byline: Virginia Business

Working from home, Ballard and his sister, Brenda, founded S.B. Ballard Construction by completing small projects for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and minor renovations for their neighbors.

Over the course of the past 40 years, Ballard has served as a project manager, superintendent, estimator, carpenter and laborer. As president and CEO of S.B. Ballard Construction, he oversees all construction operations and corporate functions, including strategic planning, project management, estimating, business development, corporate communications, safety and quality.

Last year, Ballard Construction completed the 357,000-square-foot Virginia Department of General Services’ Main Street Centre parking deck in Richmond, as well as a fitness center in Hampton serving Joint Base Langley–Eustis. Also completed in 2023 was the Student Recreation and Wellness Center at Old Dominion University, which involved the demolition of an existing field house and building a 121,000-square-foot recreation facility.

Ballard is a member of the Associated General Contractors of America, the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Concrete Contractors.

Litton oversees the day-to-day operations of the commercial real estate and management company, which currently boasts $19 billion in real estate investment properties, with diversified property portfolios including office, retail and multifamily properties.

Additionally, he manages Harbor Group International’s transaction group and is involved with capital-raising efforts, and also chairs the firm’s investment and credit committees and is a member of its executive committee.

In June, Harbor Group International’s credit platform reached $5 billion in assets under management. The firm manages a range of real estate debt investments, including whole loans, Freddie Mac structured debt products, preferred equity investments and mezzanine loans.

Earlier this year, the firm announced the $132.5 million acquisition of a two-asset multifamily portfolio in Denver. 

Litton previously was a corporate law partner at Kaufman & Canoles, negotiating and structuring mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and venture capital/private equity financing for privately held and public companies.

A University of Virginia School of Law graduate, he is a founding director, as well as secretary and treasurer, of the Tidewater Friends of Foster Care board and vice chair of the Access College Foundation board.

First joining Thalhimer as an associate broker in 1995, Warfield now leads the real estate firm’s seven offices and 450 associates in Virginia. In 2016, he became Thalhimer’s fourth CEO since its 1913 founding, adding to the role of president, which he has held since 2011. Warfield has been chairman of Thalhimer’s board since 2017.

Thalhimer Realty Partners, one of the company’s subsidiaries, is part of the team developing some of Richmond’s $2.44 billion Diamond District mixed-use project. Its current team, Diamond District Partners, is developing the commercial and residential portion of the district that will surround the baseball stadium for the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, although the Squirrels later chose a different development team for the baseball stadium they will lease.

Following the change, Thalhimer and Loop Capital formed a new entity, Diamond District Partners, without Republic Properties, which was part of RVA Diamond Partners, the initial development team selected by the City of Richmond. In July, Republic Properties sued Thalhimer and Loop Capital for $40 million, alleging they breached their venture partnership with Republic when they formed the new entity. Warfield said in a statement the lawsuit had “no merit.”

After a nationwide search, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) found its next leader under its nose — Fleming was serving his first term on SCHEV’s governing board when he was hired.

Fleming began his new duties in May, replacing interim director Alan Edwards, who served after longtime SCHEV director Peter Blake stepped down in December 2023.

SCHEV is a coordinating body for the state’s colleges, its board nominated by the governor. It implements statewide policies set by the General Assembly and the governor, suggests policies and funding, and conducts research. Fleming was named to the board in July 2023.

With two degrees from Brigham Young University, Fleming previously worked with Scantron, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Strada Education Foundation, and he was a staffer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Fleming said in an interview with Virginia Business that he will focus attention on technology at Virginia’s colleges and universities and addressing rising tuition costs.

Keogh is leading German parent company Volkswagen AG’s new electric truck and sport utility vehicle division.

Scout is a revamp of the iconic Scout all-terrain vehicle brand produced by International Harvester in the 1960s and ’70s. In 2021, Volkswagen acquired the rights to Scout’s name after buying Navistar International, which succeeded International Harvester, for $3.7 billion.

Volkswagen announced in March 2023 it would build a $2 billion manufacturing plant near Columbia, South Carolina, to house Scout’s assembly operations, with the possibility of at least 4,000 permanent jobs. At full capacity, the new facility could produce more than 200,000 Scout vehicles annually.

In September 2023, construction on the site was delayed, with officials saying they needed more time to obtain wetland permits. Scout still aims to begin production of electric SUV and pickup truck models by late 2026.

Before his leadership role with Scout, Keogh served as president and CEO for Volkswagen of America from 2018 to 2022. At Audi of America from 2006 to 2018, Keogh served as its chief marketing officer before becoming president. He also has years of experience at Mercedes-Benz USA, from 1995 until joining Audi.

Serving as president of Strongwell, Oakley joined the company in 2011, when its president for nearly 40 years and majority stockholder, John Tickle, transitioned to chairman of the board.

Oakley previously served as president of Abingdon’s HAPCO Pole Products for nearly four years, and before that, was its vice president of product management.

Strongwell creates fiberglass products, including structural shapes and building panels, grating, handrail, decking systems, composite armor and ladder rail. It has 525 employees worldwide, with 325 in Virginia.

The company has pultrusion manufacturing facilities in Washington County and Bristol, Virginia, and in Minnesota and Mexico. The 398,000-square-foot Bristol facility is its largest manufacturing facility.

Completing his bachelor’s degree in marketing at University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, Oakley has served on boards for multiple organizations, including the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, the American Composites Manufacturers Association and the Wellmont Health System, which merged with Mountain States Health Alliance to form Ballad Health.

FAVORITE TEAM: Tennessee Volunteers

HOW I FEEL ABOUT AI AT WORK: Favorably; AI speeds tasks and has infinite possibilities in manufacturing.

Paliotti was named president of Afton Chemical in January 2023, succeeding Gina Harm, who retired at the end of 2022. The Richmond-based subsidiary of NewMarket produces and sells petroleum additives.

Before assuming his role at its subsidiary, Paliotti had been with NewMarket since 2008, most recently as its vice president and chief financial officer. Before, he worked in finance roles for Lenel Systems International and Eastman Kodak.

For fiscal 2023, NewMarket reported $388.9 million in net income, up from $279.5 million in 2022. The company reported almost $2.69 billion in net sales for petroleum additives, a decrease from $2.75 billion in 2022.

Paliotti completed his bachelor’s degree in business from Duquesne University’s Palumbo-Donahue School of Business in 1998. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s general management program and holds an MBA from Robert Morris University. In June, the American Chemistry Council extended his term on its board of directors through 2027.

As chief judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, Davis hears the stories of people’s lives, stories that are often terribly sad.

There are armed carjackings and gang violence. Last summer, Davis listened to allegations that police officers had retaliated against a man for accusing a police officer of lying by putting false information on a police report. In November 2023, Davis sentenced the mother of the 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher at a Newport News elementary school in January 2023 for federal convictions related to the gun the child used.  

“This was not a one-off,” Davis said in court, according to news reports. “There was a really troubling history leading up to this incident.”

Before President George W. Bush nominated Davis to the U.S. District Court in 2007, Davis served as a Portsmouth Circuit Court judge.

Davis received his bachelor’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia and his law degree from Washington and Lee University. As an attorney, Davis’ specialty was maritime law. He joined McGuireWoods in 1989, became partner in 1996 and left in 1998 to join Carr & Porter.

Smith became CEO of Smithfield Foods in 2021, just as Smithfield, the world’s largest pork product manufacturer and hog producer, announced an end to slaughter operations in its hometown of Smithfield, the country’s self-proclaimed  “ham capital.”

In 2023, Smith navigated headwinds of low sales and high costs in the U.S. pork market. That year, Smithfield announced plans to close a processing plant in North Carolina and shutter 35 hog farms in Missouri and 26 farms in Utah. The tough market conditions added financial difficulties to political concern among conservative politicians over potential Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land and control of U.S. pork production. Smithfield was acquired in 2013 by Hong Kong-based WH Group.

 In October 2023, WH Group announced it is planning to take Smithfield public, with shares possibly available in 2024, a move that would likely restore Smithfield to the Fortune 500. The first quarter of the year buoyed optimism in the company, with profits showing what WH Group called “substantial improvement” in its U.S. operations. 

A graduate of the University of Mount Olive and William & Mary, Smith started his career at Smithfield in 2003 as a financial analyst.

Blue oversees Fortune 500 utility Dominion, which has 14,400 employees and serves roughly 4 million customers in 13 states. Before joining Dominion in 2004, Blue was an attorney and served as counselor and director of policy under Gov. Mark Warner.

In May, Dominion began installing foundation posts for its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm off Virginia Beach. In July, the utility announced plans for CVOW-South in North Carolina, with Dominion set to buy the Kitty Hawk North Wind offshore wind lease from Avangrid for $160 million. Also that month, Dominion issued an RFP to potentially develop a small modular reactor at its North Anna nuclear power plant. And in June, Dominion closed its $4.3 billion sale of subsidiaries Questar Gas and Wexpro to Enbridge.

A University of Virginia alumnus, Blue has a law degree from Yale University, where he was editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review. He chairs the Nuclear Energy Institute board, is vice board chairman for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and sits on U.Va.’s board of visitors and the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Greater Washington Partnership.