byline: Virginia Business

Miyares, the son of a Cuban refugee, became the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Virginia after voters backed his attorney general bid in 2021. Along with Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, he is widely expected to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2025.

As attorney general, Miyares has touted successes in reducing crime through Operation Ceasefire, an initiative targeting 13 cities with high gun violence rates that his office said has resulted in a 17% decline in homicides. Along with Gov. Glenn Youngkin, he’s also devoted significant attention to the opioid epidemic, launching campaigns such as “It Only Takes One” to discourage fentanyl use.

The former Virginia Beach state delegate hasn’t been afraid to wade into the political fray. His office’s 2023 investigation into a former Virginia Parole Board chair, Democratic appointee Adrianne Bennett, found major violations of state law. And he’s launched multiple investigations into Northern Virginia schools, including two civil rights probes at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology that have been lauded by Republicans and heavily criticized by Democrats.

After bumping longtime Del. Eileen Filler-Corn from the top House role in a 2022 shakeup, Scott became Virginia’s first Black speaker in January. It wasn’t the only unexpected turn in his history: In 1994, as he was finishing up his law degree, Scott was arrested on federal drug charges. He would serve more than seven years in prison; his voting rights, which every felon in Virginia automatically loses, were restored by former Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.

While Scott, now a well-regarded defense attorney, has faced sporadic attacks from Republicans over his criminal record, he is forthright about his past and has made criminal justice reform a priority.

First elected to the General Assembly in 2019, he quickly got attention for his progressive politics and sharp tongue. As speaker, however, he has proved more willing to reach across the aisle, striking up a working relationship with Gov. Glenn Youngkin that both men have praised publicly, and retaining Republican Paul Nardo as House clerk.

A former executive at KRA, Scott is a partner at the law firm of Breit Biniazan. He has served three terms in the House of Delegates.

In July, just a little over a year after he was promoted to president of Carilion Clinic, Arner was tapped to succeed Nancy Howell Agee as the Roanoke-based health system’s CEO, effective Oct. 1.

Agee, who is retiring and will take the title of CEO emeritus, had led the $2.4 billion not-for-profit health system since 2011. Now Arner will lead Carilion’s 14,000-plus workers, who serve more than 1 million patients in Virginia and West Virginia across seven hospitals and more than 240 medical offices.

Arner joined Carilion in 1996 as a financial analyst. Named president in May 2023, he served as COO and executive vice president for the health care system’s Roanoke operations since 2012. Since 2014, he also was president and CEO of Carilion Medical Center. During his time at Carilion, he’s also served as budget manager, human resources compensation and analytics director, president and CEO of Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital, and senior vice president of cardiothoracic and vascular services.

A past chair of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association and former state delegate to the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board, he earned an MBA from Brigham Young University in 2003.

Joining Cooley in 2008, Lavoie leads the firm’s real estate practice group. His practice centers on real estate transactions, including buying, selling, developing and leasing office, industrial and retail properties. Lavoie represents landlords, tenants, lenders and borrowers in the leasing, financing and repositioning of commercial property in the Washington, D.C, area and the mid-Atlantic region. He’s been involved in data center leasing and development, as well as corporate headquarters projects.

Lavoie leads the Reston office of Cooley, which has more than 1,300 lawyers across 19 offices in the United States, Asia and Europe, and a total workforce of more than 3,000. With 57 attorneys in Virginia, Cooley is the state’s 11th largest law firm. For more than a decade, Lavoie worked at Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, a McLean-based firm serving construction, surety and bankruptcy clients. He also worked as a senior associate handling site identification and lease negotiation for global real estate advisory firm Staubach, now part of Jones Lang LaSalle. 

A graduate of the Catholic University of America and Georgetown University Law Center, Lavoie served on the transition team for then-Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe. 

James Randolph Spencer was the first Black federal judge in Virginia and, later, the first Black chief judge serving on the Eastern District of Virginia bench. His wife, Margaret P. Spencer, was a 13th Judicial Circuit judge for 16 years, as well as a law professor at William & Mary. 

Their son Benjamin Spencer is clearly a case of the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree. He became William & Mary’s first-ever Black dean in 2020, and last year, Spencer was promoted to major in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, in which his father also served.

In a November 2023 opinion piece for Bloomberg Law, the Harvard Law grad wrote that diversity hiring programs have always been flawed. Instead of addressing root factors, “diversity programs became an add-on or a safety valve that allowed firms to create the diversity that their general hiring process failed to deliver,” he wrote.

A former member of the U.S. Courts Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, Spencer was hired in September 2023 as a part-time of counsel attorney at McGuireWoods.

Dynex Capital, a real estate investment trust, reported about $6.37 billion in total assets at the end of last year, compared with about $3.61 billion in 2022, with a strong fourth quarter capping a volatile year for REITs because of inflation and high interest rates.

A St. Louis native, Boston joined Dynex in 2008 as executive vice president and chief investment officer. Four years later, he was promoted to president and given a seat on the board. He took the role of CEO in 2014. Dynex board members appointed Boston in December 2023 to be their chairman. In July, Smriti Laxman Popenoe, Dynex’s president and chief investment officer, became the firm’s new co-CEO, leading Dynex with Boston.

The first person in his family to graduate from college, Boston majored in economics at Dartmouth College and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Boston launched his career as a corporate banker with Chemical Bank and later traded mortgage securities. He served in a senior leadership role in the investment division of Freddie Mac for almost seven years.

As leader of one of the largest real estate development companies in the Southeastern United States, Leon is responsible for all company operations and new business development. Founded in 1906, the firm has a property management portfolio exceeding 30,000 multifamily units.

Among other deals, the company is handling Texas convenience store chain Buc-ee’s expansion into the commonwealth, with Nusbaum partner and senior vice president Nathan Shor serving as exclusive tenant representative for Buc-ee’s in Virginia. Also, Nusbaum negotiated the $18 million sale of the Forest Pine Apartments community in Franklin in December 2023. In May, the firm was named a winner of the 2024 National Apartment Association Top Employers Awards, which recognize members fostering environments of collaboration, innovation and hard work.

Leon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and his MBA from the University of Miami. He serves on several boards, including the Children’s Health System board of Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, and the Old Dominion University Real Estate Foundation.

Pohanka’s family has been selling cars since Frank Pohanka opened a Washington, D.C., dealership in 1919. Today, the family’s business, headed by Frank’s grandson Geoffrey, has 20 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Texas, and is the third largest Virginia-based auto dealership. It had revenue of $1.8 billion and more than 1,400 employees in 2023.

Geoffrey’s children now work in the business, too — marking the dealership’s fourth generation. Automotive News ranked Pohanka Automotive Group at No. 36 on its list of the nation’s top 150 dealerships in 2024.

Pohanka was the 2023 chair of the board of directors of National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), ending his term in February. During his term, Pohanka said the Biden White House was moving too fast to encourage Americans to purchase electric vehicles, adding that he held concerns about Chinese manufacturers of electric cars.

Pohanka sits on the board of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank. In February, he and his wife purchased a penthouse condo in Arlington County for $5.95 million, setting a record for Virginia’s priciest condo sale, according to media reports.

Clarke took leadership of WMATA in 2022 and since has been working to increase ridership and add fleets to the Metrorail and Metrobus.

One of the transportation system’s biggest challenges has been its budget, with ridership way down from the pandemic and construction costs up during recent inflation. However, Metro avoided a $750 million shortfall in its fiscal 2025 budget and approved a $4.8 billion capital and operating budget. Customer fares will increase on Metrobus and Metrorail, but with additional investments from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the system was able to avoid major service cuts and layoffs.

Meanwhile, Metro expects to purchase new 8000-series railcars and electric buses. It received a 2024 Gold Safety Award from the American Public Transportation Association for a new program focused on investigating safety issues.

Former president and CEO of Austin, Texas’ Capital Metro system, Clarke holds degrees from Acadia University and the University of Southern Maine.