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Diversity, equity and inclusion
Brought to you by Virginia Business and Bank of America, join us every other month for the Diversity Leadership Series — virtual fireside chats with a diverse group of Virginia business leaders sharing their insights and thoughts on leadership, their career paths, and diversity and equity.
Our series kicked off on July 20 with Brian Robertson, CEO of Mechanicsville-based Marion Marketing Global LLC, interviewing Ron Carey, founder and CEO of Tilt Creative + Production, a Richmond-based agency that produces advertising and promotional content for clients such as Capital One Financial Corp., Walmart Inc. and Audi of America.
Below is an abridged version of their conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Brian Robertson: Under your leadership, you have turned Tilt Creative + Production into a global player in the creative space. What do you attribute to the credit of your rapid growth?
Ron Carey: First of all, I’ll make a comment that I didn’t … do it by myself. I had a wonderful set of great partners. Stacy Murphy and Dave Trownsell are my business partners in that venture. First of all, we started with a small plan … to try and find a better way of creating content. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that we could do it with some of the best people in the world creatively as well as just some people who were just good people at their core. That’s really the foundation of Tilt.
Robertson: Briefly, Ron, explain to us how Tilt Creative + Production even came about.
Carey: That’s an interesting story. … This was 2017 and I had been running a small digital agency called Studio Squared. Studio Squared at the time primarily focused on creating content in-store for Walmart. There were some changes in the business, and we had a wonderful opportunity to step back and think about, “Where would we like the business to go moving forward?” That was November of 2017. At the time … one of my senior creatives said [to me], “Chief, you used to have a conversation with the Park Group. Dave and Stacy, they would be interesting. They’ve got some ideas and thoughts.”
From that conversation, started … this notion of what would happen if we took a creative company, Studio Squared, … and [a media production company like] Park Group and we merged it into one thing? At the time it was unheard of that you would have a creative agency and a production company all under one roof, but … we were anticipating that brands would have a need for a content partner, and a way to more easily develop content [and] develop a strategy around it. That started us on the path. We … literally moved across the street down to Park Group, and in January 2018, we started working together. That’s been almost four years now.
Robertson: That’s amazing — wow! — to have that vision.
Carey: I would like to think that was a vision. Some of it was a bit of luck. I think some of it was a bit about just being able to focus on seeing an opportunity. … We often hear business school professors talk about, “Well, what’s the need? What’s the problem to be solved?” … We believed enough in it that we thought, “Let’s go ahead and take the step.” When you can take the step with people that you trust, and you feel they’re going to hold up their end of the bargain, it makes it a lot easier.
Robertson: What has been some of your toughest challenges of being an entrepreneur in a media space that is dominated by people who mainly don’t look like us?
Carey: It’s interesting. Sometimes I’ll say it jokingly, but I’ve been Black 53 years, my entire life. You don’t think about it. … I think you recognize that there’s a transformation that was going on, both in media and marketing and advertising, Richmond, the broader community, as well as the broader business environment. I’m thankful, really, to my parents for this … approach of, “There are just some amazing people in the world. Some of them are going to look like you and some of them won’t look like you.” Some of the folks that didn’t look like me were folks that were incredibly influential on my career.
I look back at … what I learned from the Mars family [of Mars Inc.], because I spent 13 or 14 years working for the Mars family. I walked away with a vast amount of knowledge. … On the surface, we might not have had a lot of things in common, but from that experience, I was able to take The Five Principles away, just as one example.
I don’t think I thought about the racial component [in my own business] as much as I thought about, “How do you make payroll? How do you bring your talent along that you need to bring along? Do you really have something that’s compelling, that a client’s going to want to pay for?” Because at the end of the day, that’s what I want to make sure that we do.
The fact that I’m an African American is important, but I want … our clients to feel like the work that we do is amazing work, it’s smart work, it stands up against the work that anyone else can be doing, and for that, you’re willing to compensate us for it. That’s the path that I’ve gone down. I think along that journey … what I realized is I had been awarded this platform because of the success of the business and some of the things I’d done in the community … to be able to speak out about some things and bring awareness to some things, and also share a perspective back. … Maybe there were obstacles there from a race perspective, but quite honestly, I didn’t feel like I had the time to pause and think about it.
I will say this though, I remember … we had closed on the [Tilt Creative] deal [on] Jan. 31st, [2018]. The offices were empty, and I had been so busy that I had forgotten that it was Martin Luther King King [Jr.] Day. My head of finance came to me, and she said, “Wow, this is pretty amazing. You guys got this deal closed. You’ve been able to buy the company, get things started. Oh, by the way, happy Martin Luther King Day.” I was just like, wow. I had been so heads-down that I’ve forgotten what the time was. It was a momentous occasion for me.
Robertson: You work with a lot of global brands like Hellmann’s, Walmart, Audi. Tell us about a rewarding campaign that you worked on for not so much of a big brand.
Carey: I think that’s a really interesting one. A business partner, she thought highly enough of us to reach out to us. It’s a fairly small thing, but again, there were moments in times, there are pivotal moments, when things happen.
She brought us an opportunity for VCPI, Virginia Center for Policing Innovation. They were really looking for assistance on how to think about speaking to diverse communities, and not just African American, but Native American, so they wanted to have a very broad conversation about that. It’s been our pleasure, over the last several years, to find that voice of those communities, to be able to articulate and create a dialogue between the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation that they were working on and this broad set of communities. That’s just one that we took great pride in.
I love the brand work that we have a chance to do, but I also think about …. ChildSavers. It’s [a nonprofit] organization focused on mental health and child development services. We had the opportunity to develop a long-form piece of content to help tell the story around the work that they’ve been doing for almost 100 years, which is just amazing. It was our pleasure to just really get in and be able to tell an emotional story and help during a time where they’re going through a significant capital campaign.
Those are the two things that resonate with me as you start to think about how you take the art of storytelling and then have it impact the world.
Robertson: Tilt mainly creates content for online digital space as well as for television, repurposing it all over the place. Where do you see Tilt growing in the next five years?
Carey: I’ll get to what I think the growth is … [but] I feel like as the keeper of the culture … I think the intent, first and foremost, is let’s make sure that we continue to have a positive impact on the world. That’s the most significant thing. I often tell people, when we started the company, it wasn’t just purely about the profit that could be generated, it was not only about the opportunities, but it was about having a broader impact on the world, in our communities. Providing our folks a living and being able to invest in the things that we feel like make a difference to people, that would be a key driver for us.
That should ground where Tilt is over the next several years, but I see a really bright future. I feel like Tilt and the model that we’ve put together is something that certainly can grow across North America. You mentioned globally, we are already working globally. I think with the right opportunities that present themselves, I could certainly see another presence someplace else in North America … as well as outside, in perhaps Europe. … What’s happened over the last year and a half is we’ve all learned how to work remotely. We’ve made investments in technology. … Now we can shoot and record things out of our production studio and then have clients sit almost virtually anywhere in the world and provide feedback on cuts and edits and things that we’re doing. The business model has shifted dramatically and may not require nearly as much physical structure because you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you’ve got the right connectivity.
Robertson: Absolutely. With a staff of over 40 people, how do you find all of these great creative minds, first of all? And how do you keep them all engaged and happy?
Carey: That’s an interesting challenge, right?
Creative people are really interesting, as you know, and unique and special. It’s like harnessing a bunch of superpowers together. It’s like getting a team of the Avengers and trying to get them to all work together, move in the right direction, but I think we do it well. … How do we do that? I think it [goes] back to that bit around the culture that I was talking about — truly being a culture that cares about people, that seeks people who are really good to their core, that’s massive. I can’t teach you that. I can’t give you that gift. I can model it for you, but I think if you have it inherently, then we should attract those kinds of people.
When you look for good people, and you find them, and you treat them well, it starts to attract other people. I think that’s the most powerful talent model that we’ve got. … Once that radiates to the world, there are others that then want to say, “Gosh, that’s something I want to be a part of.” That’s literally what I think my role is: to make sure that we can set up that type of environment and model that behavior, such that others say, “That’s something I want to be a part of.”
Robertson: For my final question, what motivates you each day? What makes Ron Carey care in Tilt?
Carey: It’s something that I would challenge anyone who’s looking at this to think about, and that is understanding what your purpose is. Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that my purpose was to leave this world better than I found it and have a positive impact on the lives of people that I come in contact with. Some of those interactions may be big, some of those interactions may be small. … It’s not about the words you say, it’s about the feelings that you leave people with, and that’s what I want us to continue to do.
What motivates me is looking at my three daughters, two of which are grown now, and putting people into the world who are resilient and thoughtful, and hopefully wanting to have an impact.
Then I look with great pride [at] the 45 employees that we’ve got, that are doing things in the world and being thoughtful and having an impact on both clients and the broader Richmond community. That’s what keeps me going, man. I’m an optimist to my core. I will continue to be optimistic about the opportunities both for Richmond and our business and the broader community. That’s just how I roll. ν
September For the Record
Roanoke/New River Valley
Apex Clean Energy is appealing a decision that it ran out of time for its Rocky Forge Wind project in Botetourt County, a proposed complex of 14 mountaintop wind turbines atop North Mountain that would stand about twice as tall as the Wells Fargo tower in downtown Roanoke. Apex informed the county in early August that it would appeal. A public hearing will be held within 90 days after which the county’s board of zoning appeals will have 60 days to make a decision. In July, the county’s zoning administrator determined that
Apex had missed a May 26 deadline for county approval of a site plan. (The Roanoke Times)
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin visited the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 9, offering encouragement about the economic recovery. The combination of suppressed spending, pent-up demand and excess savings means people have money to spend, Barkin said, and he doesn’t see the delta variant derailing the economic recovery. He also said the Fed has the tools to manage inflation, should it become more exacerbated, and they are watching it closely. (WDBJ)
On Aug. 13., a federal judge declined to block the blasting of bedrock on Bent Mountain for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon says she lacks authority to step into a dispute over the natural gas pipeline because a Bent Mountain landowner already had sought action from federal regulators. Roanoke County property owner J. Coles Terry sought a temporary injunction against the company as part of an ongoing eminent domain case, citing alleged damage to the aquifer. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and pipeline officials have said they’ve not seen evidence of the potential harm described by Terry. (WTRF, Virginia Mercury)
The Patton Logistics Group will invest $11 million to expand its trucking, logistics and warehousing operation in the New River Valley Commerce Park in Pulaski County, creating 63 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in August. The company will add 150,000 square feet to its 250,000-square-foot logistics center. The expansion will include a trucking operations and maintenance center that will provide infrastructure to support a future investment in electric trucks. Patton Logistics Group is composed of three affiliate companies that employ more than 150 people in Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
During an uncertain year when colleges were facing financial challenges due to the pandemic, Virginia Tech raised a record amount of money in gifts and commitments over the last year. Supporters gave $200.3 million during the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, according to the university. The university cited unprecedented participation from donors, including nearly 12,400 people contributing on Virginia Tech’s annual fundraising day in February, as the driver of the 8% increase in gifts and commitments over the previous fiscal year. The university’s undergraduate alumni giving percentage increased from 15% to 20%. (The Roanoke Times)
PEOPLE
Virginia Tech has hired Charlene Casamento as its associate vice president for enterprise administrative operations, the university announced in August. Casamento will work alongside Virginia Tech’s leadership, serving as the university’s chief administrative officer and executing university operational initiatives. She reports to Dwayne Pinkney, the university’s senior vice president and chief business officer. Casamento previously served as chief financial officer for Central Connecticut State University. She has also held roles with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Northern Virginia
Capital One Financial Corp. pushed back the reopening of its offices by two months to November, citing surging COVID-19 cases, CEO Richard Fairbank said in August. And when its thousands of employees do return to the McLean headquarters and elsewhere, vaccines will be required for those who want to work on site. In a letter to employees, Fairbank said the plan to reopen Capital One as a “hybrid work company” on Sept. 7 will wait until Nov. 2. Employees who choose to work on a Capital One campus or in a bank office, in addition to all contractors, vendors and visitors, will have to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated. (Washington Business Journal)
Reston-based software company Clarabridge Inc. is being acquired by Utah-based data analytics firm Qualtrics International Inc. in a nearly $1.13 billion all-stock deal, the companies announced in August. Founded in 2006, Clarabridge has customers that include United Airlines, General Motors Co. and UnitedHealthcare. Qualtrics will acquire Clarabridge through purchase of a fixed number of class A common stock shares with a share price of $37.33. The two companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close Dec. 31. Qualtrics reported 2020 revenue of $763.5 million. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Dumfries Town Council scheduled public hearings on Sept. 13 and 21 on Colonial Downs Group Inc.‘s proposed Dumfries gaming resort, dubbed The Rose. Colonial Downs, which runs a Rosie’s Gaming Emporium in town, announced in February plans for the $389 million gaming resort. It would include a 50,000-square-foot gaming space, a 250-seat sports bar, eight other bars and restaurants, 7,000 square feet of event space, 200 hotel rooms and a 1,500-seat theater. The company wants to rezone 93.5 acres at the Potomac Landfill to planned mixed-use development and obtain a conditional-use permit. (Inside NoVa)
Commercial real estate brokerage KLNB is the choice to market the Landmark Mall redevelopment to retail tenants, now that Alexandria officials have approved preliminary plans and bond financing for the 4.2 million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment, which will be anchored by a 1 million-square-foot Inova Health System hospital. The redevelopment, to be rebranded under a new name, is slated to include around 285,000 square feet of retail off Duke and Van Dorn streets. (Washington Business Journal)
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has signed an agreement to redevelop the West Falls Church Metro Station site for a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development to include apartments, townhouses, retail and public green spaces, the authority announced in August. Construction is expected to begin in 2023. The agreement was reached with FGCP-Metro LLC, a joint real estate development partnership involving Falls Church-based Rushmark Properties, Maryland’s EYA LLC and Washington, D.C.’s Hoffman & Associates. The project is the result of several years of work among Metro, the developers and Fairfax County, which approved a comprehensive plan amendment in July to support the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PEOPLE
Sol Glasner is retiring as head of the Tysons Partnership. He will stay on as the group’s president and CEO through the end of the year, but in July and August he began informing the partnership’s board members and Fairfax County elected officials of his plans to retire. He’s held the position for roughly four years and served as chair of its board from 2012 to 2014, shortly after the partnership was founded. The partnership is negotiating with local businesses, property owners and county officials about how it should be run and funded going forward, with the possibility of becoming a full business improvement district, the county’s first. (Washington Business Journal)
Southwest Virginia
Abingdon Town Council allocated $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding to finish the town’s sports complex, which is expected to open by June 2022. The complex has four baseball fields, two multipurpose fields, a concession stand, a splash pad and access to the Creeper Trail. The town will use the funding to add lights, a second concession stand and a field house with bathrooms at the soccer section. Big Stone Gap-based construction firm Quesenberry’s Inc. is handling the project’s roughly $7.6 million construction. (SWVA Today, WCYB News 5)
Ballad Health announced in August that it would defer all elective, nonemergency surgical cases requiring overnight patient stays, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Based on the rate of growth in hospitalizations, projections of community spread and few mitigation efforts, Ballad Health estimates that inpatient hospitalization numbers could reach as high as 500. The number of inpatients the system already has is straining resources. Postponed procedures may include cardiac, orthopedic and other surgeries determined not to be emergencies. (Bristol Herald Courier)
The Bristol Chamber of Commerce revealed its “Bristol 2040 Visioning Strategic Plan” at its Aug. 11 State of the Cities event, held at the Bristol, Virginia, train station. To counteract economic growth barriers like an aging population, low wages and a brain drain to larger cities, the plan recommended focusing on eight issues: arts and tourism, the music economy, a competitive workforce, entrepreneurship, housing, leadership and collaboration, downtown Bristol and targeted business. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Mountain Empire Community College will receive almost $363,400 in federal grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds with financial, academic and career counseling. The college’s foundation received a grant for up to $100,000 to increase workforce development and training. In August, the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority approved the funding, which will go toward scholarships, training instructional costs, retraining costs and assessments as well as customized workforce training for area businesses. (The Coalfield Progress)
The Ecotourism in Nature’s Wonderland project received $2.25 million from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program to help establish a healthy habitat on 2,500 acres in Buchanan County. The project, run by Southwest Virginia Sportsmen and Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, will turn 350 acres of a historic surface coal mine into a wildlife habitat. Located near Poplar Gap Park, the project is expected to create jobs, increase tourism to the county and help educate visitors about native wildlife.
(SWVA Today)
Virginia Tourism Corp.‘s Recovery Marketing Leverage Program, which helps tourism projects recover from the pandemic, awarded $147,000 to 11 Southwest Virginia initiatives in August. Recipients included: Abingdon Convention and Visitors Bureau; Abingdon Main Street Alliance; Abingdon-based Barter Theatre; Discover Bristol; Gate City; The Martha Washington Inn & Spa in Abingdon; Lee County-based Old Virginia Hand Hewn Log Homes Inc.; Pennington Gap; St. Paul; Scott County; and Virginia Creeper Trail Club in Abingdon. (Kingsport Times-News)
PEOPLE
Scott Robertson became the director of marketing and communications for the Abingdon-based United Way of Southwest Virginia on Aug. 9. Robertson will direct strategic marketing and promotions, provide communications project management and oversee digital services. He was previously the managing editor of The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia. Robertson has been involved in regional workforce and community health initiatives such as Region AHEAD (the Appalachian Highlands Economic Aid Directory).
(VirginiaBusiness.com)
Southern Virginia
A two-phase project will bring changes to Danville Regional Airport to accommodate increased traffic anticipated from the Caesars Virginia casino expected to open in 2023. Work will include widening the taxiway, construction of a new taxi lane and aircraft parking to support a planned new t-hangar building, a jet aircraft parking ramp and a parking lot. Additionally, Danville has a $3.05 million crosswind runway rehab project planned, which will likely be paid for with a bond issued by the city of Danville. Planned work at the airport for the next two years will cost about $8 million. (Danville Register & Bee)
Patrick & Henry Community College is the new name of what was formerly called Patrick Henry Community College. The change is small — adding an ampersand between “Patrick” and “Henry,” — but it is meaningful to the two counties the college serves. The school’s namesakes are Patrick and Henry counties, not the former governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. It isn’t the only school changing its name. John Tyler Community College will become Brightpoint Community College and Lord Fairfax Community College will become Laurel Ridge Community College. (WSLS 10 News)
In early August, Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston announced tightened visitation rules at the hospital as the area saw a rise in COVID-19, tracking surging caseloads as the delta variant spreads rapidly among unvaccinated individuals. The Virginia Department of Health reported 1,403 new cases of COVID-19 in the state on Aug. 3, the highest total since mid-April. Under the updated policy, no visitors are allowed except in specific situations, such as emergency room and maternity ward visits, and the hospital is requiring guests to wear masks inside the building. (SoVaNow.com)
South Boston Town Council in mid-August voted down a permit for a solar power project to be built by Atlanta-based Dimension Renewable Energy on 53 acres along U.S. 360 near Edmunds Park. Council members rejected the 5.4-megawatt facility on the grounds that it would go at the wrong location at the gateway into South Boston. Stuart Rutledge, the owner of the land, said he had been trying to market the land for nearly 20 years and this was the first offer he saw as being feasible for the town. It was estimated that the solar panels would have contributed $230,000 in local tax revenue over 25 years. (South Boston News & Record)
After being open for a few months, the TAD Space in Martinsville had its grand opening on Aug. 6. Owner Wayne Draper refers to it as a playground for all creatives. The goal is to give businesses a space and the resources to get on their feet and eventually start a more thriving business community in Martinsville. What was once an antique mall in Uptown Martinsville is now home to a grand ballroom, five executive conference rooms, multiple private office suites, a professional recording studio and a podcast studio. Businesses pay daily, weekly and monthly rates to use the building. Other services include business marketing and strategy, branding, leadership training and development, and website development. (WSLS 10 News)
The 2020 U.S. Census showed a decline in the population of Danville, but the decrease may be slowing down in the longer term. Danville’s 2020 population fell from 43,055 in 2010 to 42,590, according to figures released in mid-August by the U.S. Census Bureau. There was also a drop in Pittsylvania County’s population. In Danville, the drop from 2010 to 2020 was smaller than the drop from 2000 to 2010, when the population fell from 48,411 to 43,055. (Danville Register & Bee)
Eastern Virginia
Hampton University is raising its minimum wage on campus to $13 an hour. The pay raise went into effect July 1 for the university’s hourly employees. The pay rate far exceeds the current minimum wage in Virginia, which is $9.50 an hour. The state minimum wage was raised for the first time in more than a decade this May and is set to increase again — to $11 an hour — in January 2022. Then, in January 2023, the rate will be $12 an hour. (WAVY)
Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Technical Solutions division won a contract worth up to $346 million to provide personnel recovery and casualty evacuation services for the Department of Defense’s U.S. Africa Command, it announced Aug. 3. The task order has a one-year base period with extension options. HII will provide aircraft and operational support services. Buoyed by Newport News Shipbuilding’s more than $150 million swing back to profitability, HII reported a more than 140% increase in second quarter profits, with second quarter net income of $129 million and quarterly revenue rising 10% to $2.23 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com, Daily Press)
Developers are teaming up with celebrities like musician Pharrell Williams and former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith to compete for the chance to redevelop Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall. Crossroads Partnership LLC, made up of 10 companies, envisions a mix of retail, offices, a hotel, a park, and a 15,000-seat arena among other facilities. Norfolk M.C. Associates LLC calls its proposal The Well —with 477,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, 864 housing units and more than 159,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. Wellness Circle LLC proposes green space, an arena, 1 million square feet of office space and a hotel. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Newport News’ airport in July got a boost in its yearslong effort to get flights to Washington Dulles International Airport to connect to a third major international gateway. Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport has been working to establish flight service to Dulles airport for more than three years. And it’s getting closer to that goal, having won a $847,646 U.S. Department of Transportation grant to support service to Dulles for up to two years. Local governments have pledged a total of $600,000 for the effort and the airport itself will spend $150,000 on marketing. (Daily Press)
PEOPLE
Angela Blackwell Carter is Norfolk Tourism Foundation‘s new director. The foundation is an adjunct agency to VisitNorfolk, a nonprofit organization that promotes the city as a destination for travelers, meetings and conventions. She was the Hampton Roads Chamber’s vice president for leadership programs and
executive director of LEAD Hampton Roads, the region’s oldest and largest leadership organization, for more than two decades. (Inside Business)
Norfolk Airport Authority Executive Director Robert S. Bowen will retire effective March 1, 2022. Bowen has been working at the airport since summer 1974, when he started his career at Piedmont Aviation (later Piedmont Airlines). He joined the Airport Authority in 1988 as its director of operations and was named executive director in 2016. During Bowen’s tenure, the airport has initiated 120 capital improvement projects and introduced three new ultra-low-cost airlines. The Norfolk Airport Authority Board of Commissioners is conducting a search for his successor. (WAVY)
Shenandoah Valley
Evolve Manufacturing, a Winchester-based specialty composite manufacturer founded in 2013, announced in August that it will invest $1.25 million to enlarge its plant in Frederick County. The company, which plans to expand its Evolve Stone line of artificial stones that are face nailed, will add a second production line, triple its facility space and increase production for its major customers, including Home Depot. The project is expected to create 84 jobs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Harrisonburg Planning Commission voted to recommend that Harrisonburg City Council deny Skylar & Talli LLC’s request to change 16,000 square feet of the ground floor originally slated for commercial use to residential space, adding about 60 beds in the Apartments at Peach Grove, near James Madison University’s Sentara Park. The developer’s representative cited buyers backing out and a lack of businesses wanting to move in, while the commission cited increased traffic. The city council will address the request on Sept. 14. (Daily News-Record)
The Valley Milk Products plant in Strasburg ceased operations in early August following a July 30 boiler explosion. The plant will be closed for six to 24 months while repairs and an investigation occur, although all 18 employees are still working there, with some taking on security roles. The building has been deemed structurally sound. Maintenance documents showed standard repairs were made to one of the plant’s two essential boilers in July. The U.S. Department of Labor and insurance companies with policies for the boiler, the plant and a neighborhood shopping center damaged from the blast are involved in the investigation. (The Winchester Star)
The Warren County Board of Supervisors is tabling the proposed two-mile Appalachian Trail Connector that would connect the south end of Front Royal to the Appalachian Trail because of its estimated $3.03 million cost. For the first phase of the project, the county hoped to use grant money from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program run by the Virginia Department of Education. It would receive $527,088 from the fund and pay $131,772. The county set aside about $167,000 in its special projects fund, but it would still need to pay the remaining nearly $1 million. Warren County Planning Director Joe Petty told the board that the county could use the money to create a park or toward its plans for other local trails. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Waynesboro City Council approved a grant application for a plan to defuse stormwater drainage issues. The city plans to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution by creating a wetlands system in the Hopeman Station subdivision, which the Waynesboro Stormwater Program identified as having the most potential for reducing pollution. The city will apply for a grant through the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund, managed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The grant would pay for half of the project, $525,000, and the city
would pay the other half. (News Leader)
PEOPLE
On Aug. 1, the Rev. Andrea Cornett-Scott became Mary Baldwin University‘s first chief diversity officer, responsible for campuswide diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and resources. Cornett-Scott has been with Mary Baldwin since 1996, when she became its director of African American affairs. She was most recently the associate provost for inclusive excellence, during which time she established a leadership program for women of African descent. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Central Virginia
In August, Richmond Circuit Court approved Richmond City Council’s petition to place a referendum on the November ballot for city voters to weigh in on the Urban One Inc.-backed ONE Casino + Resort project. It’s the next step in the process that started early this year with the city’s request for proposals for a casino resort. If approved by voters, the proposed $562.5 million casino would be approved to start construction in South Side Richmond near Interstate 95 on 100 acres owned by Altria Group Inc. It would be the only casino under Black ownership in the country. Urban One, which owns and operates 55 radio stations and the TV One cable network, has partnered with Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, owner of Colonial Downs Group and the Rosie’s Gaming Emporium franchise. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced in August that all city employees will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming the first Virginia locality to mandate vaccination. It was followed the next day by Gov. Ralph Northam‘s declaration that state employees will be required to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 1 or be tested weekly, as the delta variant has led to rising cases. Universities, businesses and other workplaces in Virginia have put in place similar requirements of employees in recent weeks as infections, hospitalizations and deaths spread among unvaccinated people. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System is raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour in September. The roughly 1,700 employees and contract workers affected provide food and nutrition, environmental and valet services, among other jobs. They represent about 10% of the Richmond-based system’s workforce. The move follows the University of Virginia and Sentara Healthcare’s minimum wage increases to $15 earlier this year. The state raised its hourly minimum pay from $7.25 to $9.50 in May, and on Jan. 1, 2022, the wage will increase to $11. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia State University in Petersburg and Virginia Union University in Richmond are among more than 20 historically Black colleges and universities that used federal Higher Education Emergency Relief funds to cover unpaid tuition, fees, room and board and dining, according to the United Negro College Fund. Universities were required to direct a large percentage of federal funds toward students. They could use the rest to offset revenue lost during the pandemic, but many HBCUs went further by using university money to forgive student balances. The two Richmond-area HBCUs directed nearly $8 million to the initiative, helping about 2,500 students. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
PEOPLE
In August, Caley Edgerly took the wheel as president and CEO of Lynchburg bus dealer Sonny Merryman Inc., as former CEO Floyd Merryman III moved into his new role as executive chairman of the family business started by his father 55 years ago. Edgerly previously served as president and CEO of North Carolina-based school bus manufacturer Thomas Built Buses for six years. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Former Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring has been appointed managing partner of McGuireWoods‘ Richmond office, the law firm announced in August. After
13 years as the city’s prosecutor, Herring became a partner at McGuireWoods in 2019. He specializes in commercial litigation, government investigations and white collar criminal defense. Herring also is an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Telecommunications
VINCE APRUZZESE
PRESIDENT, AT&T VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
Apruzzese joined AT&T more than two decades ago in accounts payable and has served in roles ranging from legislative affairs to domestic and international corporate security. As president, he helps set and implement AT&T’s public policy and philanthropic initiatives in Virginia.
When the pandemic scrambled everyone’s plans, he says, employees and customers had to pivot quickly. Apruzzese puts into perspective what the soaring demand for virtual connections has meant for his company: “On an average day now, about 468 petabytes of data cross our network, up 40% year over year. That’s the equivalent of streaming nearly 100 million 2-hour-long movies in HD.”
Apruzzese serves on the board of directors for nonprofit Jobs for Virginia Graduates, which supports youth initiatives such as Boys to Men Mentoring Network of Virginia and Girls on the Run Hampton Roads.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, Georgia State University
FIRST JOB: Paper carrier for The Sentinel in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
HOBBY/PASSION: Playing the guitar, visiting Virginia’s great wineries and cooking on my Big Green Egg
MATTHEW J. DESCH
CEO, IRIDIUM COMMUNICATIONS INC., McLEAN
Desch’s company operates a constellation of 66 satellites providing communications services such as broadband, voice and data communications.
As the pandemic pushed his staff to telework, Desch connected with his approximately 600 employees via a regular videocast, saying, “You can’t overcommunicate with a remote workforce.”
The coronavirus pandemic “tested the kind of culture our company really has, and who we were as an employer,” he says. The company changed the way it worked but still grew its bottom line: Total revenue in 2020 reached $583.4 million, up 4% from 2019.
A member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the board of Unisys Corp., Desch has been with Iridium since 2006. He sees a company responsibility to inspire student interest in space and STEM subjects.
EDUCATION: The Ohio State University (B.S.) and The University of Chicago (MBA)
HOBBY/PASSION: An active private pilot, I’m passionate about anything that elevates us above the Earth. You can see why I love the satellite business.
CHRISTOPHER E. FRENCH
PRESIDENT AND CEO, SHENANDOAH TELECOMMUNICATIONS Co. (SHENTEL), EDINBURG
This summer, French marked the end of an era for the company he has led since 1988. After decades of providing wireless mobile service, Shentel sold its wireless operations to T-Mobile for $1.95 billion.
The deal provided a return of $936.6 million to shareholders via a special dividend of $18.75 per share, with about $19.6 million reinvested in shares of the company’s common stock.
The sale also is resulting in a company restructuring that will bring a workforce reduction of about 30%, or 340 employees, across its six-state, mid-Atlantic service area.
In the deal’s aftermath, Shentel is focused on expanding broadband access through its Glo Fiber fiber-optic service and Beam, its fixed wireless broadband service. Amid the pandemic, Shentel worked with school systems to ensure the availability of broadband service to student households.
Among other civic roles, French serves on the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education board.
EDUCATION: University of Virginia (B.S., MBA)
VACATION SPOT: An uncrowded beach
HoBBY/PASSION: Family
J.D. MYERS II
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND REGION MANAGER OF VIRGINIA OPERATIONS, COX COMMUNICATIONS INC., CHESAPEAKE
Myers sees the pandemic as both the biggest challenge and greatest accomplishment of the last year for the 2,400 employees he oversees at Cox Communications.
“As providers of critical infrastructure, we had to stay on,” he says. His employees worked to provide the reliable broadband connection that families, businesses and hospitals needed “to stay connected, to continue to serve their own customers and to fight to keep people alive.”
A former U.S. Army officer active in mentoring and civic organizations, Myers is a trustee for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and serves on the GO Virginia Region 5 Council.
EDUCATION: American University (B.A., dual master’s degrees)
PHILANTHROPY: Maya Angelou said, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” I remember going to school hungry, but have worked hard to ensure my daughters will never know that feeling. Therefore, it’s my obligation and privilege to support organizations like Virginia’s food banks, especially this past year. I also recognize the gift of time and never turn down an opportunity to mentor when given the chance.
HOBBY/PASSION: Philanthropy, golf and weight training. Golf offers a mental challenge, and weight training challenges my body. So they’re a perfect balance.
Agriculture
CHAD BALLARD III
PRESIDENT, BALLARD FISH & OYSTER CO. Inc., CAPE CHARLES
Ballard left his job as an investment banking analyst in 2008 to focus on selling Misty Points, Chincoteague Salts and Littlenecks, oysters and clams that have been his family’s livelihood for five generations, going back more than 125 years. Ballard Fish & Oyster Co., which employs more than 150 people across all its locations, is the parent company of Cherrystone Aqua-Farms and Chincoteague Shellfish Farms.
Virginia leads the East Coast in hard clam and Eastern oyster production, according to a report from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. But the multimillion-dollar industry faced hardships in 2020, with restaurants closed due to the pandemic.
A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Ballard is an associate board member on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and serves on the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association board.
In April 2020, Gov. Ralph Northam appointed Ballard to the state’s
COVID-19 Business Task Force. This March, Ballard announced the sale of Cherrystone Family Camping Resort to Sun RV Resorts for $9.8 million.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Advice is the most insincere form of communication.
FIRST JOB: Retail associate at Wild River Outfitters in Virginia Beach
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “A Time for Mercy,” by John Grisham
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION: Norfolk Canyon, off Virginia Beach
GEORGE C. FREEMAN III
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UNIVERSAL CORP., RICHMOND
Freeman’s entry to Universal Corp., the world’s biggest supplier of leaf tobacco, came through the legal profession. A former associate with Hunton Andrews Kurth, Freeman served as Universal’s general counsel and secretary for nearly five years. He became the company’s president in December 2006, and in 2008, he took over chief executive and board chairman duties.
A former Supreme Court clerk for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., Freeman lately has been diversifying the company, including the $170 million acquisition last September of Silva International Inc., an importer of dried vegetables, fruits and herbs. Along with the acquisitions of other plant-based businesses, including FruitSmart Inc. and Carolina Innovative Food Ingredients, Freeman expects 10% to 20% of the company’s income to be in that sector by fiscal year 2022, he said last year.
Universal’s $1.98 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending in June 2021 was up 4% from the previous year, and it was one of 39 companies based in Virginia to land on the Fortune 1000 list this year.
Freeman also serves on the boards of Tredegar Corp. and the insurance company Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia.
CORWIN HEATWOLE
CEO, FARMER FOCUS, HARRISONBURG
A sixth-generation farmer who grew up helping raise poultry, Heatwole bought his first farm at 23, learned organic farming, grew his flocks and in 2014 started Shenandoah Valley Organics, now called Farmer Focus.
Heatwole leads Harrisonburg’s sixth-largest employer, with more than 500 workers. Farmer Focus now represents more than 60 family farms that are certified humane and sell USDA Organic chickens under the Farmer Focus brand. Using a product ID, customers can trace their poultry to the farms where the birds originated and read about the farmer in online profiles.
In December 2019, the company announced that it had closed a $15 million funding round with Open Prairie and other investors, led by Richmond-based NRV. Heatwole said the investment for marketing and modernizing plants would increase the company’s volume.
Farmer Focus is currently expanding further, building two facilities in Acorn LC Industrial Park, a move expected to create 110 jobs.
NEIL A. HOUFF
PRESIDENT AND TRANSLOADING OPERATIONS MANAGER, HOUFF CORP., WEYERS CAVE
Houff studied agriculture and economics at Virginia Tech, graduating in 1996 and joining his family- founded company — which grew from a dairy farm in Weyers Cave — building on specialized equipment that applied liquid fertilizer. Houff’s Feed and Fertilizer was founded in 1975, becoming a prominent Shenandoah Valley business. It rebranded as Houff Corp. in 2017.
The employee-owned company has its roots in agriculture, offering crop protection, seed sales and fertilizer. It also provides industrial services, including transloading, storage and third-party logistics. It expanded its transload operations to Clifton Forge in 2018, serviced by CSX Corp.
Houff Corp. also aligns with sister companies Blue Ridge Petroleum Co. and IDM Trucking Inc., which together form Railside Enterprises Inc. Houff serves on the board for IDM Trucking, which hauls more than 12,000 loads per year across the mid-Atlantic region. He’s also active in the Virginia Crop Production Association board, and last year he was appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to his second four-year term on the state Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services, on which Houff serves as vice president.
WAYNE F. PRYOR
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION, HADENSVILLE
Pryor leads Virginia’s largest nonprofit agricultural membership organization, with nearly 130,000 members. A Goochland County hay and grain producer, Pryor was elected to his eighth two-year term as the federation’s president in December 2020. His organization counts more than 500 employees in Virginia.
He serves as board president and chairman of the Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co. and as president, CEO and chairman of Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. Pryor also serves on several agricultural insurance boards, and he’s active in other areas of the industry, including serving in leadership roles for the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation & Rural Sustainability, as well as the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Additionally, he’s a member of the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Leadership Council.
One of the Virginia Commonwealth University alum’s current goals is to expand broadband access in rural areas, a focus of Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, which is advocating for full coverage in the commonwealth by 2024.
MATTHEW RYAN
CEO, SHENANDOAH GROWERS INC., HARRISONBURG
In June, former Starbucks Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Ryan was tapped as the new CEO of indoor agricultural company Shenandoah Growers, replacing Tim Heydon, who led the business through its major expansion over the past 20 years and will transition into an advisory role for the company’s board of directors.
Ryan has an impressive resume, having previously overseen brand management at The Walt Disney Co. before joining Starbucks. He also has served on Kaiser Permanente’s board since January 2020.
Founded in 1989, Shenandoah Growers provides organic herbs and leafy greens to more than 18,000 retailers nationwide, all grown indoors with a vertical farming system employing hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics. Ryan says that the company has “the strongest track record and the best technical and biological know-how” in the indoor-grown agriculture market. The company made some major leadership hires this year, including Chief Operating Officer Cameron Geiger and Chief Financial Officer Mike Buckley, who hail, respectively, from Walmart Inc. and Postmates, as well as Chief Science Officer Tessa Pocock.
A Harvard graduate, Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in history and literature.
Economic Development
TAYLOR ADAMS
DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA BEACH DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, VIRGINIA BEACH
Adams’ ability to sell Virginia Beach to both outside and current businesses is evident in the number of expansion announcements he has overseen in the past year.
Those announcements include a $15.8 million investment from Acoustical Sheetmetal Co. to expand its Virginia Beach complex and create 200 jobs; Premium-PPE’s investment of $5.3 million to expand its operations and create 180 jobs; and a $4 million investment from industrial contractor SJS Executives to expand and add a fourth location, which will create 49 jobs.
Adams joined the city in 2015 as a purchasing agent and was promoted to finance operations administrator before stepping into his current role in 2018 after his predecessor, Warren Harris, resigned and later pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement charges.
Prior to coming to Virginia Beach, the Mississippi native held positions in both the private and public sectors in his home state. He earned an MBA from Hult International Business School and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Mississippi State University.
R. BRIAN BALL
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND TRADE, COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
A University of Virginia “double ‘Hoo” with degrees in economics and law, Ball has been championing the robust growth of Virginia’s economy since his appointment in 2018.
His talents are reflected in recent major economic wins during the pandemic, including Microsoft Corp.’s $64 million investment to establish a new software development and R&D regional hub in Fairfax County, creating 1,500 jobs, and manufacturer Crown Holdings Inc.’s investment of $145 million to establish a manufacturing operation in Henry County, creating 126 jobs.
Ball has also been a driving force in helping Norfolk retain the North American headquarters of CMA CGM Group, a world leader in shipping and logistics. The project is expected to keep 600 jobs in Norfolk and create 400 jobs in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
Before joining the public sector, Ball was a corporate attorney at Williams Mullen. He currently serves as vice chair for both the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority. He also co-chairs the Governor’s Coordinating Council on Homelessness and serves on several other boards.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED: I’m more patient than I used to be, although some would disagree with that assessment.
CORRIE BOBE
DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DANVILLE
A Danville native and Virginia Tech alum, Bobe has been involved in economic development in the city since 2009 and last year became Danville’s economic development director.
With the Caesars Virginia casino on Danville’s horizon, Bobe is overseeing a period of change and development in her hometown. She has championed the marketing of industrial park property, such as the Southern Virginia Megasite, as well as the redevelopment of River District properties.
In May, after years of waiting, city officials announced a $62.5 million mixed-use renovation of the White Mill, the symbol of Danville’s history as a textile hub — as well as its collapse in the 1990s.
During Bobe’s tenure, the city has also seen interest grow in Danville due to an extensive workforce training program launched in cooperation with the state’s community college system and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
Bobe is part of a regional cooperative effort in which the city partners with Pittsylvania County in drawing developers to co-owned industrial parks, and she also collaborates with the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: Working in economic development has provided me with a unique opportunity to play an active role in reshaping the future of this region.
CATHERINE BUELL
HEAD OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, AMAZON IN THE COMMUNITY, AMAZON.COM INC., WASHINGTON, D.C.
A driven and experienced community development executive, Buell joined Amazon last year after working for the Greater Washington Partnership as its vice president for policy and programs.
She is leading the launch of Amazon’s new Housing Equity Fund, a more than $2 billion commitment to preserve existing housing and create inclusive, affordable workforce housing developments through below-market loans and grants to housing partners, public agencies and minority-led organizations. The fund benefits moderate- to low-income families and individuals in Arlington and two other communities: Washington state’s Puget Sound region and Nashville, Tennessee. Amazon already has deployed $382 million to the Washington Housing Conservancy to convert the Crystal House apartment complex near Amazon’s HQ2 headquarters in Arlington into a development of more than 500 affordable homes.
Prior to Amazon, Buell served as president and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College and a law degree from Georgetown Law School. She serves on the boards of Venture Philanthropy Partners and Community of Hope.
JARED CHALK
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORFOLK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, NORFOLK
Since joining the city of Norfolk in 2005, Chalk has worn many hats: interim director of economic development, special assistant to the city manager, and secretary-treasurer of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority among them.
Today, as the leader of Norfolk’s economic development efforts, Chalk has focused attention on retaining and bringing in jobs that benefit community stakeholders, including minority-owned small businesses. He also is overseeing the redevelopment of Military Circle Mall, which could include an arena, and has three developer groups (including one partnering with Pharrell Williams) vying for the project.
Chalk also was pivotal in bringing the country’s eighth-largest fiber internet company, MetroNet, to Norfolk, setting up competition for Cox Communications and making Norfolk a “gigabit city” in the process. A Bridgewater College graduate, Chalk also has a certificate in real estate finance and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
WHAT A COMPETITOR WOULD SAY ABOUT ME: I don’t like to lose at anything and will turn anything into a competition.
BARRY DuVAL
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, RICHMOND
As the state’s secretary of commerce and trade from 1998 to 2002, DuVal has been pivotal in Virginia’s business community. During his tenure in Gov. Jim Gilmore’s administration, the state attracted a record-setting 1,500 economic development projects that resulted in 156,850 new jobs and $13.7 billion in private investment.
Since 2010, DuVal has led the state’s largest business advocacy group, which he has grown from fewer than 1,000 members to more than 26,000 members today. Last year, he and the chamber released a special report focusing on returning to business post-pandemic, “Blueprint for Getting Virginians Back to Work.”
This year, the Virginia Chamber’s main job is developing the next statewide strategic plan, known as Blueprint Virginia 2030, focusing on workforce development, education, infrastructure, energy, health care and other areas. DuVal will present the plan to the governor-elect at the organization’s December economic summit.
In addition to his work in the public sector (including as mayor of Newport News), DuVal served as president and CEO of DuVal Associates Inc., a diversified real estate firm, and later as president and CEO of Kaufman & Canoles Consulting LLC.
H. GARRETT HART III
DIRECTOR, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, CHESTERFIELD
Under Hart’s leadership, Chesterfield County has become a leader in job growth in the Richmond region. Hart, who assumed his position in 2015, has 40 years of experience in local government and economic development.
He started his career as Louisa’s first town manager; moved to New Kent County, where he served as county administrator; and then was marketing manager for the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Council. Prior to coming to Chesterfield, Hart served as corporate vice president of McKinney and Co. He serves on the Chesterfield Chamber board and the ChamberRVA Port Committee.
Hart is proud of the innovative assistance program the economic development team created and deployed to assist businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. The county was able to aid 439 businesses, providing $5.2 million in grants for business and child care expenses. Restaurants also benefited from “Chesterfield Eats to Go,” an interactive online map that targeted restaurants open for takeout or delivery, and “Take It Outside,” an initiative to allow restaurants to serve outdoors amid the pandemic.
TODD P. HAYMORE
MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, COMMERCE & GOVERNMENT RELATIONS GROUP, HUNTON ANDREWS KURTH LLP, RICHMOND
As a former Cabinet secretary and agency head under three governors of both political parties, Haymore spent almost 12 years helping create economic opportunities for Virginia. He continues working with businesses in his current position, guiding them through challenges relating to business expansion or relocation.
Haymore serves as vice chair of state economic development initiative GO Virginia’s Region 4 Council, which covers the Richmond and Petersburg regions, as well as localities to the south and east. Part of his focus is on developing Petersburg’s advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing cluster, advising several companies involved in that burgeoning sector.
The Danville native’s reach extends to economic development projects around the state, including advanced manufacturing opportunities in Southwest and Southern Virginia, as well as Hampton Roads’ development as an offshore wind hub, building upon Dominion Energy Inc.’s project off the shore of Virginia Beach.
A close confidant of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, he’s also heavily involved in McAuliffe’s second bid for governor in November. Haymore serves on several boards, including Virginia Commonwealth University’s board of visitors.
Haymore has been recognized for his economic development and trade efforts by various associations, including the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia International Business Council.
VICTOR HOSKINS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, FAIRFAX COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, FAIRFAX
Under Hoskins’ leadership, Fairfax County is making progress in becoming a technology giant, with Macedon Technologies, Microsoft and Peraton Inc. all expanding in the county over the past year. In 2021, the county had a total of 11 Fortune 500 companies headquartered there, the most of any locality in the state.
A longtime Northern Virginia mover and shaker, Hoskins came to Fairfax in 2019 with an enviable resume, after serving as director of Arlington Economic Development, where he led the team that attracted Amazon.com Inc.’s multibillion-dollar HQ2 East Coast headquarters to Arlington.
Since Hoskins’ arrival, Fairfax has retained Volkswagen Group of America Inc.’s North American headquarters under a 20-year lease, and Macedon announced it is expanding its corporate headquarters in Reston. Hoskins also had a hand in Microsoft’s announcement of its 400,000-square-foot software R&D center, which will have 1,500 employees, earning recognition as 2020’s largest transaction in Northern Virginia. Next up, StarKist Co. is relocating its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Reston in 2022.
A major proponent of regional cooperation and co-founder of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, Hoskins received Leadership Fairfax Inc.’s regional leadership award in 2020.
MAURICE JONES
CEO, ONETEN, NORFOLK
In March, Jones stepped down from his position as president and CEO of national nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corp. to head OneTen, a coalition of Fortune 500 corporations and CEOs that is focused on training, hiring and promoting 1 million Black Americans without four-year college degrees into family-sustaining jobs and careers over the next 10 years.
Co-founded by former CEOs of American Express and Merck & Co. Inc., the coalition is working with companies across the country to influence changes in corporate hiring and advancement practices. It also connects employers with talent partners and nonprofits supporting diverse workforce development initiatives.
During Jones’ tenure at LISC, he oversaw a period of growth and expansion, including more than $2 billion in community investments in 2020. He also led LISC’s COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts in 2020 and deepened the organization’s commitment to racial equity with the start of Project 10X, a $1 billion initiative to bridge racial gaps in health, wealth and opportunity.
A native of Mecklenburg County, Jones previously served as the deputy secretary of housing and urban development for the Obama administration and as Virginia secretary of commerce under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Jones also is a former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
STEPHANIE LANDRUM
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ALEXANDRIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP, ALEXANDRIA
Despite the many challenges brought by the pandemic, Landrum is proud of how Alexandria continued making major economic development deals over the past year.
In November 2020, Hilco Redevelopment Partners purchased a shuttered, 20-acre power plant site on the Potomac River, with plans for a mixed-use development. And a month later, Inova Health System announced plans for a $1 billion Alexandria Hospital campus to be built on the site of the former Landmark Mall. Alexandria also has seen an acceleration of development around Potomac Yard, including the $1 billion Virginia Tech Innovation Campus.
Amid the pandemic, Landrum spearheaded efforts to support the city’s local business community through the Alexandria Back to Business grant program, which provided nearly $6 million in federal and local funding to more than 600 small businesses.
Landrum was promoted to president and CEO of AEDP after holding various leadership roles in the organization since 2005. In 2019, she was named the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce’s Business Leader of the Year. A University of Virginia graduate, she also holds an MBA from U.Va.’s Darden School of Business and serves on boards including the Virginia Economic Developers Association and The Art League.
STEPHEN MORET
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP, RICHMOND
In 2018, Moret played a key role in landing Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters, described as the largest single economic development deal in U.S. history. Named by Virginia Business magazine as its 2019 Virginia Business Person of the Year, Moret is a tireless promoter of Virginia as a great location for business, and is one of the key players in Virginia’s ranking as CNBC’s Top State for Business since 2019.
Moret and his VEDP staff have been working with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce to update Blueprint Virginia 2030, a comprehensive long-range plan for Virginia businesses that’s expected to be presented in 2022. And Business Facilities ranked Virginia No. 3 in the nation for workforce development last year, praising VEDP’s workforce training programs.
One of Moret’s key initiatives is the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a cooperative initiative with Virginia’s community colleges to provide free, fast workforce training and recruiting services for companies locating or expanding in Virginia. The Louisiana native started a similar program, FastStart, with great success when he was that state’s secretary of economic development.
A Louisiana State University alum, Moret holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
EDWARD OWENS
CHAIRMAN, VIRGINIA TOBACCO REGION REVITALIZATION COMMISSION, SOUTH BOSTON
South Boston’s mayor, Owens was elected chairman of the powerful Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission in January.
He has served on the commission for the past 16 years and is its second longest-serving member after state Del. Terry Kilgore, whom Owens succeeded as chairman.
The commission, which provides funding for economic development and workforce education initiatives in formerly tobacco-dependent communities, covers an area including 40 localities in Southern and Southwest Virginia. Owens seeks to make a big impact on the economically challenged regions and has described broadband expansion and scholarships for workforce development as the commission’s most crucial investments.
A college basketball star, the 6-foot-6 Owens was inducted in 1992 into the Athletic Hall of Fame at Hampden-Sydney College, from which he graduated in 1980 with a psychology degree. He has served on the South Boston Town Council since 1998 and was appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in June 2021 to serve on Virginia State University’s board of visitors. The owner of Edward Owens Insurance Agency, he was named the Halifax Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Business Person of the Year, and he also has served on the Halifax Educational Foundation.
WILLIAM H. ‘WILL’ PAYNE II
DIRECTOR, INVESTSWVA, BRISTOL
Payne has been pivotal in attracting business prospects to Southwest Virginia. In the last year, his public-private regional economic development marketing group, InvestSWVA, helped land a 160-job expansion in Scott County for New York-based eHealth Technologies and a 113-job, $7.9 million expansion in Washington County for SPIG Industry.
InvestSWVA also announced a partnership with Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to advance manufacturing and development opportunities for energy storage technology in Southwest Virginia. And Payne’s group spearheaded Project Oasis, an initiative to promote data center development in the region.
A Richmond native and ’80s music fan, Payne keeps an Excel spreadsheet logging the more than 160 concerts he’s attended over the past 20 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from William & Mary and is working toward an executive MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He is vice rector of William & Mary’s board of visitors and chairs its administration, buildings and grounds committee. He also is a graduate of U.Va.’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Leading an effort to grow Southwest Virginia’s first malting-quality barley crop used in beer production, and expanding specialty grain market opportunities.
BUDDY RIZER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, LOUDOUN COUNTY
Loudoun’s economic development leader is also the self-styled “Godfather of Data Center Alley,” reflecting the fact that the county has the world’s largest concentration of data centers. More than 70% of all internet traffic passes through the county’s Ashburn area, and Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft are continually building more there.
The increased demand for cloud services and streaming video from remote workers during the pandemic caused some data center development projects to get fast-tracked in 2020. The pandemic also had Rizer focused on aiding the county’s small businesses. Loudoun doled out millions in relief funds via its COVID-19 Business Interruption Fund and allocated $250,000 in federal CARES Act money to help local restaurants offset costs for switching to outdoor dining service.
Rizer, a former disc jockey and radio station owner, holds a bachelor’s degree from Towson University. He sits on the boards of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Northern Virginia Community College Foundation.
ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Virginia is its best when we act as one. While my job is to promote Loudoun, I recognize we all have a vested interest in Virginia’s economic development success.
ANTHONY ROMANELLO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HENRICO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, HENRICO COUNTY
In April, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Amazon.com Inc. would be bringing a new, 2.6 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center to Henrico, adding more than 1,000 jobs to Amazon’s existing workforce of more than 27,000 employees in Virginia. The facility is anticipated to launch in 2022.
It’s one of several economic development wins secured under the leadership of Romanello, a former Henrico County deputy manager who was appointed head of the Henrico Economic Development Authority in March 2019. Before coming to Henrico in 2016, he was county administrator for Stafford County and had served as West Point’s town manager.
Ranking second in the state as the locality with the most jobs, Henrico has seen major investments announced in recent years, including the $2.3 billion arena-anchored GreenCity development planned for the former Best Products headquarters site.
A Henrico native, Romanello holds a bachelor’s degree in history and American government from the University of Virginia and a Master of Public Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves on the board of Needle’s Eye Ministries.
ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Get rid of humidity.
FAVORITE VACATION: Anywhere my family is, and sand is not.
LEONARD SLEDGE
DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, RICHMOND
Sledge was instrumental in helping Richmond bring in more than $409 million in new capital investment, adding more than 1,000 new jobs this past fiscal year.
He participated in the city’s selection process to bring Urban One Inc.’s proposed $562.5 million ONE Casino + Resort before voters in a November referendum. If approved, the project, which would be the only Black-owned casino in the nation, could generate more than 1,300 jobs and $170 million in new tax revenue over its first five years.
Prior to joining Richmond city government, Sledge served as executive director of the Henry County, Georgia, Development Authority and was director of economic development for the city of Hampton. He also has led William & Mary’s Office of Economic Development.
Named one of North America’s top 50 economic developers for 2019 by management consulting firm Consultant Connect, Sledge holds undergraduate degrees from Morehouse College and Georgia Tech and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He is an avid fan of football and Marvel movies who also enjoys fishing in his spare time.
DOUG SMITH
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HAMPTON ROADS ALLIANCE, NORFOLK
Collaboration is paying off for the Hampton Roads area, and Doug Smith is leading the way as head of the Hampton Roads Alliance, an organization that represents 11 municipalities and more than 70 private sector investors. It was the first regional group to present an integrated, prioritized list of infrastructure needs that it would like to have funded through legislation pending in the U.S. Congress. The organization also has pushed for offshore wind development, among other initiatives.
Smith has headed the Alliance since September 2019, bringing with him a wealth of experience in city management and economic development. A native of Portsmouth, he served as city manager in Norfolk and deputy city manager in Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, where he also was chief plans and policy officer and economic development director. A former member of the Portsmouth City Council, he served in the private sector as CEO of Kaufman & Canoles Consulting, where he worked with national and local developers, municipalities, higher education institutions and corporations.
STU SOLOMON
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CONNECTED DMV, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Formerly Accenture’s location managing director for the metro D.C. area, Solomon grew the multinational consulting company’s Washington office from 2,300 employees to more than 6,300 during his 30-year tenure.
Connected DMV’s many partners are looking for similar big accomplishments from Solomon, who, with his wife, Gina, made the initial donation in 2019 to launch the public-private nonprofit regional economic development organization promoting collaboration between the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia — the DMV.
In June, the group released its 69-page Regional Economic Development Strategy blueprint, calling for regional branding and marketing efforts for the greater D.C. region. Additionally, the document called for better job and educational opportunities for lower-income people and more focus on attracting emerging sectors, including quantum computing and hydrogen fuel.
During the pandemic, Connected DMV also convened a who’s who of 51 state and local government and business leaders to form its COVID-19 Strategic Renewal Task Force, which has been focused on regional approaches to economic recovery.
Solomon has served on the boards of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Wolf Trap Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Baylor University.
JAMES ‘JIM’ SPORE
PRESIDENT AND CEO, REINVENT HAMPTON ROADS, NORFOLK
During Spore’s 24 years as city manager of Virginia Beach, the city won a variety of accolades, including Best Place to Live in America and one of the top five Best Managed Cities in the Nation.
In 2015, Spore retired from his position as the leader for the city of nearly 500,000 residents, with four military installations and millions of annual beach tourists, but he didn’t take any downtime. He immediately took over as leader of Reinvent Hampton Roads, a nonprofit community group that assists with regional job creation and functions as GO Virginia Region 5’s support arm.
A graduate of the University of Illinois with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban planning, Spore also holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado. He has served as a member of the Hampton Roads Transit Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee and the state Department of Rail and Public Transit’s Transit Capital Projects Revenue Advisory Board.
Prior to his Virginia Beach tenure, Spore was city manager for Garland, Texas, and Burnsville, Minnesota, and he served as director of community development for Lakewood, Colorado, and Elgin, Illinois.
BRYAN K. STEPHENS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HAMPTON ROADS CHAMBER, NORFOLK
Stephens joined the Hampton Roads Chamber as its leader in 2013 after a 28-year career in the U.S. Army, from which he retired as a colonel, and also heading a Texas-based equipment manufacturer, Kalmar.
A graduate of West Virginia University, Golden Gate University and the U.S. Army War College, Stephens serves on several boards, including the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, the United Way of South Hampton Roads and GO Virginia Region 5. His chamber also achieved five-star accreditation in 2016 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, placing it in the top 1% of chambers across the country.
With casinos coming to Norfolk and Portsmouth, Stephens has encouraged the cities to provide transportation between the resorts, which will be less than 10 miles apart. “It’s definitely going to change the complexion of our region and draw a lot of people into Hampton Roads who would not normally have come,” he told Virginia Business earlier this year.
BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Dry martini
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Dallas Cowboys
FAVORITE SONG: “My Way,” by Frank Sinatra
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Significance in life comes from service.
TELLY TUCKER
DIRECTOR, ARLINGTON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Tucker’s interest in economic development started when the Lynchburg native was working as a middle school teacher and was hired as a summer camp counselor by the city’s economic development department to teach kids about entrepreneurship.
He went on to become economic development director for Danville, where he was a key player in attracting commercial van manufacturer Morgan Olson to bring more than 700 jobs to backfill an Ikea factory that was about to lay off its 300 workers.
On the heels of that deal, Tucker was hired by Arlington County, landing one of Virginia’s most prestigious and high-profile economic development jobs just as Amazon.com Inc. is revving
up its multibillion-dollar HQ2 headquarters in Arlington.
So far, Tucker has overseen deals including Microsoft’s relocation of its U.S. regulated industries team, including Microsoft Federal, to Rosslyn.
Prior to his time in Danville, Tucker was assistant director of economic development for James City County. A James Madison alum, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and business administration in international business.
He’s also an accomplished concert pianist who once performed at the Kennedy Center for President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton.
JENNIFER WAKEFIELD
PRESIDENT AND CEO, GREATER RICHMOND PARTNERSHIP, RICHMOND
Wakefield’s accomplishments during the past six months include coming up with a new strategic framework for the Greater Richmond Partnership, doubling the size of its board and creating new committees to engage investors.
Wakefield, who joined the partnership in 2017 as its senior vice president of marketing, ascended to the leadership of the public-private regional economic development organization in late 2020, following the unexpected early departure of her predecessor, Lara Fritts.
Prior to the partnership, Wakefield served for 11 years as vice president of marketing and communications for the Orlando Economic Development Commission (now the Orlando Economic Partnership) in Florida, where she launched an international branding campaign for the region, increasing leads by 50% and broadening awareness of Orlando as a business location among C-suite executives.
Wakefield, who was named one of the top 50 economic developers in the country by Consultant Connect in 2020, serves as chair of the nonprofit International Economic Development Council’s marketing committee. She also serves on the Management Roundtable and the Richmond Federal Reserve Industry Roundtable.
She holds a master’s degree in communications from the University of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising from the University of West Florida.
Finance | Insurance
JOHN ASBURY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ATLANTIC UNION BANKSHARES, RICHMOND
A native of Radford who graduated from Virginia Tech and received his MBA at William & Mary, Asbury now leads the largest regional bank headquartered in Virginia. Atlantic Union, which employs 1,839 people in Virginia, reported $677 million in revenue in 2020. It also has $19.6 billion in assets. Asbury previously held executive positions at community banks in New Mexico and Alabama, as well as working for 17 years for Bank of America. In 2016, he became Atlantic Union Bankshares’ president and was named CEO in 2017.
Asbury said the past year was the most challenging he has seen. The bank processed more than 15,000 Paycheck Protection Program loans for $2.2 billion as of March, and it recently opened two new branches in Richmond. Asbury is also chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association.
FIRST JOB: My first college summer job was at Ferguson Enterprises in Radford where I worked in the warehouse. I still know a lot about plumbing from this, and how to operate a forklift!
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Set goals and go after them. I have learned to not just react to whatever comes your way.
G. ROBERT ASTON JR.
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, TOWNEBANK, PORTSMOUTH
Aston, who co-founded TowneBank in 1998, began his banking career in 1964 and held leadership roles at Citizens Trust Co., Commerce Bank and BB&T of Virginia.
TowneBank has 2,700 employees, 1,800 of them in Virginia, and last year earned $411 million.
Aston is a board member for Virginia Wesleyan University, the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, Reinvent Hampton Roads and the GO Virginia Foundation. In 2019, he received the Urban League of Hampton Roads’ Martin Luther King Jr. Award, which recognizes community service, demonstrating King’s values and positive contributions to others.
He attended the National Installment Credit School at the University of Oklahoma and the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Virginia and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Old Dominion University.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: The ability to improve the lives of others.
TOP FACTOR THAT HELPED COMPANY WEATHER THE PANDEMIC: Our culture of serving others and enriching lives.
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen,” by Rita Gunther McGrath
THOMAS BARKIN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF RICHMOND, RICHMOND
Since 2018, Barkin has led the Fed’s Fifth District, after 30 years at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He also previously served as chairman of the Federal Reserve’s Bank of Atlanta. The Fifth District includes Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina and part of West Virginia, and Barkin’s areas of oversight are policy, bank regulation and supervision, and payment services.
Barkin sits on the powerful Federal Open Market Committee, which makes decisions about U.S. monetary policy. In May, he told CNBC and an Atlanta Rotary group that he thought inflationary pressures would subside in 2022 and that the Fed could wait on hitting employment and inflation goals before raising interest rates.
Closer to home, he has made it a priority for the Fed to bridge the economic gap between rural and urban areas, as well as finding solutions to racial economic disparities.
He serves on the Emory University board of trustees, U.S. Golf Association executive committee and the Greater Washington Partnership’s board. He received his bachelor’s degree, MBA and law degree from Harvard University.
JEFF BENTLEY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORTHWEST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, HERNDON
After more than 30 years in consumer and commercial lending, Bentley joined Northwest Federal in 2014 as a senior vice president and was promoted three years later to lead the institution.
Bentley has overseen a period of growth for the state’s fourth largest credit union, which was founded in 1947. Last year, its assets grew from $3.6 billion to $4.1 billion. In July 2019, Northwest merged with Constellation Federal Credit Union, adding 8,000 new members.
Last year, the credit union wrote 1,560 Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses totaling $111 million.
Bentley also serves as the chairman of Northwest Federal’s philanthropic foundation, which focuses on children and college students. He also has served on the Montgomery County, Maryland, Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
VICTOR BRANCH
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, RICHMOND MARKET PRESIDENT, BANK OF AMERICA, RICHMOND
The Richmond market president for Bank of America, Branch started his career in 1984 at BOA predecessor Sovran Bank. The Dinwiddie County native oversees roughly 2,000 area Bank of America employees, 25 branch offices and the bank’s Henrico County-based technology and operations center.
He serves on the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, Venture Richmond, Virginia Historical Society and the Richmond Metropolitan YMCA, and was named in 2020 as a Richmond Times-Dispatch Person of the Year.
Branch serves on the board of visitors for William & Mary, from which he received his bachelor’s degree in sociology.
FIRST JOB: Server at Shoney’s Restaurant in Petersburg.
HOBBY/PASSION: Working in my garden and jogging
PERSON I ADMIRE: My mentor at Bank of America, Mary DePillars, a trailblazer who opened doors for others to follow.
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” by Bryan Stevenson
ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: I would change Virginia’s slow adaptation to change and move away from its steadfast commitment to traditions.
DAVID CAMDEN
VIRGINIA-WEST REGIONAL PRESIDENT, TRUIST FINANCIAL CORP., ROANOKE
Based in Roanoke, Camden manages Truist’s operations in the western part of Virginia as one of 24 regional presidents within the bank’s 15-state footprint.
Truist was formed in 2019 by the merger of mega-banks BB&T and SunTrust Bank. It debuted at No. 217 on the Fortune 500 list and rose in rank to No. 119 this year. The bank earned nearly $4.5 billion in profits last year on $24.4 billion in revenue.
After the merger, Truist announced it planned to close two BB&T branches and one SunTrust location in Camden’s market, leaving about 20 branches in the Roanoke Valley.
A Richmond native, Camden earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hampden-Sydney College and attended the Virginia Bankers School of Bank Management. He worked at Wachovia and Wells Fargo before joining SunTrust as a commercial banking executive for Virginia and the Carolinas in 2010. He was then named SunTrust’s president and CEO for its Savannah, Georgia, region in 2014.
STEPHAN Q. CASSADAY
FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, CASSADAY & CO. INC, McLEAN
Cassaday’s been ranked as Barron’s No. 1 financial adviser in Virginia every year except one since 2014. In 1993, after more than a decade on Wall Street, Cassaday founded his firm, which manages $4.4 billion in assets and employs 65 people.
He and his wife, Mary, are major donors to Central Union Mission, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, PRS/Crisis Link, Salvation Army, Save the Children, Smile Train, So Others Might Eat, The Lamb Center, The House DC, the Washington Jesuit Academy, Wounded Warriors and Youth for Tomorrow.
He endowed a scholarship at his alma mater, Radford University, and sits on the board of directors for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Focus on your key strengths and delegate everything else. Invest in people, practice radical inclusion and empower them to think like owners. Be vulnerable, admit your mistakes, make customers raving fans.
PERSON I ADMIRE: My wife. Elegant, beautiful inside and out, street-smart math teacher with poor taste in men. My best friend and adviser. I would be nothing without her.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Gratitude every day. Humility.
WHAT I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Ski moguls.
TRISTAN M. CAUDRON
MANAGING DIRECTOR-INVESTMENTS, CAUDRON MEGARY BLACKBURN WEALTH MANAGEMENT GROUP, ALEXANDRIA
A certified financial planner and the managing director for investments at his Wells Fargo Advisors firm, Caudron was named one of the top four advisers in Virginia by Barron’s this year and has been on the list since 2014.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and psychology and an MBA from Georgetown University. A father of four, he has coached his kids’ sports teams, and his hobbies include tennis, platform tennis, skiing and cycling.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Be patient. Despite recent extraordinary gains in the stock market, long-term wealth accumulation is made gradually, by being diversified and patient during good times and bad.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: I enjoy helping others. Our clients look to us to help them with their investment planning to save and build portfolios toward financial independence. I am so honored when a client thanks me for the good work that we do in our team.
THEODORE ‘TED’ L. CHANDLER
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEW RICHMOND VENTURES, RICHMOND
The former chairman and CEO of the now-defunct Fortune 500 title insurance group LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Chandler is the managing director of a venture capital firm he co-founded in 2011 with fellow Virginia 500 honorees Jim Ukrop and Bob Mooney.
NRV invests in early stage companies that have moved beyond proof of concept and show the potential for high growth. Chandler sits on the boards of several of the companies backed by NRV, including WealthForge and Health Warrior.
Chandler holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law, where he serves as a member of the advisory board.
He also sits on boards for the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and U.Va.’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and he co-chairs the Richmond and Hampton Roads regional collaborative RVA757 Connect. He has chaired the boards of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center, the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence, the Maymont Foundation and the Richmond Arts Foundation.
RAVI CHANDRA
HEAD OF BRANCH MOBILE STRATEGY/BRANCH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, BRANCH BANKING, WELLS FARGO & CO., CHARLOTTESVILLE
Chandra took on a new role for Wells Fargo after formerly serving as regional president of the company’s operations in Charlottesville, Roanoke, Blacksburg and parts of Central Virginia. Still based in Charlottesville, he now leads a national team of strategy consultants supporting the third-largest U.S. bank’s network of more than 5,100 branch locations.
Chandra started at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo in 1990 as a teller in San Jose, California. He worked his way up in positions in Oregon and Nevada before moving to Virginia.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Northridge. Chandra serves on the board of directors for Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) of Northern Virginia and recently finished a four-year term on the Virginia Bankers Association board.
HOBBY/PASSION: Music is my passion. I used to be a DJ in high school. I also have passion around being a #girldad to my two daughters.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: We became owners of a new Peloton. I can’t get enough of it — sometimes two times a day.
MICHAEL DeVITO
CEO, FREDDIE MAC, McLEAN
A veteran of Wells Fargo, DeVito took over in June as the head of Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. The government-backed entity, which buys bundles of mortgages from banks and other lenders so that they have enough cash to make more mortgages, is the company with the highest revenues in Virginia. In 2020, Freddie Mac saw a 12% decrease in revenue compared with 2019, bringing in $66.2 billion. In the second quarter of 2021, the company reported $3.7 billion in net income, an improvement from the previous four quarters.
A graduate of Ithaca College, DeVito was with Wells Fargo for 23 years, most recently serving as its executive vice president and head of home lending. He succeeded former CEO David Brickman, who left Freddie Mac in January to lead a commercial brokerage.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Federal Housing Finance Agency, started in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession to oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, was unconstitutional. The outcome meant that investors in the two companies lost their claim to $124 billion, and both firms’ stocks fell more than 30% after the ruling.
LAWRENCE ‘LARRY’ DI RITA
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GREATER WASHINGTON MARKET PRESIDENT, BANK OF AMERICA, WASHINGTON, D.C.
In addition to being president of Bank of America’s Greater Washington market, Di Rita is the financial giant’s strategy and public policy executive. The company has 213,000 employees, including 4,000 in Virginia.
Di Rita earned degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He served as a Navy officer until 1994, leaving the military to join the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and later progressing to the staffs of U.S. Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison, as well as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Di Rita is secretary and treasurer of the Rumsfeld Foundation and is on the boards for the U.S. Navy Memorial and the Center for a New American Security, a think tank specializing in national security.
PERSON I ADMIRE: U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Sammy Perez. My college roommate who came from tiny Canutillo, Texas — pretty far from the nearest ocean — and rose to command of an aircraft carrier battle group. A man of true personal and professional integrity.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: The best way to persuade tends to be with data and a story, rather than just one or the other.
RIC EDELMAN
FOUNDER, EDELMAN FINANCIAL ENGINES, FAIRFAX
This has been a momentous year for Edelman, who stepped down as chairman of his financial planning firm and also is finishing up his nearly 30-year radio show (while starting a new one this fall).
He will continue as a strategic adviser and member of the board of directors, as well as remaining the firm’s largest individual shareholder.
He founded the firm with his wife, Jean, in 1986 with the goal of educating people about money and has become a guru of personal finance, having written several bestsellers, including “The Truth About Money,” also the title of his PBS show that aired 2011 to 2013.
In 2018, Edelman’s company merged with Financial Engines, and the combined company manages $270 billion in assets for 1.3 million clients. It has 242 employees in Virginia and 1,500 worldwide. In recent months, he has advocated for investors to become more educated about cryptocurrency and to include it in their portfolios in spite of its volatility.
HOBBY/PASSION: My wife and I collect rare books on astronomy.
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: I’d let governors run for re-election.
ELENA EDWARDS
CEO, USA, ALLIANZ PARTNERS, HENRICO COUNTY
With 17 years in the insurance industry, Edwards was promoted last June to lead the German company’s U.S. business. Allianz, which sells travel insurance and provides international medical assistance, employs about 1,000 people in the Richmond area.
Edwards joined Allianz in 2019 as general manager of the U.S. unit, after holding executive roles at Genworth Financial and General Electric companies.
The travel industry took a huge hit in 2020 when the pandemic forced people to stay home. However, as restrictions began to be lifted this spring, Allianz started offering plans with epidemic coverage for COVID-19 or future pandemics. In May, Edwards won a Top Workplaces leadership award for the Richmond area based on employee surveys conducted anonymously.
Edwards studied mechanical engineering at Union College and earned an advanced degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is a vice president of the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation board.
RICHARD FAIRBANK
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN, CEO AND PRESIDENT, CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORP., McLEAN
With a background in banking and credit, Fairbank started Capital One in 1994. Today, it ranks 99th on the Fortune 500, although it saw a 6% decrease in revenues last year, recording $31.6 billion, while profits fell 51% to $2.7 billion. Capital One has nearly 52,000 employees worldwide.
Earlier this year, Capital One was hit with a $390 million federal civil penalty for willfully violating anti-money-laundering policy between 2008 and 2014.
Fairbank, who previously was head of banking for a national strategy consulting firm and chaired MasterCard International’s global board, is a billionaire and has not received a base salary since 1997.
In June, Fairbank told employees in an email that they could continue working remotely on Mondays and Fridays once the company’s offices reopen in the fall. The company will adopt a flexible hybrid model. Since last spring, the bank started closing branches, a plan hastened by the pandemic.
In July on a second-quarter earnings call, Fairbank said customers are paying higher rates on their credit cards this year, accompanied by purchase volume 25% higher than the second quarter of 2019.
ROB FINNEGAN
CEO, WEST CREEK FINANCIAL, GLEN ALLEN
Finnegan has been at the helm of the startup financial technology firm since 2017, as it rapidly started to increase its role in consumer leasing.
The company has been rapidly expanding since its founding in 2015. Within five years, it had exceeded $200 million in revenue, had partnered with more than 10,000 retailers and financed 200,000 customers’ purchases. West Creek uses machine learning and analytics to rate a borrower’s credit worthiness rather than relying solely on credit scores. The company also loans money for outright purchases and lease-to-own arrangements through retailers of furniture, mattresses, appliances and HVACs.
Finnegan, one of the co-founders, previously worked for 2nd Order Solutions, a consulting firm that uses data analytics to develop credit models. He also was with Capital One for 17 years, starting at its founding and holding several executive level posts. When he left, Finnegan was senior vice president of new account market and decision sciences. Before his career in finance, the University of Virginia alumnus was a systems engineer for Mitre Corp.
MARK A. FRANTZ
GENERAL PARTNER AND CO-FOUNDER, BLUE DELTA CAPITAL PARTNERS, McLEAN
Blue Delta Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in federal government clients in the technology sector without taking an ownership interest. Frantz, who has an extensive background in investment and technology, co-founded the company in 2009.
He’s worked with or invested in dozens of companies, including Sourcefire, NetWitness, The Carlyle Group and Blackboard, and served as managing general partner of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital affiliated with the U.S. intelligence community. He also served on the board of CRSA Holdings Inc., which General Dynamics Corp. purchased in 2018 for $9.7 billion, and is currently on the board of ASGN Inc., the parent company of Apex and ECS Federal.
One of Blue Delta’s biggest deals recently was PAE’s $92 million purchase of intelligence analysis firm Metis Solutions in December, after the capital firm had begun partnering with Metis in 2016.
A graduate of Alleghany College and the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned both an MBA and a law degree, Frantz was associate director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs during President George H.W. Bush’s term.
THOMAS S. GAYNER
CO-CEO, MARKEL CORP., GLEN ALLEN
Gayner oversees investing activities for Markel Corp., a Glen Allen-based Fortune 500 holding company that has nearly 19,000 employees worldwide.
Markel, which Gayner joined in 1990 to form Markel Gayner Asset Management, holds insurance, reinsurance and investment operations worldwide.
In 2019, it had a record year, with revenue rising 39.2% over the previous year to $9.35 billion. The pandemic appears to have slowed growth, with Markel reporting $9.7 billion in revenue during 2020.
“We are grateful and amazed by how our employees responded to the global pandemic and continued to serve the needs of our customers, trading partners, shareholders and each other,” Gayner wrote with Co-CEO Richard Whitt in announcing the 2020 financial report. “Markel enters 2021 well positioned to continue the momentum of our excellent fourth quarter.”
Before joining Markel, Gayner was a vice president of Davenport & Co. and a CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He sits on the boards of Graham Holdings LLC, Colfax Corp. and Cable One, where he serves as lead independent director. Gayner also is a member of the Virginia Retirement System’s Investment Advisory Committee, which is responsible for making investment recommendations to the state agency’s board.
JEFF GRINSPOON
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND PARTNER, VWG WEALTH MANAGEMENT AT HIGHTOWER ADVISORS, VIENNA
Grinspoon founded VWG in 2011 with two of his Morgan Stanley colleagues in response to the shift in wealth management services following the Great Recession. He started his career with Legg Mason.
This year, the firm, owned by Hightower Advisors, has more than $1.6 billion assets under management and has been ranked on Forbes’ Top 100 wealth advisers list. Grinspoon has also made Forbes’ and Barron’s top adviser rankings.
With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from the University of Maryland, he serves on the board for the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. Grinspoon also has dedicated time toward charitable work for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Don’t be shy to apologize for something you’ve done wrong, and don’t be loud about something you’ve done right.
FIRST JOB: Selling credit card processing equipment
HOBBY/PASSION: My family is my passion.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Eating at a restaurant (been a long time)
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The Code Breaker,” by Walter Isaacson
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Our health is the single most taken-for-granted thing.
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: A wider bridge coming over the Potomac
SIMON HAMILTON
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND PORTFOLIO MANAGER, BAIRD/THE WISE INVESTOR GROUP, RESTON
In addition to overseeing Baird/The Wise Investor Group’s portfolio, Hamilton is also host of the small Reston firm’s “Wise Investor Show” and “Midweek Update” podcasts, which offer insights into how the market is behaving. Before joining the firm in 2007, Hamilton was vice president of investments at Smith Barney and previously filled the same role at Ferris, Baker Watts in Baltimore, his hometown. For several years, Hamilton has been named a top financial adviser by Financial Times, Forbes and Barron’s. In his spare time, he serves as Vienna Youth Soccer’s vice president of travel soccer.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: Seeing in real time how my efforts can produce both quantifiable and psychological positive outcomes for real people and their families
WHAT I WAS LIKE IN HIGH SCHOOL: I was around the edges of everything. Smart, but not the smartest; on the sports teams, but not the best athlete; went to the “cool” parties, but wasn’t the first to be invited!
HOBBY/PASSION: Youth sports — I love coaching, organizing, and watching my kids and their friends compete.
BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: I’m a simple man: a fine lager.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Baltimore Ravens
H. HITER HARRIS III
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER, HARRIS WILLIAMS & CO., RICHMOND
Thirty years ago, Harris co-founded a global investment banking company specializing in mergers and acquisitions with a friend from Harvard Business School, Christopher Williams. Today the firm has more than 400 employees across eight global offices and operates as a subsidiary of PNC Financial Services.
The company, which advises companies buying or being sold to other corporations, promoted more than two dozen people to more senior positions in its offices in February, with particular focus on energy and health care sectors.
A Hampden-Sydney College alum who was a kicker on the football team, Harris serves on the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges board and the University of Richmond board of trustees. He also was inducted into the Greater Richmond Business Hall of Fame in 2015.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: Throughout Harris Williams, our professionals are dedicated to fostering long-lasting, trust-based relationships with clients and colleagues alike. Everything we do at Harris Williams is intended to foster lasting relationships. Watching those relationships deepen and grow over the past 30 years has brought me great joy and makes me very proud of what we have accomplished together.
CHARLES R. HENDERSON JR.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HAMPTON ROADS MARKET PRESIDENT, BANK OF AMERICA, NORFOLK
A West Virginia native who graduated from Hampden-Sydney College, Henderson has lived in Hampton Roads for four decades. He oversees Bank of America’s Hampton Roads business and also its charitable arm.
Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, Henderson credited CEO Brian Moynihan’s leadership for assisting bank employees, including a freeze on all job reductions in 2020 and increased child care benefits.
The company has 213,000 employees, including 4,000 in Virginia, and recorded $85.5 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2020. A member of LISC Hampton Roads’ local advisory committee, Henderson also serves on the Virginia Bankers Association Education Foundation board.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Be willing to accept job assignments that may be outside of your comfort zone as a means of learning new skill sets and making connections.
WHAT A COMPETITOR WOULD SAY ABOUT ME: Charlie has been a champion of the nonprofit sector while driving growth for the bank over his 46-year career.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Celebrating our grandson’s (Brooks) first birthday and the anticipation of the birth of our granddaughter
in October.
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Encourage more collaboration among municipalities to unleash the enormous
potential of our commonwealth.
CECILIA A. HODGES
REGIONAL PRESIDENT, GREATER WASHINGTON, D.C., AND VIRGINIA, M&T BANK, VIENNA
Named the regional president of the Virginia and Washington, D.C., region for M&T in 2018, Hodges marked her 25th anniversary with the bank this year and oversees 60 regional branches.
A Virginia Tech graduate from Rocky Mount, she is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Baltimore board and has dedicated time to the region’s Easter Seals chapter and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Hodges also has taken an active role in organizing charitable activities in Virginia and Greater Washington for M&T.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Bring your authentic best self to everything you do. Be kind and generous with your time and make every effort to be helpful to those you come in contact with.
FIRST JOB: Lifeguarding at the neighborhood pool was my first paid job. As a young child I swept a lot of floors and did odd jobs at my parents’ building supply business, and I did a lot of babysitting.
ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: I’d like to see more robust economic opportunity and top-notch education for citizens in the rural parts of the state like where I grew up in Southwest Virginia.
JERMAINE JOHNSON
GREATER WASHINGTON AND VIRGINIA REGIONAL PRESIDENT, PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP INC., VIENNA
Johnson was promoted last August to head PNC’s Greater Washington regional market, which includes Northern Virginia and neighboring Maryland counties.
He oversees retail, corporate and institutional banking, wealth management and community activities for one of the nation’s largest banks, with more than $560 billion in assets. In June, PNC closed on its $11.6 billion purchase of BBVA USA, bumping its ranking from the country’s ninth-largest bank to the fifth.
With a bachelor’s degree in finance from James Madison University, Johnson worked for Bank of America and GE Healthcare Financial Services in executive positions before joining PNC in 2005. Before assuming his current post, he was PNC’s executive vice president and market manager for corporate banking in greater Richmond and greater Maryland.
He serves on the board of directors for the Greater Washington Board of Trade and has been an audit committee member for the March of Dimes, and he is the 2021 chair of Junior Achievement’s Washington Business Hall of Fame, which will hold its induction event virtually in December.
BRIAN R. KAHN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, FRANCHISE GROUP INC., VIRGINIA BEACH
Known partly for its employees dressed in Statue of Liberty costumes during tax season, Liberty Tax Inc. became known as Franchise Group in September 2019. Kahn soon became its CEO, steering the corporation through several deals as it shifted its model to focus on buying and investing in franchises and businesses that could be franchised.
In March, Franchise announced it had completed the purchase of Pet Supplies Plus for $700 million and that it had sold the Liberty Tax business to NextPoint Acquisition in a deal that included $182 million in cash and $67 million in shares of NextPoint.
Franchise’s other business lines include American Freight, the Vitamin Shoppe and Buddy’s Home Furnishings.
In May, Kahn purchased $36 million worth of shares in Franchise. He is also managing partner of Vintage Capital Management, an equity firm he founded
in 1998 in Orlando, Florida.
A Harvard graduate, he has served as chairman of the board for rent-to-own stores Buddy’s Home Furnishings, API Technologies Corp and White Electronic Designs Corp., and he was a director for Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises.
EVELYN LEE
GREATER WASHINGTON REGION PRESIDENT, TRUIST FINANCIAL CORP., WASHINGTON, D.C.
Lee manages the Greater Washington area, including Northern Virginia, for Truist, which formed from the SunTrust and BB&T merger, one of the biggest bank deals in recent years. A SunTrust executive for 19 years in several divisions, including senior living, not-for-profit and corporate banking, Lee is a William & Mary alumna. She also is a founding board member of the D.C. International Charter School and is on the executive committee of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.
FIRST JOB: Working at a small local deli. I was on the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, so I did the early morning baking through sandwich lunch prep.
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Parting the Waters,” by Taylor Branch
FRANK L. LUCIA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, DELTA DENTAL OF VIRGINIA INC., ROANOKE
A longtime health insurance leader, Lucia has been with Delta Dental’s Virginia branch since 2017. The nonprofit provides dental insurance for more than 2 million members and has 370 employees in the state. Delta Dental’s national foundation provided $1.1 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to help support dental care in underserved communities and also assisted dentists with low- and no-interest loans during the height of the pandemic. The Delta Dental Virginia Foundation contributed more than $4 million to organizations in the state to improve oral health in 2020.
Lucia moved to Roanoke from Wisconsin, where he had served as president of Dean Health Plan. A graduate of Binghamton University in New York and the University of Miami, he also is a CPA. Before joining Dean, Lucia worked with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, WR Grace Inc. and Cigna Corp.
During his time in Virginia, Lucia has devoted time to community organizations Verge, the Valleys Innovation Council and Virginia Health Catalyst.
FIRST JOB: Masonry apprentice. I carried cinder block.
HOBBY: Skiing, being outdoors, woodworking
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: In business and in life, there are certain things that simply can’t be rushed.
PAUL B. MANNING
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, PBM CAPITAL Group LLC, CHARLOTTESVILLE
Manning founded PBM Capital, a private equity firm, after selling his infant formula company, PBM Products LLC, for $800 million in 2010 to Perrigo. In recent years, he has become known as a significant philanthropist, donating $1 million in spring 2020 to establish the Manning Fund for COVID-19 Research, money that has gone to eight projects to research vaccines and treatment.
In 1997, Manning built his company from a $1 million investment into the world’s leading provider of private-label infant formula and then founded other companies, mostly related to health care. Manning has served on the boards of several startups in which his company has invested.
A University of Massachusetts alum, Manning made a $1 million gift to his alma mater to support commercializing scientific research projects, and he’s served on several committees at U.Va., including its most recent capital campaign. Manning also donated $100,000 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin’s campaign, according to finance reports released in July.
DENNIS A. MATHEIS
PRESIDENT, SENTARA HEALTH PLANS; EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, SENTARA HEALTHCARE, VIRGINIA BEACH
Matheis heads up Sentara’s health insurance plan, previously known as Optima Health, which covers more than 875,000 members and has 2,600 employees. Sentara is also the majority owner of Virginia Premier, a Medicaid managed-care organization that the health care system purchased in 2020 from the
VCU Health System.
A University of Kentucky alum, Matheis is on the executive committee of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the board of directors for the Virginia Association of Health Plans, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Norfolk Forum. He is also on the board of DarioHealth.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Develop your own personal plan. Focus on the next three years of your career, develop mile markers and periodically step back to ask yourself if you are on the right track to achieve your goals.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: A person’s health and well-being are critical to leading a happy and productive life. It is incredibly rewarding to be part of an organization whose primary focus is providing access to high quality health care, through both financing and delivery. I am especially passionate about helping to advance the affordability and quality of health services.
MARY McDUFFIE
PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, VIENNA
McDuffie has worked at Navy Federal since 1999 and was promoted to CEO in 2018. She is the first woman in this role for Navy Federal, the world’s largest credit union, with 10.6 million members, 346 branches and $148 billion in assets.
Navy Federal was named No. 59 in 2021 on the 100 best companies to work for list by Great Place to Work and Fortune magazine, based on employee surveys. This is the credit union’s 10th consecutive appearance on the list.
A Wellesley College alumna, McDuffie was executive vice president of delivery channels and communications at Navy Federal, leading the marketing department and launching its mobile banking service. She was promoted to CFO and then quickly to CEO. Much of her focus has been on customer experience; the credit union developed its first mobile app under her leadership.
Previously, McDuffie was senior vice president of marketing for Star Systems Inc. and a senior manager at J. Walter Thompson Inc., a communications company.
THOMAS McINERNEY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC., RICHMOND
For the past five years, Genworth was in negotiations with Beijing-based China Oceanwide Holdings Group, which sought to acquire the company for $2.7 billion. In April, Genworth announced it had terminated the deal, which was delayed more than a dozen times.
McInerney, who joined Genworth Financial Inc. in January 2013 as its CEO, has overseen a challenging period for the Fortune 500 company, which offers long-term-care insurance and private mortgage insurance with nearly 4 million policy holders. He has spent his career in insurance since 1978 and was with ING Group, the Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, for 32 years.
Genworth began 2021 with an announcement that it was laying off employees and shaving $50 million in operating costs. Its net income was $178 million in 2020, short of 2019’s $343 million net income. McInerney said early this year that Genworth planned a public offering of its rebranded mortgage insurance business, Enact Holdings.
The company has faced challenges in both insurance markets, first through the housing market collapse and then with escalating costs for long-term care that predate McInerney’s leadership.
A graduate of Colgate University and Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, he serves on Tuck’s board and also those of VA Ready and the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance.
SHANE McLAUGHLIN
NORTHERN VIRGINIA REGION BANK PRESIDENT, WELLS FARGO & CO., LEESBURG
McLaughlin has worked for Wells Fargo since 2004, becoming a community bank president a decade ago and then being promoted in 2017 to head the Northern Virginia territory, which spans from Fairfax and Loudoun counties to Winchester and Culpeper. A Virginia Tech alumnus, McLaughlin is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington. He’s also on the advisory boards for Bright Beginnings Inc. and George Mason University’s College of Human Development and Education.
Wells Fargo is ranked No. 37 on the 2021 Fortune 500, and it recorded $1.95 trillion in assets in the past fiscal year.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Ensure you and your team have time for those important family moments.
WHAT I WAS LIKE IN HIGH SCHOOL: Shy and spent all of my time playing basketball and running.
FIRST JOB: Round Hill Garden, gardener
PERSON I ADMIRE: I admire my wife because she discovered her passion in life and turned it into her career as a teacher.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Georgetown University Hoyas
FAVORITE BEVERAGE: San Pellegrino
JOSEPH W. ‘JOE’ MONTGOMERY
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INVESTMENTS, THE OPTIMAL SERVICE GROUP OF WELLS FARGO ADVISORS, WILLIAMSBURG
Montgomery has led The Optimal Service Group since its founding in 1975. The firm has 13 employees and has $17 billion under advisement.
A William & Mary graduate, Montgomery was co-captain of his college football team and was invited to the Philadelphia Eagles training camp, where he played center but didn’t make the final cut.
Montgomery has been named to top financial adviser lists and was inducted into Barron’s Advisor Hall of Fame in 2019. He topped Forbes magazine’s best wealth advisers list in Virginia the last two years.
He is a trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation board and vice chair of the Virginia Retirement System board, and he has also served on boards at W&M.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: Seeing the happiness that success brings to people and the good they can do when they succeed.
HOBBY/PASSION: Stand-up paddleboarding, pocket billiards
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Visiting The Grove at the University of Mississippi. Didn’t know it was on my bucket list until I was there.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Price is only an issue in the absence of value.
SOMETHING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Grass skiing
J. ROBERT ‘BOB’ MOONEY
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, PHLOW CORP., RICHMOND
After decades in accounting and venture capital, Mooney joined Phlow Corp. last year and was instrumental in landing a $354 million federal contract to start a development pipeline for medications and pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States. The four-year contract has an additional $458 million in options. He also was a key organizer in the $20 million Series A financing that Phlow secured in 2021 from private equity investors.
Mooney, who served as CFO for Ethyl Corp. and William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, co-founded and served as managing director of venture capital firm New Richmond Ventures (NRV), along with fellow founders Ted Chandler, former chairman and CEO of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., and Jim Ukrop, former chairman and CEO of Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc.
A William & Mary alum, Mooney has strong ties to Richmond’s arts community and is vice chair emeritus of the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance board. He also raised funds for the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School and chairs the finance and investment committee at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In August, he won Virginia Business’ Virginia CFO Award for small business.
NIGEL MORRIS
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, QED INVESTORS, ALEXANDRIA
A co-founder of Capital One Financial Services with Richard Fairbank, Morris was the McLean banking giant’s first president and chief operating officer. Now he manages the fintech venture capital firm he co-founded in 2007. Among its investments are stakes in Credit Karma, SoFi, NuBank and Avant.
Morris announced last June that his company was launching the Just Five program to tackle addiction and reduce its stigma. The issue hits close to home for the U.K. native, whose business partner, Greg Mazanec, died in 2019 after suffering from substance use disorder. QED is partnering with Operation Lighthouse, a nonprofit set up by Mazanec’s family.
“I say all the time that if I have a sore arm or a sore shoulder, I’ll come into work, and I’ll whine about it. But if I couldn’t sleep last night or I’m paranoid about going outside or I’ve been taking too many sleeping pills or drinking too much wine, I won’t talk about it,” Morris wrote in a June op-ed for TechCrunch about ending mental health stigmas in the tech industry. “I’ll say that I’m going to my doctor to get my shoulder fixed, but I won’t say that I’m going to talk to my therapist.”
JAMES B. MURRAY JR.
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, COURT SQUARE VENTURES; CO-FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENTIAL PRECINCT, CHARLOTTESVILLE
Murray, who co-founded Court Square Ventures (named for Charlottesville’s downtown courthouse neighborhood) in 2000, finished his term as rector of alma mater University of Virginia, where he continues to serve on the board of visitors, in July.
He also is the co-founder of a nonprofit collaboration among U.Va., William & Mary, and other institutions, including presidential estates Montpelier and Monticello, that’s known as Presidential Precinct. It hosts leadership discussions about democracy and other broad topics for participants from around the world. Murray is a graduate of W&M’s law school and served on that university’s board of visitors.
Murray started Columbia Capital of Alexandria, a firm that manages more than $3 billion in investments, and he previously served on the Export-Import Bank of the United States advisory board, including as chair.
He also has been a guest lecturer at several universities, co-wrote the book “Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America,” and holds a U.S. patent for a wireless maritime ignition control system.
DANIEL J. O’NEILL JR.
REGIONAL PRESIDENT VIRGINIA-EAST, TRUIST FINANCIAL CORP., RICHMOND
After SunTrust and BB&T merged last year to create the sixth-largest bank in the nation, O’Neill was named president of Truist’s Virginia-East region, based in Richmond.
Having worked at SunTrust since 1990, O’Neill was previously president of the bank’s mid-Atlantic region and head of wholesale risk. Previously he was a Nasdaq trader for Merrill Lynch and was with Riggs National Bank and Citibank.
A graduate of College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business in New York, he also completed an advanced risk management program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
O’Neill also serves on the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Bankers Association boards. Last year, Truist partnered with Sentara Healthcare and the state to launch a COVID-19 emergency fund to provide free meals to families during the height of the pandemic, with Truist committing $500,000 toward the $2.6 million fund.
PAUL A. PAGNATO
FOUNDER, PAGNATOKARP; CO-CHAIRMAN, CRESSET ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC, RESTON
Pagnato and David Karp founded PagnatoKarp Partners to manage the assets of CEOs, wealth creators and families with ultra-high net worth. They had worked at High Tower Advisors and went on their own during the Great Recession, with the aim of providing more transparency.
They sold PagnatoKarp to Chicago-based Cresset Asset Management last year but retain leadership roles. The combined company had $13.8 billion in assets under management as of June, when the purchase took place. The transaction amount was not disclosed.
Pagnato, who was named Northern Virginia’s top wealth adviser by Forbes in 2021, graduated from Florida Atlantic University and began his career as a microbiologist looking for life in outer space for NASA and McDonnell Douglas. He then entered the financial industry and worked for 19 years at Merrill Lynch.
He has been a Barron’s and Forbes top financial adviser for decades, and Pagnato is also an advisory council member for the Stanford Center on Longevity based at Stanford University.
JEFF RICKETTS
PRESIDENT, ANTHEM BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
Ricketts joined Anthem in 1984 and rose through the ranks to lead its Virginia operation in 2017. Anthem has 8,730 employees in the state and offers an array of health plans, including ones through the marketplace exchange for most of the state.
A James Madison alum, Ricketts is a Richmond native, “the son of a preacher who worked in the prison system,” he says. “Both of my parents taught me the value of hard work, staying grounded, taking responsibility for your actions and, most importantly, to help those in need.”
He’s also co-chair of Gov. Ralph Northam’s primary care task force and serves on several boards, including ChamberRVA, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Center for Health Innovation and Virginia Business Council.
WHAT A COMPETITOR WOULD SAY ABOUT ME: A fierce but fair competitor.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: People do what you incent them to do — and that does not always mean a monetary incentive, and it’s not necessarily positive incentives. Nothing good happens when incentives aren’t aligned with desired outcomes. This goes for life and in business.
TOM RYAN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, LANGLEY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, NEWPORT NEWS
Langley, the state’s fifth-largest credit union, continues to grow its assets under Ryan’s leadership. Since he was tapped to lead the Hampton Roads credit union in 2012, assets have doubled from $1.7 billion to $3.9 billion, with a $400 million increase during the past year.
Membership has also grown from 165,000 to 295,000. Members had about $2.9 billion deposited with Langley and about $2.6 billion in loans in 2020.
Previously an executive vice president and chief operating officer for Digital Federal Credit Union, Ryan has 35 years of credit union experience.
He serves on the Boys & Girls Club of the Virginia Peninsula and Langley for Families Foundation boards. In 2020, the foundation and the credit union together donated $1.4 million, their largest annual amount ever, to Hampton Roads organizations, including the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank; scholarships for students at Hampton, Christopher Newport and Old Dominion universities; and local United Way funds. About $364,000 went to grants as a response to COVID-19.
FREDRICK D. SCHAUFELD
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER, SWAN & LEGEND VENTURE PARTNERS, LEESBURG
The founder of investment firm SWaN & Legend, Schaufeld is a partner in Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Capitals, Wizards and Mystics teams and Capital One Arena, and he is a part owner of the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team.
Before starting SWaN in 2006, he founded Electronic Warranty Corp, which was acquired by Asurion in 2008 and is now called NEWAsurion. Schaufeld and his partner, Tony Nader, are credited with pulling Best Buy Corp. out of financial trouble by suggesting in 1996 that it sell comprehensive consumer warranties at much lower prices than competitors.
Schaufeld sits on numerous companies’ boards, including KIND, Sugar23, Noodle Partners, Custom Ink and José Andrés’ ThinkFood Group.
He and his wife, Karen, are active in organizations that support education, health, arts and the environment. They have endowed a scholarship fund at their alma mater, Lehigh University, which two of their three children also attended. In April, the Schaufelds, who own the Hill Top House Hotel property in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, got the green light for a demolition permit, allowing them to build a $139 million hotel expected to open in summer 2024.
JAMES SCHENCK
PRESIDENT AND CEO, PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, McLEAN
Since Schenck became president of PenFed in 2017, its assets have grown from $17 billion to $27 billion, and membership has increased from 1.3 million to 2.2 million. During the past year, loan originations rose from $10.1 billion to $16.8 billion.
Founded in 1935, PenFed is the second-largest federal credit union based in Virginia.
Schenck is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and has an MBA from Harvard. In the Army, he flew Black Hawk helicopters in Korea and was a night vision instructor pilot. Assigned to the Pentagon, he served as a special assistant to the secretary of the Army and on the staff of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans.
He taught economics and finance at West Point and in 2015 Schenck was named one of HillVets Foundation’s 100 most influential veterans and recognized for the contributions PenFed makes to veterans. In 2020, PenFed’s charitable arm gave nearly $3 million to veterans and first responders who were impacted by the pandemic.
ALBERTO SCHIAVON
CEO, ELEPHANT INSURANCE SERVICES LLC, GLEN ALLEN
A native of Venice, Schiavon is an alum of University of Padova in Italy and Manchester Business School in England. He joined Elephant in 2017 to lead marketing and pricing and was promoted in less than a year to CEO. The Henrico-based insurance company has 602 employees, with 526 in Virginia, and it was recognized last year as one of the top workplaces in the Richmond area by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Elephant recently expanded into Georgia. The company also launched a new work-from-home discount in Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, rewarding policyholders who aren’t commuting as frequently.
In June, Elephant launched Helping Herd to donate $300,000 to organizations that were impacted by COVID-19 or are providing relief.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: We have a whitewater rafting expert on our leadership team at Elephant. She recently led a group of us on a wet but exhilarating ride on the James River. The experience was a blast!
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION: I love visiting Hawaii because it has a great mix of nature, history, culture and diversity.
CHRIS SHOCKLEY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA CREDIT UNION, RICHMOND
Shockley, who grew up in Roanoke, began his banking career as a teller while attending Radford University. In 2003, he joined the state’s third-largest credit union, Virginia Credit Union, with more than 300,000 members and about $4.5 billion in total assets as of the end of 2020, becoming CEO in 2016. He chairs the Virginia Council on Economic Education board and is treasurer of the YMCA of Greater Richmond board.
Shockley also serves on the board of the Virginia-West Virginia chapter of National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a cause close to his heart after losing his sister to the disease.
VACU was named an outstanding organizational partner by the Association of Fundraising Professionals last year for its endowment of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Financial Success Center and contributions to a state employee financial wellness program. In July, the credit union was recognized by the Virginia Credit Union League for its financial education programs for youth and adults. During the height of the pandemic, VACU offered free online workshops for 60,000 people.
Shockley said trust, transparency and communication throughout the organization helped them weather the pandemic. “When you go through something like we experienced this past year, it tests you in ways you never imagined. I am so proud of my teammates’ determination and resolve in the face of complex challenges at work and in their personal lives.”
PETE SNYDER
CEO, DISRUPTOR CAPITAL, CHARLOTTESVILLE
Snyder sought the Republican nomination for Virginia’s governor this year, placing second to fellow businessman Glenn Youngkin in the GOP’s unassembled convention in May.
Snyder, who founded Disruptor to invest in companies looking to break the usual mold, became prominent outside venture capital circles last year when he and his wife, Burson, founded the Virginia 30 Day Fund to send forgivable $3,000 loans to small businesses that needed help with cash flow gaps. As of January, the fund had raised more than $4 million and assisted 1,000 businesses.
A former Fox News contributor and William & Mary graduate, Snyder founded Arlington-based social media marketing firm New Media Strategies and sold it to Meredith Corp. for $30 million, later founding Disruptor.
Snyder invested in Media Group of America, founded by two Republican operatives, which publishes the Independent Journal Review. He also
has served on William & Mary’s board of visitors.
BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Tito’s Vodka, rocks. Two limes.
JOHN STANCHINA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY — MID-ATLANTIC LLC, RICHMOND
Marsh & McLennan subsidiary Rutherfoord hired Stanchina in 1994 to establish surety bond operations in Richmond. Until then, he had been in Charlotte, North Carolina, working for Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland.
In Richmond, Stanchina rose through the ranks as division manager, division president and president. He oversees the global professional services company’s mid-Atlantic hub of 11 states and serves on the agency’s strategic steering committee. Based in New York, Marsh & McLennan reported $17.2 billion in worldwide revenue last year, a 3% increase from 2019.
Marsh offers commercial property, casualty, personal lines and employee benefits to businesses and individuals across North America. This year, it acquired Greensboro, N.C.-based Compass Financial Partners, which supplies retirement consulting and investment advice.
A graduate of Muskingum College in Ohio, Stanchina has served as a board member for the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Valentine Richmond History Center, Greater Richmond SCAN and Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School.
PERSON I ADMIRE: My dad. He always lived by certain principles — integrity, work hard and play hard, and the CEO was no more important than the janitor. He was also a student of business.
SOMETHING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Snow ski. (I don’t want to be in a cast!)
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Reduce the humidity in July and get back to being more business-friendly politically.
KEVIN P. STEVENSON
PRESIDENT, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, PRA GROUP INC., NORFOLK
Stevenson helped start the 25-year-old debt-purchasing company and has served in a number of roles, becoming president and CEO in 2017. It earned $1.1 billion last year, up from 2019’s $1 billion in total revenue.
A former controller with Household Recovery Services and Household Bank, Stevenson says the same thing makes him passionate about his work today as it did at the start of PRA: to do things the right way for the right reason and focus on the long term.
Last year, PRA opened a call center in Danville, and it has offices in North and South America, Europe and Brisbane, Australia. It employs 4,000 people worldwide, with 1,600 based in Virginia.
Stevenson studied accounting at The Ohio State University and has volunteered his time with the Greater Norfolk Corp. and Equi-Kids, an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding.
FIRST JOB: Flipping burgers at McDonald’s. My first full-time job out of college was in financial and regulatory reporting for Household Bank.
HOBBY/PASSION: Motorcycles
FAVORITE APP: Waze
FAVORITE VACATION: Motorcycle vacation: Tail of the Dragon and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
SOMETHING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Get on a horse.
JANET N. TOPE
REGION BANK PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA EAST, WELLS FARGO & CO., RICHMOND
Tope joined Wells Fargo 33 years ago after graduating from Florida State University with a business degree. In 2016, she was promoted to her current role as president of the region that covers Richmond, the Peninsula and Hampton Roads. Ranked 37th on the Fortune 500 in 2021, Wells Fargo reported $80.3 billion in revenue last year.
Tope sits on several boards, including the Virginia Bankers Association, the Richmond Forum and Communities in Schools of Richmond. She also is a member of the Regional Leadership Circle of the Greater Richmond Partnership.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Never stray from your values/principles. You can add value just by listening and asking questions.
FIRST JOB: Retail sales
PERSON I ADMIRE: My husband, Doug. He is an amazing husband and father and is a true example of someone who sees the good in others. He encourages and supports — showing confidence in others when they may not be sure what they could accomplish. He models ethical values like no one I have seen and sets an example for others to strive to achieve. He is the voice of reason in most any situation, and I admire his strong character.
RICHARD R. ‘RICHIE’ WHITT III
CO-CEO, MARKEL CORP., RICHMOND
Having joined Markel 20 years ago, Whitt has been controller, chief administrative officer of the company’s international operations, chief financial officer and co-chief operating officer. He also led the company’s international operations in London for two years before returning to Richmond in 2005. Whitt became Markel’s co-CEO in 2016, serving alongside Thomas S. Gayner. A Virginia Tech alum, his first job after graduating was with KPMG, where he was a senior auditor.
A Fortune 500 holding company for insurance, reinsurance and investments with 64 offices in 16 countries, Markel employs nearly 19,000 people. Its subsidiary, Markel Ventures, invests in companies outside the insurance marketplace, and in 2020, it acquired Lansing Building Products.
Markel was coming off a banner year in 2019, having earned $2.1 billion in income, which was more than the four previous years combined, and nearly double any single previous year.
The pandemic took its toll, though Markel reported $1.2 billion in comprehensive income in 2020.
Whitt serves on the boards of the Virginia Tech Foundation and St. John’s University School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science.
JAFFRAY WOODRIFF
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, QUANTITATIVE INVESTMENT Management LLC, CHARLOTTESVILLE
Woodriff said he first became interested in data science as a child, describing a game he played then. “I would obsessively roll a pair of dice to see seven win, and six and eight duke it out,” the U.Va. alum said in his bio for the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science, which he and his wife, Merrill, who’s also a U.Va. grad, were instrumental in founding.
In 2003, Woodriff parlayed that obsession into creating his $3 billion hedge fund, which uses data science to manage investments. Woodriff has supported dozens of startup companies. Before founding QIM, he was a director at Société Générale, a French multinational investment bank.
The Woodriffs set up the private family foundation Quantitative Foundation that makes philanthropic gifts, including the largest private gift in U.Va.’s history. In 2019 they pledged $120 million to build on U.Va.’s Data Science Institute, which became the School of Data Science last year.
A native of Charlottesville, Woodriff is also behind the Woodriff Center of Developing Entrepreneurs (CODE) building, a 170,000-square-foot space for early-stage tech startups, coworking and other businesses, on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. It’s expected to be completed this year.
Hospitality | Tourism
NEIL P. AMIN
CEO, SHAMIN HOTELS, RICHMOND
The past year has been a bit of a mixed bag for Amin and Shamin Hotels, one of the United States’ largest independent hoteliers.
Shamin, which owns more than 60 hotels, saw its Hilton Richmond Hotel and Spa in Short Pump enter receivership in January after falling behind on loan payments amid the pandemic.
That said, Shamin completed renovations on The Landing at Hampton Marina this year, and the company purchased a Hampton Inn & Suites in Newport News along with three Virginia Beach hotels. Amin is also one of 50 investors in Richmond’s proposed ONE Casino + Resort.
In July, Amin was tapped as one of the state’s five cannabis regulatory board members.
Amin earned his bachelor’s and MBA degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania before joining Shamin as chief financial officer in 2002. He was named CEO in 2008.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Don’t ask others to do anything that you would not do yourself.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Climbing Grays Peak (14,278 feet) and Torreys Peak (14,267 feet) in Colorado this past July
THOMAS J. BALTIMORE JR.
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PARK HOTELS & RESORTS INC., TYSONS
A lodging real estate investment trust, Park Hotels has a portfolio with 57 hotels and resorts, offering more than 32,000 rooms.
While weathering the pandemic, Park temporarily closed some hotels. Properties that remained open saw a sharp drop in reservations. For 2020, the company reported $852 million in revenue, a 70% decrease from 2019.
That said, Baltimore, who has led Park since 2016, when he joined the company shortly before its spinoff from Hilton, believes the storm may be passing.
“I continue to be extremely encouraged by our portfolio’s performance over the past several months,” he said in a June statement. “Leisure demand trends continue to accelerate at a faster pace than we had initially anticipated.”
From April through December 2020, Baltimore waived his base salary, contributing $500,000 to a $2.5 million fund to address hardship among employees. Even so, he received $12.66 million in total compensation for the year, about a 54% increase over what he received in 2019.
Baltimore earned his bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Virginia. He’s a member of the board of directors of American Express Co. and Prudential Financial Inc.
LESLIE GREENE BOWMAN
PRESIDENT, THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION, CHARLOTTESVILLE
Since 2008, Bowman has led the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, the Albemarle County estate of America’s third president.
It’s a high-profile job. In 2013, Bowman sat next to musician Dave Matthews as he prepared to speak at Monticello’s annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. A year later, she walked with President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande as they toured the historic site.
For all her time in the public eye, Bowman is, at heart, an academic. After earning her bachelor’s in American history and art history at Miami University, Bowman received a master’s degree in early American culture as a Winterthur Fellow at the University of Delaware.
Throughout Bowman’s tenure at Monticello, she’s worked to create educational programming that showcases the “honest, inclusive” history of the free and enslaved people who lived at the historic mountaintop home.
“In Jefferson’s words, we ‘follow truth wherever it may lead,’” Bowman said in a statement about Monticello creating an exhibit space dedicated to Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who bore at least six of Jefferson’s children.
DOUG BRADBURN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, GEORGE WASHINGTON’S MOUNT VERNON, MOUNT VERNON
It’s an exclusive club. Just 11 individuals have served as the leader at George Washington’s Mount Vernon since 1858, when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association purchased the estate from Washington’s heirs.
A noted scholar of American history, Bradburn came to Mount Vernon in 2013 to serve as the founding director of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. He is the author and editor of three books and numerous articles on topics such as the history of the American founding and leadership.
Only a few months after Bradburn joined Mount Vernon, he inadvertently found himself at the center of a minor controversy when Politico reported that President Donald Trump had suggested to Bradburn during a 2018 tour of Mount Vernon that it would have been smarter for Washington to name the home after himself. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association criticized the story as inaccurate and lacking context.
Bradburn graduated with degrees in history and economics from the University of Virginia before earning his doctorate in history from The University of Chicago.
JAMES CARROLL
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CRESTLINE HOTELS & RESORTS LLC, FAIRFAX
Carroll has led Crestline Hotels & Resorts LLC for more than a decade. He first arrived at the third-party hospitality management company in 2004 as its treasurer and later was named chief financial officer and then chief operating officer.
An indirect subsidiary of the Barceló Group based in Mallorca, Spain, Crestline manages 125 hotels — properties with brands such as Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt, as well as independent hotels. The company employs more than 5,000 associates, about 600 of whom are in Virginia.
While it was a grim year for the hotel industry overall, Crestline expanded its portfolio of managed hotels by 10% during the pandemic.
Previously, Carroll worked at Dell Technologies Inc., where he held several operations and financial management positions, and served as a naval aviator and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Carroll sits on the board of directors for Armada Hoffler Properties Inc. in Virginia Beach and ServiceSource, a nonprofit providing support services to people with disabilities.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Take care of your team.
KIMBERLY L. CHRISTNER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CORNERSTONE HOSPITALITY LLC, WILLIAMSBURG
Although Cornerstone Hospitality manages branded hotels, the company is probably best known for its work developing distinctive boutique hotels designed with décor reflecting the history and culture of the regions where the properties are located.
Partnering with Craig Larson, Christner formed Cornerstone Hospitality in 2012. Today, the company owns and manages 18 hotels and
15 food and beverage outlets and banquet venues. Additionally, the company conducts market research for individuals or town leaders considering boutique hotel opportunities.
A year after launching, Cornerstone Hospitality teamed up with Virginia-based MB Contractors and Architectural Partners to form a partnership called Creative Boutique Hotels LLC.
Focusing on developing boutique hotels in historic buildings in small markets, the partnership produced the Craddock Terry Hotels and Event Center in Lynchburg, the Western Front Hotel in Saint Paul and the Sessions Hotel in Bristol.
Previously, Christner worked for Williamsburg-based Beck Co. for almost two decades, including five years as CEO.
She received her bachelor’s in business administration from Saint Leo University in Florida and has earned several certifications from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell.
CHRISTY S. COLEMAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JAMESTOWN-YORKTOWN FOUNDATION, WILLIAMSBURG
The pandemic hit a couple of months after Coleman came aboard as executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. The foundation’s two living-history museums, Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, were forced to close for 15 weeks.
Since visitors couldn’t experience history in person, Coleman and her staff hustled to create virtual experiences, ranging from a tutorial on how to make Powhatan-style twined baskets to streaming video from a dugout canoe.
Coleman also maintains a lively presence on Twitter (@HistoryGonWrong), where she fangirls over popular culture and discusses the importance of looking at history through multiple perspectives.
In 2018, Time magazine listed her among 31 people “who are changing the South.”
Coleman was formerly president and CEO of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. She also worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she was director of historic programs. While there, she led an effort to stage a reenactment of a slave auction that drew national attention.
A native of Williamsburg, Coleman earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in museum studies from Hampton University.
CLIFF FLEET
PRESIDENT AND CEO, COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION, WILLIAMSBURG
Although the pandemic caused the nation’s largest outdoor living-history museum to close for three months, Fleet stayed plenty busy. In 2020, the foundation significantly expanded its digital footprint while raising $62 million in donations.
In September 2020, Fleet watched as Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists excavated the site of the old First Baptist Church, one of America’s oldest churches founded by Black people. In February 2021, the foundation announced a partnership with William & Mary to relocate the Williamsburg Bray School, an 18th-century institution that educated enslaved and free Black children, from W&M’s campus to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
A William & Mary alum who holds a bachelor’s degree in history and religion and graduate degrees in history, business administration and law from the school, Fleet joined the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in early 2020.
He previously was president and CEO of Richmond-based tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris USA and held leadership positions at its Fortune 500 parent company, Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc.
Fleet is a member of the board of trustees of the William & Mary Foundation and was appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to sit on the American Revolution 250 Commission.
MICHAEL GEORGE
FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CRESCENT HOTELS & RESORTS, FAIRFAX
In the two decades since George founded Crescent Hotels & Resorts, the business has grown to operate more than 100 hotels and resorts and more than 250 restaurants and bars in the U.S. and Canada. George’s clients include real estate investment trusts, private equity firms and major developers.
Crescent operates a collection of independent hotels under its own label, the Latitudes Collection, while also managing properties for the Marriott, IHG, Hyatt and Hilton brands.
One of the Hilton properties George manages made headlines in October when it changed its name from the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort to the Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak to avoid the offensive term for Native American women. “We wanted to consider the values and perspectives from our associates, guests and the community when determining what was most important in the name,” George said in a statement.
Prior to founding Crescent, George served as senior vice president of operations for Destination Hotels, as chief operating officer for Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. and as senior vice president of operations for then-Interstate Hotels and Resorts.
ROBERT GRAY
CHIEF, PAMUNKEY INDIAN TRIBE, KING WILLIAM COUNTY
For more than a quarter century, Gray has sat on the Pamunkey Tribal Council. And in 2015, he was elected its chief.
Gray grew up in Philadelphia but moved to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County in 1988.
As a younger man, Gray served in the U.S. Air Force before earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas. He later joined the Virginia Air National Guard and worked as a federal civilian employee for the U.S. Air Force.
Before retiring from the Air Force in 2011 as a chief master sergeant, Gray was deployed for multiple overseas tours. In 2017, he retired from the federal civilian service.
As chief of the Pamunkey Tribe, Gray frequently speaks about the HeadWaters Resort & Casino, the $500 million project that the tribe is developing with Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough alongside Norfolk’s Harbor Park. The casino, set to open in 2023, is expected to generate about 2,000 construction jobs, 2,500 permanent jobs and $185 million in annual revenue, not to mention at least $3.5 million each year for the Virginia Indigenous People’s Trust Fund.
JUSTIN G. KNIGHT
CEO AND DIRECTOR, APPLE HOSPITALITY REIT INC., RICHMOND
Knight has spent his career working for Apple Hospitality REIT and the real estate investment trusts that preceded it, all founded by his father, Glade M. Knight. Since 2014, Justin Knight has served as CEO at Apple Hospitality.
Today, Apple Hospitality’s portfolio consists of 232 hotels, mostly properties under the Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt brands, across 35 states.
Facing the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, Knight volunteered to decrease his target compensation for 2020 by 60%.
In May, Knight reported that the REIT had sold three hotels since the beginning of the year for a combined total of $24 million.
Four years ago, Knight suffered serious injuries when the small plane he was piloting, with his son on board, crashed into a cornfield in Buckingham County.
A member of the National Advisory Council for Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business, Knight received his bachelor’s in political science and an MBA from the university.
Knight sits on the board of trustees for Venture Richmond.
RITA McCLENNY
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA TOURISM CORP., RICHMOND
On June 15, McClenny addressed the Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, asking lawmakers to dedicate $50 million of the $4.3 billion Virginia has received from the federal American Rescue Plan for state and local tourism efforts.
Under her plan, $20 million of that relief funding would be used by Virginia Tourism Corp. for marketing efforts, and $30 million would be divided by state localities to pay for tourism marketing expenses.
Virginia has lost $14.3 billion in travel expenditures due to the pandemic, according to McClenny.
The president and CEO of VTC since 2012, McClenny usually has happier news to share with lawmakers. In 2019, visitors to Virginia spent $27 billion, which contributed $1.8 billion in state and local taxes.
A state agency, VTC works to market the state as a premier travel destination and as a desirable location for shooting films and television shows.
Prior to heading up VTC, McClenny served as head of the Virginia Film Office for more than 20 years. A Southampton County native, she received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Fisk University in Nashville.
JIM McGLOTHLIN
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, THE UNITED CO., BRISTOL
After a long career, this octogenarian sits on the cusp of delivering his boldest endeavor yet.
Partnering with high school friend and Par Ventures LLC President Clyde Stacy, along with Hard Rock International, McGlothlin plans to open the $400 million Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Bristol at the site of the old Bristol Mall in 2022.
McGlothlin and Stacy began lobbying for a casino in the birthplace of country music several years before the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation in 2000 allowing commercial casino gaming in Portsmouth, Danville, Norfolk, Richmond and Bristol — pending approval by local voters in referendums. In November 2020, 71% of Bristol voters said “yes” to the casino, which is expected to create about 2,000 jobs and $130 million in annual revenue.
If that weren’t enough, in April, McGlothlin opened the Car Barn, a new business that’s part classic car museum/part car lot.
In 2009, a Ukrainian company purchased United Coal, the company McGlothlin co-founded in the 1970s. Today, McGlothlin’s United Co. focuses on coal, oil and gas exploration services, investment management and real estate development, as well as the operation of golf courses and RV parks.
CHRISTOPHER J. NASSETTA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HILTON WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS INC., McLEAN
COVID-19 dealt quite a blow to the hotel industry. An industry giant, Hilton didn’t escape unscathed.
The company closed 2020 with $4.3 billion in revenue — a steep drop from the $9.5 billion it reported in 2019. The drop was big enough for Hilton to fall off the Fortune 500, sliding from No. 338 to No. 596 on the magazine’s list of the top 1,000 U.S. companies by total revenue.
At the end of 2020, Hilton said it employed 141,000 people, 32,000 fewer than it reported in 2019. For the first quarter of 2021, Hilton announced a net loss of $109 million.
Nassetta, who has led the company since 2007, seems optimistic about its post-pandemic recovery. “We are on pace to see record leisure demand in the U.S. over the summer months,” he said during a May call to investors.
In 2020, Nassetta earned $55.87 million in total compensation.
A graduate of the University of Virginia, Nassetta previously served as CEO for Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. His first real job was unclogging toilets at a Washington, D.C., hotel.
VINAY PATEL
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, FAIRBROOK HOTELS LLC, CHANTILLY
When he was 8 years old, Patel’s parents, originally from the Indian state of Gujarat, migrated from Malawi in eastern Africa to Richmond, where they bought a small motel.
Growing up, Patel pitched in at the family business, cleaning rooms and checking in guests. When it came time for college, Patel commuted to Virginia Commonwealth University and continued helping out at the motel.
By 2003, Patel took over the family business, which continues to grow. Today, Fairbrook Hotels owns 11 hotels in Virginia and Maryland.
In recent months, Patel has been interviewed by NPR and The New York Times, discussing how the pandemic impacted his business. While his properties ran at 80% occupancy before the pandemic, they now run at 40% to 60% occupancy, depending on the location.
In November 2020, then-U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appointed Patel to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. Patel also serves as the vice chair of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: When you help others, you really help yourself.
FAVORITE SONG: “The Way It Is,” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Appreciate everything and everyone.
CLYDE STACY
PRESIDENT, PAR VENTURES LLC, BRISTOL
The Bristol Herald Courier named Stacy and his longtime friend Jim McGlothlin as the 2020 Bristolians of the Year for their work developing the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Bristol, which is slated to open next year.
McGlothlin credits Stacy with conceiving the idea of bringing jobs to the economically challenged area by building a casino at the vacant Bristol Mall, which Stacy purchased in 2018 for $2.6 million. The duo went on to hire lobbying and public relations firm Alliance Group Ltd. to coax Richmond lawmakers into legalizing casinos — a feat others had tried without success for decades. At the time, Stacy and McGlothlin described their proposal as a moonshot idea — a bold solution to a big problem.
Amazingly, it worked. In 2020, the General Assembly approved legislation to allow casinos in five Virginia cities, including Bristol. In November 2020, 71% of Bristol voters approved of the idea in a referendum.
A former coal mining executive who headed Rapoca Energy Co., Stacy also invested in Dharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, a licensed medical cannabis processor that was sold in July to Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries Inc.
ERIC D. TERRY
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA RESTAURANT, LODGING & TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, RICHMOND
Terry brought three decades of experience in the hospitality industry when he came aboard as leader of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association in 2014.
A dedicated advocate, Terry promotes the interests of his association’s 1,500 member companies. This year, that’s meant lobbying lawmakers for much-needed relief funds and talking with business leaders and media about the impact of extended unemployment payments on Virginia’s tight labor market, which has disproportionately affected hotels and restaurants.
In April, Terry sent a letter to the chairs of the General Assembly’s appropriations committees asking Virginia’s lawmakers to dedicate more than $270 million from the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan funds to assist hospitality-related industries.
A graduate of Virginia Tech’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program, Terry previously worked in leadership positions for then-The Redstone Cos. Benchmark Hospitality International Inc. and Malibu Entertainment Worldwide Inc.
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION: The beach
PERSON I ADMIRE: Ronald Reagan was the first president I ever voted for, and he did an unbelievable job fixing the economy, fighting communism and instilling a pride in America.
BRUCE L. THOMPSON
CEO, GOLD KEY | PHR, VIRGINIA BEACH
Virginia Beach’s historic but crumbling Cavalier Hotel almost certainly faced a wrecking ball before Thompson came to the rescue in 2013.
In his youth, Thompson had worked security and cut grass for the renowned property, and he wanted to see it saved. It took $85 million in renovations from Gold Key | PHR, but the hotel reopened in 2018.
Additionally, Gold Key is developing an assemblage of other surrounding properties to create an oceanfront campus known as Cavalier Resort. The $125 million Marriott Resort Virginia Beach Oceanfront began welcoming guests in June 2020. Gold Key completed construction of upscale condo development 42 Ocean in spring 2021. The 12-story Embassy Suites, the final piece of the Cavalier campus, should open by 2023.
Thompson also submitted a proposal for the redevelopment of Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall to the Norfolk Economic Development Authority.
Since his son, Josh, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2007, Thompson has worked to raise money for scientific research for ALS and to build facilities for people with disabilities. Josh Thompson died in October 2020 at age 46.
Transportation
ED ALDRIDGE
PRESIDENT, CMA CGM AMERICA LLP AND APL NORTH AMERICA, NORFOLK
Aldridge took over as president of CMA CGM America in June 2020, and he has served as president of CMA CGM subsidiary North America, the nation’s oldest ocean carrier, since 2017.
In February, the French company announced the $36 million expansion of its Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia operations, adding 400 jobs. Many of those jobs are expected to be in Hampton Roads; in Arlington, the firm will open Zebox, a startup incubator. Aldridge is responsible for CMA CGM’s U.S. operations and 11,000 employees at 18 ports.
Then in May, the largest-ever cargo ship to call on the East Coast arrived at the Port of Virginia in Portsmouth. At the length of about three-and-a-half football fields, the Marco Polo, operated by CMA CGM, holds enough containers that they would span more than 61 miles if put end-to-end.
“We think about it in terms of our customers,” Aldridge said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Every one of those containers is a customer we focus on. There are over 10,000 customers on that ship.”
A Marist College alumnus, Aldridge started his maritime career with SeaLand Service and was CEO and president of US Lines, which became part of CMA CGM.
DEVON ANDERS
PRESIDENT, INTERCHANGE GROUP INC., MOUNT CRAWFORD
In September 2020, InterChange Group Inc. purchased a minority stake in the 22-mile privately owned Shenandoah Valley Railroad, part of a larger expansion plan for the third-party logistics company. The line will ultimately connect its cold storage warehouse to the Virginia Inland Port system in Front Royal.
An Eastern Mennonite University alumnus, Anders has led InterChange for more than two decades.
The firm has a building portfolio of almost 2 million square feet, including a 250,000-square-foot cold storage facility off Interstate 81 in Mount Crawford that has room to grow to 600,000 square feet. A third phase of expansion is scheduled soon, Anders said late last year. Anders is also a director on the Virginia Maritime Association board, as well as a member of GO Virginia Region 8 Council, which boosts economic development in the northern Shenandoah Valley.
InterChange has made a commitment to solar power in the past, and Anders announced in July that it would add an array to its new cold storage facility, giving InterChange the ability to offset 70% of the structure’s energy usage.
ADAM ANDERSON
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, T. PARKER HOST, NORFOLK
Anderson, a former Army reservist who joined the century-old shipping firm T. Parker Host in 1998 as a boarding agent, developed and negotiated its first terminal operation contract by the time he was 24, according to the company. He has served as its chief executive for a decade.
He has overseen fast growth for the company, which opened a logistics division in 2017 and the following year acquired the former Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana through a joint partnership. Host has begun an overhaul of the yard in recent months, and with $10 million in federal block grant funding, the former wharf will be converted into a modern cargo dock.
Host has approximately 70 Virginia-based employees and more than 490 worldwide, and in 2018 and 2019, it made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing privately owned companies. In 2020, Host was the oldest company listed on the Virginia Chamber’s Fantastic 50 list, marking 245% growth between 2015 and 2018.
Anderson, who regularly speaks about the maritime sector at industry events, is a member of the Coal Institute, the New York Coal Trade Association, the Pittsburgh Traffic Club, the Virginia Maritime Association and the Hampton Roads Coal Association.
JENNIFER AUMENT
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION, AECOM, ARLINGTON
Aument joined the Fortune 500 Los Angeles-based infrastructure consulting firm in April, working out of its Arlington office.
Aument manages transportation projects around the world for AECOM, which provides planning, design and engineering services for transportation and building projects, as well as water and energy facilities. Past AECOM projects include the Los Angeles International Airport’s expansion and a new subway line in New York City. AECOM reported $13.2 billion in revenue last year.
Before joining AECOM, Aument was president of North America operations for Transurban, which operates the dynamically tolled Express Lanes along interstates 95, 395 and 495 in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
Aument joined Transurban in 2006 and oversaw the 52-mile network of toll roads in the Washington region, including 31 reversible miles on I-95, and was involved with the $2.6 billion Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.
She previously worked with Bechtel Infrastructure to develop the Metrorail’s Silver Line and was a Virginia Port Authority commissioner until 2020. A West Virginia University and George Washington University graduate, Aument serves on the board of the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.
ROBERT BOWEN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORFOLK AIRPORT AUTHORITY, NORFOLK
Born into a family of commercial watermen on the Northern Neck, Bowen worked at a fish processing plant while attending Old Dominion University. In his final year at ODU, he spent a summer fueling aircraft at Norfolk International Airport.
Bowen has spent 44 years at the airport, including 33 with the Norfolk Airport Authority. During the height of the pandemic, the airport took a massive hit, with ridership declining by 94% at one point. Short-term layoffs and furloughs followed, but by May, passenger activity was at 290,984, 18% behind May 2019’s total, but hiring and pay raises have resumed.
In May, Breeze Airways, a new low-cost airline started by the founder of JetBlue, announced it would set up its first East Coast hub at Norfolk International Airport, producing 116 jobs. A $26 million bond issue will refund existing bonds and save nearly $6 million in interest during 10 years.
In June, Bowen announced he will retire on March 1, 2022. The airport authority’s board will conduct the selection process for his replacement.
STEPHEN C. BRICH
COMMISSIONER, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, RICHMOND
Virginia kept moving, even during a worldwide pandemic. Brich credits the General Assembly for granting VDOT, which has a budget of about $6.4 billion, the financial flexibility to allow work to keep flowing.
An alumnus of Old Dominion University and the University of Virginia, Brich was an intern in the city of Norfolk’s traffic engineering division, which paved the road for his future work. Currently, he is overseeing the state’s largest-ever infrastructure project, the $3.8 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion.
In May, the project hit a milestone when the 350-foot-long Tunnel Boring Machine being constructed for the project — nicknamed “Mary” for former NASA scientist Mary Winston Jackson — passed a virtual factory acceptance test. Mary is expected to arrive in Hampton Roads from Germany in November, with boring set to start in early 2022. Also in May, the state awarded a $170 million design-build contract for improvements along Interstate 81 in the Salem Construction District.
By mid-2021, truck traffic was about 10% above pre-COVID levels, although Northern Virginia is still seeing decreased volumes, which Brich attributed to the federal government remaining in telework status. Elsewhere, “it’s rebounded and then some,” he says.
HOBBIES: Surfing, boating, fishing
GEORGE BROWN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CP&O LLC; VICE PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA MARITIME ASSOCIATION, NORFOLK
The Norfolk native spent a decade working as a longshoreman —following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather — after spending three years in the Army, retiring as a sergeant in 1975. Brown then graduated from Old Dominion University on the G.I. Bill and switched over to management.
Brown has led CP&O, a partnership between Cooper/T. Smith and Ports America, since 2004. The company handles stevedoring and terminal services at major ports across Hampton Roads. At any given time, it employs between about 75 and 300 longshoremen.
May was among the busiest months for the company, Brown says, attributing the high volume to “just pent-up demand, pent-up volume overseas getting here. Just bigger ships, and more containers.”
Prior to leading CP&O, Brown served as a senior vice president for East Coast operations for Cooper/T. Smith. In his spare time, he enjoys golfing. His first jobs, at 11 years old, were delivering the morning newspaper and cutting grass.
In addition to his work at CP&O, Brown serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association and the Virginia Maritime Association, and he previously served as treasurer of the National Maritime Safety Association.
PIERCE COFFEE
PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICA, TRANSURBAN, FALLS CHURCH
In February, Coffee was promoted to president of Transurban’s North American operations, which manage express lanes along Interstates 95, 395 and 495 in Northern Virginia.
Before stepping up to replace Jennifer Aument, who left to lead AECOM’s global transportation business, Coffee served as vice president of customer experience and operations. In that role, she was responsible for customer service, tolling, account management and enforcement operations. She joined the Australian company in 2009 after holding leadership roles at Qorvis Communications LLC and Visual CV. She also previously led Transurban’s marketing department from the company’s Australian headquarters before returning to the U.S.
In June, Transurban got a little closer to expanding its operations into Maryland when the state’s Transportation Authority approved the firm to develop toll lanes on Interstate 95 in order to ease congestion around the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The company will operate and maintain express lanes and charge toll rates in a contract that extends until 2087.
Coffee has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, where she played club lacrosse.
ADAM COHEN and ELAN COHEN
CO-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMEN, LIBERIAN INTERNATIONAL SHIP & CORPORATE REGISTRY (LISCR) LLC, DULLES
The Cohen brothers run Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry, which was founded by their father, Yoram, in 1999. With more than 4,800 vessels — which comprise more than 200 million gross tons — it represents 13% of the world’s shipping fleet, according to the company.
In April 2021, the company announced it had launched new platforms to help improve access for seafarers taking licensing examinations and applying for documents and credentials, The Maritime Executive reported.
LISCR Chief Operating Officer Alfonso Castillero says the advancements were more important than ever, considering the challenges brought by the pandemic.
“These new platforms are a key part of Liberia’s continued implementation of technology,” Castillero says. “This time of COVID-19 and the continued restriction of travel has continued to necessitate the industry to continue to think outside the box and adapt to allow for technology to be used whenever possible.“
In 2013, the company’s $120,000 donation to former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate in this year’s race, led to questions because of the unusual alliance, The Washington Post reported then. The company also faced questions for its business during the regime of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
MICHAEL W. COLEMAN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CV INTERNATIONAL INC.; PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA MARITIME ASSOCIATION, NORFOLK
Coleman grew up with the family business, launched by his father, B. Wayne Coleman, in 1985. “It was always in my mind that … I wanted to be like him and wanted to run the business one day,” he says.
Coleman became CV International’s president in 2006 and CEO in 2018. Working summers during high school and college for the supply chain business, he says he was fascinated by the diversity of products and industries he was working with. “We’re dealing with people all over the world and helping people move their products all over the world, dealing with so many different industries and so many different commodities,” Coleman says.
Following a huge surge in volume related to the pandemic, CV International added about 18 employees in the past year, bringing its total to 88, with 53 based in Virginia.
Coleman is a member of the Hampton Roads Coal Association, serves on the Hampton Roads Shipping Association and Greater Norfolk Corp. boards, and was appointed to the Virginia Board for Branch Pilots. He became president of the Virginia Maritime Association in 2020 and in 2021 was appointed to the Virginia Freight Advisory Committee.
CHRISTOPHER J. CONNOR
PRESIDENT AND CEO, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PORT AUTHORITIES, ALEXANDRIA
In May 2020, Connor testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, urging Congress to include $1.5 billion in economic relief for the nation’s public ports in any COVID-19 response. Helping port workers maintain readiness would be critical for the future, he said.
Connor, who took over as chief of the American Association of Port Authorities in 2019, renewed that call for investment as shipping volume began to increase in 2021. AAPA outlined the need in a letter to the Biden administration as Congress mulls a massive infrastructure bill.
Investment is crucial to remain competitive, Connor says. “Spending one dollar on maritime infrastructure returns two to three dollars to the national economy in terms of jobs, growth and productivity.”
AAPA advocates for 130 public port authorities across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.
In addition to his job, Connor is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and sits on the board of The Pasha Group and the business advisory board for Xylyx Bio. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Connor also received a cybersecurity oversight certification from Carnegie Mellon University.
JAY CROFTON
CO-OWNER AND PRESIDENT, CROFTON INDUSTRIES INC., PORTSMOUTH
In August 2018, torrential rains flooded Lynchburg’s College Lake, and officials evacuated 150 nearby homes, fearing a dam break. Crofton Industries responded and spent 10 days performing an underwater assessment and debris removal, stabilizing the dam.
That’s just one of many projects the company has completed since its founding in 1949 by Navy veteran Juan Crofton as a commercial diving company. More recently, Crofton Industries won its bid to help replace a 614-foot portion of the Portsmouth seawall, and it has been involved with replacing the Bonner Bridge on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Jay Crofton, one of Juan Crofton’s four children, serves as president of the company, which provides professional diving services, cranes, marine construction and engineering for the industry. His siblings also are part of the operation.
Although the company has grown over the past 72 years, its original work boat, The Cromo, is still part of the business and is used as a cleaning ship.
JOHN CUOMO
CEO AND PRESIDENT, VSE CORP., ALEXANDRIA
Cuomo was named the head of VSE Corp. in April 2019, after nearly 20 years in the aerospace industry, including stints at B/E Aerospace Inc. and Boeing Distribution Services.
VSE provides aftermarket distribution and maintenance, repair and overhaul services for land, sea and air transportation. Its clients include the U.S. military and the Postal Service, as well as commercial airlines.
Revenues were down slightly for the first three months of 2021, with VSE reporting $165 million as of March 31, compared with $177.4 million for the same period of 2020. But as travel began to rebound, VSE’s aviation section declared its third quarter of consecutive growth.
In April, the company reported $37.5 million in new contracts with the Air Force, as well as a foreign ally. A month earlier, VSE had announced a 15-year engine accessories distribution agreement worth up to $1 billion with a global aircraft engine manufacturer.
A Florida Atlantic University alumnus, Cuomo received a law degree from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Florida. He also completed an advanced management program at Harvard Business School earlier this year, and he is a member of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
JEROME L. DAVIS
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY, ARLINGTON
Davis started off as a sales rep selling food products for Procter & Gamble, and he later rose to executive roles there, at Frito-Lay and at Maytag Corp. By the time he was tapped to lead the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in 2014, he thought he was ready to retire, he told the Washington Business Journal.
With air travel taking significant hits during the pandemic, concessions and parking at Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports, which MWAA governs, also declined sharply. In the first eight months of 2020, concessions were down more than 63% from the same period in 2019, and parking was down by 84%, the Washington Business Journal reported.
As the pandemic eased, air travel was rebounding at both airports. Dulles added additional international routes, and a $650 million renovation of Reagan’s north concourse continued.
Davis serves on the board of Destination D.C. and is a graduate of Florida State University. He also served on the board of directors for GameStop Corp. until retiring from that board in June, although he was still part of the governing body during the Reddit-driven stock boom, in which shares went up by 850% since January.
STEPHEN EDWARDS
CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA PORT AUTHORITY, NORFOLK
The Port of Virginia set a record in May, when it handled nearly 315,000 20-foot equivalent units, surpassing its previous record by 30,000. Edwards, who took over his position in January, says he does not expect significant slowdowns soon.
“What is most important is to look at how we processed this volume at the berth, truck gates and rail ramps,” Edwards says. “Our overall performance metrics reflect an operation that is performing well for customers and the cargo owners. We’re processing month-on-month record volumes with a very high level of efficiency.”
Edwards, who replaced former port chief John Reinhart, was previously CEO of Los Angeles-based TraPac. One of his goals is to persuade importers and exporters to pick Virginia over other ports, including those on the West Coast that are closer to Asia. Edwards also serves on the boards of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and Through Transport Mutual Insurance Association.
The port authority took in $512.9 million in revenue in 2020 and is set to become the deepest and widest port on the East Coast once a $350 million dredging project set to be finished in 2024 is completed.
ROBEY W. ‘ROB’ ESTES JR.
CEO, ESTES EXPRESS LINES, RICHMOND
Though shipments dropped about 20% when the pandemic first hit in 2020, that changed fast, Webb Estes, an Estes Express Lines vice president and the son of CEO Rob Estes, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this year. By last fall, the company’s annual growth was up 15% year over year.
Estes is the grandson of founder W.W. Estes, who started the company with one truck in 1931. In 2020, the company generated $3.5 billion in revenue and ranked No. 140 on Forbes’ list of America’s largest private companies. Today, Estes Express Lines, which employs more than 18,000 people, is looking to add more than 2,500 employees nationwide, and it has opened several new terminals, with others under construction.
Estes took over as president in 1990 and became CEO in 2001, suceeding his father, Robey Estes Sr., who died in 2006. In December, the Estes family donated $1.85 million to support construction of the 16-story Wonder Tower at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The company added $150,000 to the gift in January.
An alumnus of William & Mary, Estes is a generous donor and served for 16 years on the Mason School of Business Foundation board until 2020.
GEORGE GOLDMAN
PRESIDENT, ZIM AMERICAN INTEGRATED SHIPPING SERVICES LTD., NORFOLK
Container ships handled surging volumes alongside increased demand for some goods during the pandemic, even as supply chains slowed. Containers couldn’t get unloaded and returned fast enough for some shippers, and Goldman said he doesn’t see that changing soon.
“I do think we have a long way to go” said Goldman during the 2021 Georgia Foreign Trade Conference, The Journal of Commerce reported. “I don’t see us getting out of this thing any time soon.”
Goldman has led ZIM’s American division since 2015. With operations in more than 100 countries, the Haifa, Israel-based shipping giant started 2021 by listing on the New York Stock Exchange. It also broke its income record, Port Technology reported.
As tensions flared between Israelis and Palestinians earlier this spring, ZIM was targeted by activists protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. A ZIM-operated container ship turned back to sea after protesters in Oakland prevented it from unloading, according to news reports.
A graduate of San Jose State University in California, Goldman spent much of his career with APL, working in Hong Kong, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Singapore in executive roles before joining ZIM in 2015.
GANA GOVIND
PRESIDENT, SOFTEON, RESTON
Surges in online commerce during the pandemic left some companies scrambling to keep up. With offices in Peru and India, as well as Reston, Softeon is a leader in supply chain software to help manage warehouses, including incorporating emerging technologies, like mobile robots, to help companies improve fulfillment processes.
Softeon announced earlier this year that its cloud-based warehouse management software would be used by KSP Fulfillment, a third-party logistics firm in Minnesota. KSP, which is completing a 182,000-square-foot warehouse this year in suburban Minneapolis, with plans to build others on the East and West coasts, works with medical, pet care, agricultural and other industries on order placement and warehousing.
Govind founded Softeon in 1999 and has a master’s degree in physics from the University of Madras in India. In 2019, Softeon announced a minority investment from Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm. Softeon also opened its Warehouse of the Future Innovation Lab in May 2020 to test its sorting and weighing technology for broader use.
PAUL HOELTING
PRESIDENT, TFORCE FREIGHT, RICHMOND
In a leadership shuffle this spring, Hoelting took over as president of the newly renamed TForce Freight, formerly known as UPS Freight. In April, the company was sold to Canada-based TFI International for $800 million.
TForce Freight handles less-than-truckload shipping across all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. Hoelting previously served as senior vice president for sales and marketing for UPS Freight and has worked in the transportation industry for more than three decades.
In 1993, he went to work for Overnite Transportation, which was purchased in 2005 by UPS and became UPS Freight. The company, with more than 23,000 trailers and more than 6,300 tractors, reported more than $3 billion in 2020 revenue. Hoelting is a member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Virginia board, and he holds degrees from the University of Nebraska and William & Mary.
In June, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that UPS and TForce Freight faced a $3.8 million penalty in a settlement for violations over the handling and reporting of hazardous waste in some facilities. The companies have two years to comply.
CHARLES ‘CHUCK’ KUHN
FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JK MOVING SERVICES, STERLING
Kuhn runs the nation’s largest independently owned moving company, with more than $146 million in revenue in 2020 and 1,152 employees.
Faced with a nationwide driver shortage, JK increased annual guaranteed income for experienced over-the-road class-A drivers to a minimum of $100,000.
Kuhn is also known for his conservation efforts throughout Loudoun County and elsewhere. Earlier this year, he purchased the historic White’s Ferry, which since the 1700s has shuttled passengers across the Potomac River from Virginia to Maryland. The ferry closed in late 2020 following a property rights dispute. In June, through a partnership with Dutch developer Yondr Group, Kuhn’s JK Land Holdings LLC purchased 270 acres in Loudoun and Prince William counties that will be used for data centers.
Kuhn and his company have received the Loudoun Laurels award, the Washington Business Journal’s Corporate Citizen of the Year award and Old Dominion Land Conservancy’s Conservation Steward Award.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: Work hard. Hire well. Be clear about your goals, values and what you stand for. Treat everyone — your customers, your employees and those in your community — with care and respect.
PERRY J. MILLER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CAPITAL REGION AIRPORT COMMISSION, RICHMOND
Miller credits a conservative approach to finance over the years and cost-cutting measures made during the early days of the pandemic for helping the Capital Region Airport Commission maintain a healthy cash position during COVID-19.
The commission, which has 178 employees, reported $43.8 million in revenue in 2020.
Miller, who is on the boards of ChamberRVA and Richmond Region Tourism, also serves as secretary and treasurer of the American Association of Airport Executives and president-elect of its Southeast chapter.
Miller says his first job as a cook at a Houston fried chicken restaurant made him realize the importance of teamwork and that customers could be a good source for feedback. Today he’s passionate about helping others.
“I consider it a blessing to be shared when a person is fortunate enough to be in a position to help someone else achieve success,” Miller says. “That opportunity should not be sacrificed to selfish ambition.”
BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Q Ginger Beer
ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Virginia is well on its way to mitigating the negative perceptions associated with the Confederacy, but more emphasis ought to be directed to its beautiful landscapes and attractions as a tourism destination.
JOHN G. MILLIKEN
CHAIRMAN, VIRGINIA PORT AUTHORITY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, ARLINGTON
Before retiring from law firm Venable LLP in 2015, one of Milliken’s focuses was transportation. In the past year, Milliken led the search for former Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director John Reinhart’s replacement, Stephen Edwards, who started his new position this year. Now it’s nearly time for Milliken’s retirement from the VPA board, which he’s served on intermittently since 2002. His retirement date is June 2022.
Aside from the board, Milliken was Virginia’s secretary of transportation from 1990 to 1993, and he’s currently a board member of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing and the Washington Airports Task Force. In 2017, he received the Arlington Community Foundation Spirit of Community Award. The University of Virginia School of Law alumnus is also a senior fellow in residence at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Washington Nationals
HOBBIES: Golf, baseball, collecting Chinese stamps
FIRST JOB: Order filler at a bulk paper warehouse
PERSON I ADMIRE: Anyone willing to seek and hold public office
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” by Isabel Wilkerson
JOHN E. ‘JACK’ POTTER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY, ARLINGTON
Domestic and international passenger activity at Virginia’s two largest airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International, fell 72% between April 2020 and April 2021. Those figures are due in large part to the pandemic.
While the pandemic may have temporarily stalled air travel, it didn’t stop the opening of a new 225,000-square-foot concourse at the Reagan airport. The 14-gate concourse serves as the hub of American Airlines’ regional operations.
Potter has led the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages and operates the two major D.C. airports, since 2011. He oversees 1,700 employees.
Running two airports is a role he’s well compensated for. In 2019, Potter, a former postmaster general, took home more than $720,000, The Washington Post reported, making him one of the country’s highest-paid airport executives.
The authority also oversees the management and construction of Metro’s 23-mile Silver Line Dulles extension. The second phase is expected to open in 2022.
A Bronx native, Potter has a degree in economics from Fordham University and was a Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
KEVIN PRICE
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL TERMINALS LLC, NORFOLK
More than two decades on the waterfront helped Price prepare for his role at Virginia International Terminals, a nonprofit created by the Virginia Port Authority. As COO, he oversees operations, information technology, expansion, maintenance, safety and security for Norfolk International Terminals, Portsmouth Marine Terminal, Newport News Marine Terminal, the Richmond Marine Terminal and the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal.
Not only does Price concern himself with performance at the terminals today, he must plan for the future.
“It’s a balancing act,” he said in a Virginia Port Authority biography. “Vessel productivity, truck turn times, rail dwell. … We will not lose sight of these key performance indicators. However, we must also commit to casting a vision for tomorrow’s sustainable growth. How and where will we innovate, building a better terminal experience for all stakeholders?”
Price earned a bachelor’s degree from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania and has a diploma from Lloyd’s Maritime Academy in terminal management. He has also worked on a master’s degree at the University of Denver’s Transportation Institute. Before joining VIT in 2018, Price worked with Sea-Land Service Inc., APM Terminals and Global Container Terminals.
REAR ADM. CHARLES ‘CHIP’ ROCK
COMMANDER, NAVY REGION MID-ATLANTIC, U.S. NAVY, NORFOLK
There’s no denying the Navy’s impact on Hampton Roads. About 90,000 active-duty sailors and thousands more civilian employees, contractors and families call the area home, bringing the total “Navy Family” up to more than 300,000 people. Rock, a native of Syracuse, New York, oversees all of it, as well as a 20-state region of naval stations and reserve outposts. Six of those are in Hampton Roads.
The Navy estimated its economic impact on Hampton Roads for 2019 at more than $15 billion, a figure that represents direct capital expenditures, including salaries, and payments for installation services.
Construction of a new fleet communications center — estimated to cost about $100 million — on Naval Station Norfolk is expected to be done in 2022. The Navy also is partnering with Virginia Beach to lease 400 acres of underutilized land at Naval Air Station Oceana for private development.
Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval base, is also home to the service’s newest nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
The Navy is “a proud partner of Hampton Roads,” Rock says. “We can’t do our job without the community’s support. I’m just extremely grateful for all the support we’ve received, pandemic or not, and continue to receive by the Hampton Roads community. It’s humbling and really overwhelming.”
FIRST JOB: Lifeguard
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “2034: A Novel of the Next World War,” by Elliot Ackerman and retired U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis
JAMES A. SQUIRES
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP., NORFOLK
Norfolk Southern is packing to leave for its Atlanta headquarters later this year, but the Fortune 500 railroad company is making sure its impact in Hampton Roads will still be felt. In May, the company announced plans to contribute $5 million in grants to local nonprofits over five years.
“Norfolk has been home to Norfolk Southern for decades,” Squires says. “The Hampton Roads community has helped to shape Norfolk Southern and will remain part of who we are. Even as we relocate our headquarters, we will continue to actively support the prosperity of the Hampton Roads community to express our ongoing gratitude and commitment.”
Also in May, the company reached a $257.2 million deal to expand passenger rail in the New River Valley, which has not had passenger service since 1979. The initiative also includes infrastructure improvements to the Route 29/Interstate 81 corridor. Legal agreements between Norfolk Southern and the state are expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Squires became president of Norfolk Southern in 2013. After graduating from Amherst College, he spent a year in Japan on a fellowship, and from 1985 to 1989, he served as a Japanese language expert in the Army.
SCOTT WHEELER
CHAIRMAN, VIRGINIA MARITIME ASSOCIATION; CEO, BAY DIESEL & GENERATOR CORP., VIRGINIA BEACH
Wheeler grew up in St. Louis and moved to Virginia in the early 1970s following his service in the U.S. Army. He worked first for Virginia Tractor Co. before starting Bay Diesel in 1982. The company overhauls and repairs engines for oceangoing vessels, while also selling and servicing industrial generators. Wheeler moved from president to CEO in December 2020.
He also continues to lead the board of the Virginia Maritime Association, which looks out for the interests of about 500 Virginia companies in the maritime industry. In a 2018 Virginian-Pilot essay, Wheeler wrote, “My philosophy is simple — show up, work hard, stay informed and make good decisions.”
Outside of work, Wheeler serves on the governing boards of WHRO Public Media and the World Affairs Council of Greater Hampton Roads, as well as the regional advisory board for Truist Bank, created from the merger of SunTrust and BB&T banks.
DAVID C. WHITE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA MARITIME ASSOCIATION, NORFOLK
White, who joined the VMA in 2003, is responsible for making sure both Virginia’s congressional delegation and its state leaders understand the concerns of the nearly 500 maritime companies that make up the association’s membership. He also serves as executive vice president of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, which negotiates the collective bargaining agreement with the International Longshoremen’s Association, a crucial part of keeping Virginia’s maritime industry working.
In 2020, shippers were faced with unprecedented challenges as the pandemic disrupted the global economy while demand soared for vital goods. It was time to encourage creativity, flexibility and adaptability, White says.
The VMA has worked in recent years to expand its membership, opening chapters in Southern and Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, a network that helped meet members’ needs during the fluctuations in volume, White says.
Aside from work, the William & Mary alumnus is a member of the WHRO Public Media board and the Elizabeth River Project environmental cleanup effort. He also chairs the Virginia Freight Transportation Advisory Committee, a group created in 2020 to advise the state on freight and logistics infrastructure and technology.
PAUL J. WIEDEFELD
GENERAL MANAGER AND CEO, WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT AUTHORITY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
With the number of Metrorail and Metrobus riders plunging by 90% last year during the height of the pandemic, it was a challenging time to lead the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Wiedefeld, who joined the agency in 2015 after serving as CEO of the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, has spent the past six years leading Metro’s aggressive expansion and renovation program, particularly on the Dulles-bound Silver Line, as well as balancing its budget during the pandemic.
As of mid-2021, ridership has yet to recover, as telecommuters walk to their home offices rather than ride Metro’s trains and buses, but federal stimulus funding has staved off major job cuts and shorter hours. To attract more riders, Wiedefeld asked his board in June to reduce fares, decrease wait times between trains and extend hours. Still, Metro projects only about a third of pre-pandemic commuters will return this summer, and it expects to be carrying about 75% of its former passengers in three years.
Wiedefeld, who has a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Rutgers University, previously was CEO of the Maryland Transit Administration and consulted with Parsons Brinckerhoff.
ROLF A. WILLIAMS
OWNER, ANDERS WILLIAMS & CO. INC.; VICE PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA MARITIME ASSOCIATION, NORFOLK
Williams is the third generation to steer his family’s shipping business. He wears three hats as president of both Anders Williams Ship Agency and Anders Williams Trucking and as executive vice president of Marine Oil Service, which is based in Norfolk and New York.
The William & Mary alumnus has been on the board of the Virginia Maritime Association since 2013 and is one of three vice presidents, while also serving on the board of the Hampton Roads Shipping Association.
One of the VMA’s major efforts is encouraging expansion in the Hampton Roads area to make the Port of Virginia and associated shipping stations hospitable for larger crafts by dredging the Norfolk Harbor. The association also joined other groups to develop a comprehensive infrastructure package to improve ports, waterways and freight movement projects in order to secure funding for Virginia in President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Williams, who trained in shipping in Norway, has served on several Norfolk boards and also is Virginia’s honorary consul for Norway and Sweden and dean of the Consular Corps of Virginia.
WILLIAM E. ‘BILL’ WOODHOUR
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MAERSK LINE LTD., LEESBURG
Woodhour is president and CEO of the U.S. arm of the world’s largest shipping company, A.P. Moller-Maersk. Maersk Line, a Norfolk-based subsidiary, was founded in 1983 to support the U.S. Navy. Its 20 container vessels operate around the world in support of U.S. military, government and humanitarian missions. It also serves commercial customers.
Woodhour took Maersk Line’s helm in 2016 following a nearly 25-year career with the parent company. He has worked in marketing, sales, and line management, and prior to his promotion, Woodhour was a vice president in A.P. Moller-Maersk’s headquarters in Copenhagen.
Maersk ships from more than 300 ports and has the largest fleet of U.S.-flagged ocean vessels. The U.S. line is based in Norfolk and employs about 3,500 mariners. In March, as the massive Ever Green container ship created a traffic jam at the Suez Canal for nearly a week, Maersk noted that the stuck ship would result in global backlogs, and the parent company anticipates high demand and earnings to continue the rest of 2021.
Woodhour, who earned degrees at the University of Delaware and attended Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, serves as vice chairman of the National Defense Transportation Association board.