 2022, El Koubi oversees numerous initiatives designed to attract outside companies to locate in the commonwealth and to help Virginia businesses expand operations. He’s also responsible for growing economic awareness of Virginia globally, as evidenced by the Virginia trade office in Taiwan that VEDP opened in September 2023, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s meeting with Taiwan’s president at the time, Tsai Ing-wen, during an international trade mission.

El Koubi has been with VEDP since starting as executive vice president in 2017 under his predecessor, Stephen Moret. During his time at VEDP, El Koubi has played
key roles in landing major deals such as Amazon.com’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington County and Lego Group’s $1 billion manufacturing
campus under construction in Chesterfield County.

A graduate of Louisiana State University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, El Koubi previously led One Acadiana, the former Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in Louisiana, where he started a five-year, $15 million regional economic development program to expand businesses in the region. He also helped lead the Louisiana Economic Development organization to attract more than $28 billion in capital investment.

Henrico County is poised to be home to a large technology campus on more than 600 acres not far from the Richmond Airport, after the Board of Supervisors greenlit in May a request for rezoning from developer Hourigan. The project could eventually be home to multiple data centers and light manufacturing facilities.

The development would add to Henrico’s existing data center footprint in nearby White Oak Technology Park, where QTS Data Centers and Meta have data centers.

Also moving forward is the $2.3 billion mixed-use GreenCity development, which includes plans for a 17,000-seat arena that ASM Global will operate.

Romanello has led the economic development authority since 2019, after joining the county in 2016 as deputy county manager. He came to Henrico from Stafford County, where he worked for 12 years as a deputy county administrator and then county administrator. He previously worked for the City of Richmond and West Point.

Romanello earned his bachelor’s degree in American government and history from the University of Virginia and his master’s degree in public administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

In September 2023, Singer began her new role as AT&T’s vice president of federal solutions. In this role, Singer works to advance the adoption of 5G capabilities and promote network modernization efforts to support government missions. This effort includes everything from helping first responders communicate during disasters to enabling the U.S. Air and Space forces to operate autonomous vehicles and robots.

Singer joined AT&T in 2015 after holding information technology leadership roles in both government and industry, including for the State Department, the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office, SAIC and IBM.

Singer is vice chair of the board of trustees for the University of West Florida and sits on the boards of the International Spy Museum and Eutelsat America. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in systems analysis from the University of West Florida. In February, she appeared on Executive Mosaic’s annual Wash100 list of the most impactful government contracting executives for the seventh time.

Last October, Milburn was tapped as the new CEO for YHB, the accounting services firm where he began his career in 1997. Each YHB CEO serves a five-year term, and Milburn succeeds C. Scott Moulden, under whose leadership the firm acquired five accounting firms and grew to 300-plus employees, expanding into Maryland and developing its C-suite. With revenue of $61 million and 299 employees, YHB made Accounting Today’s list of the nation’s largest accounting firms in 2024, ranking No. 96.

Milburn leads YHB’s financial institutions team and is a former Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants board member. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

INTERESTING PLACE I’VE TRAVELED: I recently returned from spending two weeks hiking around Germany and Austria.

HOW I FEEL ABOUT AI AT WORK: I’m excited about the potential of artificial intelligence in the workplace. AI can streamline processes, enhance efficiency and provide valuable insights that help us make more informed decisions. It allows us to focus on higher-level tasks that require human creativity and critical thinking.

Chandler has decades of business and legal experience to share with entrepreneurs as one of NRV’s founders. In 2011, he co-founded the startup investing firm — then known as New Richmond Ventures — with fellow Richmond business leaders Jim Ukrop and Bob Mooney.

Today, the firm financially contributes to the Farmer Focus organic meat brand, Norfolk-based software company SVT Robotics and Iron Sheepdog, an online platform for short-haul trucking companies founded in Williamsburg. Chandler also co-chairs the board of RVA757 Connects, a business group aiming for greater collaboration between Richmond and Hampton Roads.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond School of Law, Chandler launched his career as an attorney at Williams Mullen, where he specialized in corporate law, mergers and securities law. After that, he was lead director of property and casualty insurance broker Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs. Chandler then served as chairman and CEO of Richmond-based LandAmerica Financial Group, a real estate services company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008. 

A longtime economic development and maritime leader in Hampton Roads, Grden was key in overseeing the 2023 merger of Reinvent Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable, resulting in the creation of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, which she now leads.

Previously, she was director of the Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth & Innovation and associate president of Old Dominion University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as general manager for Genomind, a health care company that uses genetic information to inform mental health treatments. Grden also spent 14 years with consultancy Avenir.

HRER is a support organization for GO Virginia Region 5, the regional arm of the statewide economic development initiative. Grden and the roundtable have been active in discussions about how to address growing energy demands created by data centers. She is preparing for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration, which will put a spotlight on Hampton Roads, particularly Williamsburg.

FAVORITE TEAM: Pittsburgh Steelers (hometown “inoculates” you with black and gold)

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: Growing up, I wanted to be the first woman astronaut.

In the first few months of 2024, freight business Total Quality Logistics announced it would open a new location in Norfolk, and Australian company Quality Maritime Surveyors said it was expanding to the Hampton Roads area. The announcements continue momentum from 2023, when the Hampton Roads Alliance’s 13 new project announcements represented more than 2,800 new jobs and $625 million in capital investment.

Smith took the helm of the Hampton Roads Alliance, a regional economic development organization representing 14 municipalities and numerous private-sector investors, in 2019. Before that, he served as city manager for Norfolk and served stints as deputy city manager in both Virginia Beach and Portsmouth.

Smith, who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, also was president and CEO of Kaufman & Canoles for four years. He serves as an ex-officio board member for the Virginia Peninsula Chamber and the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and is a board member for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore.

As part of its five-year plan, the Alliance expects to bring 7,000 jobs to the region by the end of 2027.

In February, Fernandez was named president and CEO of Fortune 500 IT services and consulting company DXC Technology after serving in an interim capacity since December 2023 and on the company’s board of directors since 2020. He succeeded Mike Salvino following three years of declining revenues.

Headquartered in Ashburn, DXC has roughly 130,000 employees serving 6,000 customers worldwide. Its fiscal 2024 revenue was $13.7 billion, down 5.3% year-over-year. DXC was delisted from the S&P 500 Index and moved to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index in October 2023.

Fernandez is also vice chairman and co-owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards and the Washington Mystics.

Fernandez founded and was CEO of website and internet services developer Proxicom, which Dimension Data acquired in 2001. Fernandez served as CEO of Dimension Data North America from 2000 to 2002 and then as CEO and chairman of ObjectVideo.

The University of Maryland graduate previously was a director of Broadcom, GameStop, Kate Spade & Co. and Capitol Investment Corp. V. He also served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under President George W. Bush.

In January, Clay became global sales and client engagement leader for Marsh McLennan in addition to being a senior partner for its Mercer subsidiary. In her new role, she develops sales and client engagement strategies for the Fortune 500 professional services firm’s four businesses, which collectively have more than 85,000 employees in about 130 countries; Mercer is one of those businesses.

Prior to joining Mercer in 2011, Clay was senior vice president of global human resources at Encore Capital Group and chief people officer for Capital One Bank. She also was vice president of operations for Capital One, running large customer service centers in Virginia and Florida.

Clay serves on the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s board, which she chaired in 2020, and also on the board for the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs at Virginia Tech.

Clay has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is certified by the Society for Human Resources Management as a senior professional in human resources, is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and earned an NACD Directorship Certification.