byline: Virginia Business

In June, Sprouse was named CEO of Brown Edwards, the accounting firm where she has spent more than 25 years of her career. She succeeds Jason Hartman, who retired after 38 years. 

Sprouse’s expertise focuses on accounting information system services. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance and decision support systems from Ferrum College and is a CPA. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. Her hobbies include making pasta from scratch, reading and planning her next beach vacation.

With $80.1 million in revenue and about 450 employees, Brown Edwards ranks No. 73 on Accounting Today’s list of the 100 largest accounting firms in the nation. It ranks No. 2 for auditing and accounting revenues among U.S. firms with less than $100 million in annual revenue.

Gannon joined Colliers International as executive managing director and Washington, D.C., market leader in 2019, taking on responsibility for the strategic direction and performance of the firm’s offices in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland. He had spent the previous five years at Paramount Group, leading leasing efforts for the company’s greater Washington office portfolio.

Colliers, an international commercial real estate and investment management corporation, operates in 66 countries, with $99 billion in assets under management.

In January, Colliers absorbed most of the brokerage team from McBride Real Estate Services, a tenant representation firm, to further Colliers’ growth in the D.C. market. Collier also partnered with Maguire Hayden, a Philadelphia-based commercial real estate investor and owner, to market 324,000 square feet of redeveloped warehouse space in the Shenandoah Valley. The companies broke ground on the project in March.

Gannon serves on the board of the Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Association of Greater Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Fordham University in New York.

After multinational food company Pilgrim’s Pride announced it was closing a Hinton poultry processing plant in 2004 — constituting a major hit to the local economy — Shenandoah Valley turkey growers formed the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative.

The co-op employs roughly 500 people and has nearly 200 grower members; 100% of VPGC’s profits go back to its growers. VPGC processes about 7.5 million turkeys a year and was one of the first turkey processors in the nation to offer organic and antibiotic-free products. It completed a three-year, $100 million plant expansion in 2019.

King was involved with the planning and creation of the co-op in 2004. He served as vice president of sales for the co-op before being named general manager in 2014 and president in 2017. King previously worked for ag giants Rocco Foods (now Cargill) and Pilgrim’s Pride. He is a two-time graduate of Radford University and serves on industry-related boards and committees including the National Turkey Federation, the GO Virginia state board and the Center for Rural Virginia.

Montgomery went to work at an investment firm in December 1975 — meaning he’s enjoying his 49th year in the industry.

Montgomery credits the power of relationships and his alma mater, William & Mary, for his career success. “The trajectory of my life was determined, really, by lining up where I went to school,” he says. 

A former captain of William & Mary’s football team, Montgomery was invited to the Philadelphia Eagles’ training camp after graduating with a degree in business administration, but he didn’t make the NFL team’s final cut. 

Instead of pursuing a football career, Montgomery went to work in Lynchburg for an investment advisory firm managed by a William & Mary alum. After a few years, Montgomery was sent to open a new branch in Williamsburg that became the Optimal Service Group of Wells Fargo Advisors. Today, it boasts about $28 billion in funds under advisement and 13 associates. In 2019, Montgomery was inducted into Barron’s Advisor Hall of Fame.

These days, Montgomery enjoys helping college students who work at his office as interns as they launch their own careers. “​​It’s still exciting for me to see what comes about from those connections,” he says.

With more than 20 years of executive experience in the federal technical services market, Ryan was named CEO of global risk management firm Constellis Holdings in 2021, having previously served as its lead director.

Before coming to Constellis, Ryan was CEO of Adroit Systems, VT Group and Tenax Aerospace. He also held senior executive positions at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), Mercury Systems and ManTech International. He has advised past directors of the CIA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on advanced technology issues. Before moving into the private sector, Ryan held senior leadership roles in the federal government, including as director of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance systems for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and deputy director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office.

Constellis is a holding company for contracting firms that provide risk management and mission support services to government and commercial clients worldwide.

Ryan is a former U.S. Marine infantry commander and intelligence officer who graduated from Ohio State University and the National Intelligence University. He serves on the board of the National Intelligence University Foundation.

Following his appointment by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in April, Jones took the helm of the Virginia Lottery, an agency whose responsibilities continue to grow as the state embraces more forms of gambling. Besides overseeing traditional scratch and draw games, the state lottery has been charged with regulating casinos — legalized in Virginia through a 2020 law — and internet sports betting. For fiscal 2024, the Virginia Lottery reported record-breaking revenue of $5.5 billion, with profits of $934 million supporting K-12 schools.

An attorney, Jones previously was a partner at All American Licensing, a sports and entertainment branding, marketing and licensing firm, and SourceRock Partners, an investment firm focused on real estate, media, sports and technology. He began working with the gaming industry while at SourceRock, developing relationships with the Arizona Lottery and Multi-State Lottery Association.

Jones, who hails from Little Rock, Arkansas, holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Stanford Law School. He also co-founded several businesses, including the now-disbanded esports organization Echo Fox as well as consulting firm Kolier Group, whose clients included the Multi-State Lottery Association, Paramount Global and Universal Music Group.

Labeled by supporters as “America’s Dad” for his level-headed, folksy and sometimes wonky demeanor, Democrat Kaine has been a fixture in Virginia politics since his 1994 election to Richmond City Council. From there, he became Richmond mayor, then Virginia’s lieutenant governor and governor. His 2006-10 term in the Executive Mansion was marked by both the Great Recession and the Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 dead.

The Kansas City native and attorney became Virginia’s junior senator in 2013; he is running for a third term this fall against Republican nominee Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain. In 2016, Kaine was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in her unsuccessful presidential bid.

In the Senate, Kaine serves on the Armed Services, Budget, Foreign Relations, and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees. He was a vocal critic of federal legislation mandating completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which crosses six Virginia counties, and during the past year waged a pressure campaign against the U.S. Postal Service over chronic mail delivery problems in the Richmond region. A Catholic, Kaine has said he is personally against abortion but has voted to support women’s reproductive rights.

In her role since 2012, Williams oversees all legal areas for the North American branch of the Australian $40 billion-plus transportation infrastructure company with 3,000 employees worldwide. Among its other projects worldwide, Transurban operates the Interstate 495 northern extension and Interstate 95 express lanes between Fredericksburg and Washington, D.C.

In February 2023, Williams led the legal efforts related to Transurban North America’s 50% sale of Montreal, Canada’s A25 Bridge to global investment firm CDPQ, a transaction valued at $355 million.

A Rice University and University of Chicago Law School alum, Williams also has a MIT Sloan School of Management certificate in executive management and leadership. Before joining Transurban, Williams was deputy general counsel for GridPoint, director of licensing at MicroStrategy and assistant general counsel for National Public Radio.

Former chair of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s board and a current executive committee member, Williams also serves on the board for tech company Bluedot, which provides geofencing for Transurban’s mobile tolling apps.

Before assuming her current role in 2021, Wakefield served as interim president and CEO twice for the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic development organization for Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico. She has also been its chief operating officer and senior vice president of marketing.

The partnership works closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and local economic development officials to attract business investment in the region. Among its recent successes is Plenty Unlimited’s August 2023 groundbreaking on its $300 million vertical farm in Chesterfield County. Another success came in April, when Danish electrolyzer manufacturer Topsoe announced it would build a $400 million manufacturing facility in Chesterfield.

A graduate of the University of West Florida and the University of Central Florida, Wakefield previously served as Orlando Economic Development Commission’s (now Orlando Economic Partnership) marketing and communications vice president for 11 years.

She is an International Economic Development Council board member and serves on several regional boards, including the University of Richmond Robins School of Business’ Executive Advisory Council.

FAVORITE TEAM: USA women’s gymnastics

STREAMING SHOW I’VE ENJOYED: “Bridgerton” season 3. Yay for nonstereotyped females in the lead.

Henderson joined the American Diabetes Association in January 2020 and was named permanent CEO in May 2022 after serving as interim CEO for six months. He previously worked in the private sector for 24 years, most recently as president and CEO of Texas-based emergency services company Champion Fire & Security.

In 2023, the ADA partnered with health care tech company Abbott Laboratories to investigate how diabetes technology such as continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems can help people with diabetes make more informed decisions about what they eat. Abbott gave the ADA a $2.65 million grant to explore the potential benefits of personalized, therapeutic nutrition based on CGM data.

In 2022, the nonprofit spent more than $87 million to support diabetes research, information, advocacy and public awareness programs.

Henderson earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M, where he co-captained the basketball team. In 2022, Henderson joined angel investor StartUp Health’s Health Moonshot Impact Board, which advises the venture capital firm on its funding of health care innovations, including Type 1 diabetes treatments.

HOW I CHOSE MY CAREER: I followed my gut!

FAVORITE TEAM: All Houston sports teams