byline: Virginia Business

In September 2023, the Washington Commanders announced a multiyear partnership with Northwest Federal, making it the official credit union of the team and, for a few months, former Commanders quarterback Sam Howell was NWFCU’s spokesperson before being traded to the Seattle Seahawks.

Bentley has more than three decades of experience in consumer and commercial lending. He has said he finds credit unions appealing because he enjoys working for
members rather than investors. 

Bentley came to NWFCU in 2014 from Florida’s Achieva Credit Union to work as senior vice president of lending. Three years later, the board promoted him to lead the credit union. 

In May, Bentley won Volunteer Fairfax’s Executive Leader of the Year award, which recognized his efforts with the NWCFU Foundation, the credit union’s philanthropic organization, on fundraising drives and with its scholarship program.

Northwest reported about $4.6 billion in assets in 2023, up from $4.1 billion in 2022. Last year, the institution made 23,900 loans totaling $947.8 million.

Lawyer, author and lobbyist Shapiro is the longtime leader of the Consumer Technology Association, a trade organization representing more than 1,300 consumer technology companies. CTA owns and produces CES, the world’s largest consumer technology trade show, which has been held in Las Vegas since 1978.

With more than three decades at CTA’s helm, Shapiro has increased the association’s impact and influence while also expanding CES globally, attracting exhibitors from more than 50 countries. In February, Kinsey Fabrizio took over as president of CTA from Shapiro. 

A Georgetown Law graduate, Shapiro previously worked on Capitol Hill and was an associate at the Squire Sanders law firm before joining CTA. He has been recognized by Washingtonian magazine as a Tech Titan and as one of the capital’s most influential people by Washington Life Magazine. In 2021, Shapiro received France’s Legion of Honour Award from French President Emmanuel Macron, recognizing his impact on technology.

Shapiro will publish his fourth book in October. He is an honorary member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a member of the CEO Update Roundtable, and serves on the boards of the Council of Manufacturing Associations and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

Before being named president and CEO in October 2022 of Siemens Government Technologies, the U.S. contracting arm of German tech conglomerate Siemens, Ustica served as its senior vice president and chief financial officer. Now, he oversees a government contracting firm focused on securing and modernizing technology infrastructure.

Before joining SGT in 2018, Ustica was a general manager for Siemens’ manufacturing hub in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also led strategic product initiatives for the conglomerate’s global generator manufacturing network.

Ustica holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Rollins College. He serves on the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s board. This year, Executive Mosaic named Ustica to its Wash100 list of the most impactful government contracting executives for the second consecutive year.

In May, Siemens Government Technologies lost a bid to revive a claim that the Navy owes it $5.2 million for breaching a contract to investigate energy saving measures at military installations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a 2022 ruling that rejected Siemens’ claim.

McInerney has led Genworth Financial, which offers mortgage and long-term care insurance products, since 2013.

Genworth posted 2023 revenue of about $7.5 billion, flat from the previous year. Enact, Genworth’s private mortgage insurance subsidiary, had what McInerney described as an “outstanding year,” delivering an adjusted operating income of $552 million. The life and annuities segment, on the other hand, reported an adjusted operating loss of $15 million in the first quarter of 2024. 

But McInerney has another headache, as Genworth entities were named as defendants in class-action lawsuits filed last fall over the June 2023 data breach by a Russian cybercrime gang. 

Before joining Genworth, McInerney held executive roles with the ING Group, a Dutch financial services company. He began his career working as an insurance underwriter in 1978. 

McInerney earned an economics degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Dartmouth College. He chaired the board of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nonprofit workforce training initiative, Virginia Ready, which will sunset operations next year. He also sits on the boards of United Way Worldwide and Virginia Learns. McInerney donated $1.5 million in 2022 to the William & Mary Global Research Institute.

Time magazine named Sanjayan to its inaugural Time100 Climate list in November 2023, recognizing the climate scientist and nonprofit executive as one of the most innovative leaders driving businesses to act on climate change. The magazine praised his skills as a science communicator who has helped Conservation International form important partnerships, such as the Restore Fund, created with Apple to support nature-based carbon removal technologies.

Sanjayan was named CEO in 2017 after three years as executive vice president and senior scientist. Previously, he was a lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy. He also has hosted climate-related documentaries, including the “Changing Planet” series on PBS, which plans to present a new episode on Earth Day for seven years.

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in West Africa, Sanjayan holds a master’s degree in biology from the University of Oregon and a doctorate in conservation biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Sanjayan is a trustee of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which awards funding to winning organizations to help find innovative solutions to environmental problems.

A childhood passion for taking things apart, putting them back together and figuring out how they worked led Clark to Virginia Military Institute for a degree in mechanical engineering. With an MBA from William & Mary, Clark started as a mechanical engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding and served as an Air Force officer for five years.

Clark joined Baskervill, one of the state’s most prominent design firms, more than 25 years ago and was named president in 2004. Since then, his focus has been on growing the company by uncovering employees’ strengths — design, technical, project management or relationship building — so they can best serve the company and find a clear path to leadership roles.

Recent projects include revamping Genworth Financial’s corporate offices in Henrico County and designing the forthcoming Shockoe Project, a museum and outdoor space to memorialize enslaved Richmonders designed by Baskervill’s principal and board chair, Burt Pinnock.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I’m still pretty quick on a snowboard.

ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Address the struggle of regional cooperation that is hampered by our city/county system

At Capital Square, a fast-growing real estate investment fund sponsor and commercial real estate development company established in 2012, Huffman became co-CEO in 2022. The son-in-law of founder and co-CEO Louis J. Rogers, Huffman joined Capital Square in 2018 and was previously chief strategy and investment officer, leading real estate investment activity and overseeing nearly $6 billion in real estate transactions. Before joining Capital Square, Huffman was an associate with Bethesda, Maryland-based real estate investment trust JBG Smith Properties.

Since its founding, Capital Square has raised more than $3 billion in equity. In recent years, the company has become an active developer of mixed-use multifamily properties across the Southeastern U.S. and also has acquired medical and industrial properties. In 2023, the firm created Capital Square Living, a subsidiary to oversee management of its residential communities nationwide.

In Richmond, Capital Square has focused its efforts in Scott’s Addition, where it has launched an opportunity zone fund — aiming to raise $77 million in equity from accredited investors — to develop a 320-unit, mixed-use apartment community and luxury hotel.

Lovette has been CEO of Sauer Brands since January 2023, his second time in the position; he served as executive chairman and interim CEO in 2019, when Charlotte, North Carolina-based Falfurrias Capital Group purchased the Richmond-based family-owned spice company C.F. Sauer.

With more than 1,000 employees, the renamed Sauer Brands produces and distributes Duke’s Mayonnaise, Sauer-branded spices and other condiments to grocery stores. In 2020, Duke’s became the title sponsor of the Duke’s Mayo Classic football game in Charlotte, an annual match in September between two universities. The company announced in September 2023 it would extend that sponsorship until at least 2028.

A graduate of Texas A&M University and Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, Lovette became president and CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride in 2011 and grew it from $6.9 billion to $10.9 billion in annual net revenue. He also held executive roles at Case Foods and Tyson Foods.

Lovette is entangled in a shareholder’s class-action federal lawsuit over an alleged price-fixing scheme for broiler chickens dating back to his Pilgrim’s Pride tenure. In December 2023, a federal judge removed the company’s current CEO from the case, but ruled that claims could proceed against Pilgrim’s Pride and Lovette.

Tyson has headed up the flooring company formerly known as Lumber Liquidators since 2020, the year after LL Flooring agreed to pay $33 million to settle federal securities fraud charges. He joined the company in 2018 as chief customer experience officer after spending nine years at Advance
Auto Parts.

Prospects looked bright early in his tenure, with the company opening 17 stores in 2022. But in 2023, Tyson reported challenges, amid worsening financial news.

Net sales in 2023 were down 18.5% from 2022, from $1.11 billion to $904.7 million. The company closed eight locations and opened three in 2023, and net losses last year amounted to $103.5 million, a large increase from a net loss of $12.1 million in 2022.

LL Flooring’s board rejected an unsolicited acquisition proposal from Cabinets To Go, a subsidiary of F9 Brands, in June 2023. F9 then began a proxy fight, and with its affiliates, it’s now the company’s largest shareholder. In August, LL Flooring announced it had entered Chapter 11 reorganization. Tyson said in a statement that LL Flooring intends to “reduce our physical footprint and close certain stores while pursuing a going-concern sale of the rest of our business.”