byline: Virginia Business

Since 2017, Lucia has led Delta Dental of Virginia, one of the state’s largest dental benefits providers, and its holding company, Corvesta. Delta has about 250 employees in Virginia and posted $780 million in 2023 revenue. 

Previously, Lucia was president and CEO of Dean Health Plan in Madison, Wisconsin, and worked in finance for Cigna and W.R. Grace. A certified public accountant, Lucia received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University and his MBA from the University of Miami.

In February, the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation awarded $622,000 in grants to 10 safety-net clinics that address oral health. Since it was created in 2012, the foundation has invested more than $13 million to support education, program development and community partnerships.

HOW I FEEL ABOUT AI AT WORK: It is the responsibility of corporate leaders to ensure it is deployed in an ethical and safe manner. …The power to mine data, perform additional customer analyses and make better-informed product design and underwriting decisions is exciting.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen in concert 15 times.

In 1982, Clarke didn’t just graduate from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering; he also founded MEB General Contractors, a full-service construction firm and master builder.

Launched with a handful of employees as a small federal govern-ment contractor serving military installations across the Hampton Roads area, MEB has since grown into a 250-employee firm with $136 million in revenue for 2023.

MEB’s portfolio includes projects such as the 80,000-square-foot Brittingham-Midtown Community Center in Newport News and the 285,000-square-foot Virginia Beach Sports Center. MEB also completed the Norfolk Ohio Creek Watershed National Disaster Resilience Project, for which the company won the 2023 HRACRE Award of Excellence for Best Sustainable Project.

Clarke received Virginia Tech’s Myers-Lawson School of Construction Outstanding Service Award in 2010, and represents the City of Virginia Beach on the board of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission. 

MacMillan-Whitaker has a history of working on major projects. As the development partner to Virginia Beach-raised music and fashion superstar Pharrell Williams, she’s been in the news most recently for the Atlantic Park project near the Oceanfront, the largest public-private partnership in Virginia Beach’s history.

The $350 million mixed-use entertainment project, scheduled to open in spring 2025, will include an indoor/outdoor 3,500-seat concert venue, apartments, office space, restaurants and retail space. Its crowning glory will be a surf park that’s said to be the first of its kind in the United States.

Construction was temporarily halted after groundwater inside the lagoon that will become the surf park showed high levels of iron and arsenic. New equipment was secured, and the problem was apparently fixed, but questions were raised about who should pay for it. To minimize delays and keep the project on track, Venture opted to front the dewatering cost, with the intention of reconciling with the city later.

MacMillan-Whitaker previously worked in the commercial retail industry and founded Commercial Real Estate Services, which merged with Ellis-Gibson Development Group in 2016 to form Venture Realty.

A scan of Abdullah’s accomplishments since joining the public, historically Black university in 2016 makes clear why his résumé includes so many accolades, prestigious board appointments and spots on top 10 and “best of” lists — not to mention a multimillion-dollar contract to stay on as president through 2029.

Under his leadership, VSU has seen enrollment growth and higher student retention, and according to the university, its year-end financial reserves have tripled.

The 140-year-old university has an unprecedented number of capital projects underway, including a 30,000-square-foot admissions building, a research and cooperative extension facility, improvements to Rogers Stadium and the new $120 million Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons. In addition, VSU was tapped in 2023 as the first HBCU selected to host a presidential debate, but the plan was scuttled in May after the Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to change the debate schedule.

A Chicago native, Abdullah has a degree in civil engineering from Howard University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University. He also has served on President Joe Biden’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs since 2022 and is chair of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities board.

Hayes began working for the tobacco products manufacturer in 2006, serving as chief financial officer and senior vice president before becoming president of Swedish Match in 2020. Swedish Match manufactures and distributes chew bags, moist snuff, cigars, tobacco-free nicotine pouches, matches and lighters. Among its notable brands are Zyn nicotine pouches, Red Man chewing tobacco and Cricket lighters. The manufacturer’s smoke-free oral tobacco products have a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease and lung cancer than cigarettes, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The company’s largest markets are the United States and Scandinavia. In February 2023, Philip Morris International obtained full ownership of Swedish Match AB, placing PMI in direct competition with Philip Morris USA, owned by Altria Group.

Hayes was with PricewaterhouseCoopers for 17 years and Chesapeake Corp. for nearly two years before joining Swedish Match. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s executive education program.

In January 2023, Manning and his wife, Diane, donated $100 million to the University of Virginia to create the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which will advance research into new medical treatments, such as cellular and gene therapies, nanotechnology and immunotherapy. U.Va. broke ground on the institute in December 2023; its expected completion is late 2026. In 2020, the Mannings donated $1 million to U.Va. to launch a COVID-19 research program.

Manning founded infant formula company PBM Holdings in 1997 and sold it to Perrigo in 2010 for $808 million. He then launched PBM Capital, a health care-focused private equity firm that invests in pharmaceutical and life sciences companies that develop innovative solutions, such as gene therapy, targeted therapeutics and genome engineering.

Manning, who previously served on the UVA Health Foundation’s board of trustees and the university’s President’s Advisory Group, remains an active member of the U.Va. community. He’s on the executive committee of its Honor the Future fundraising campaign, and in 2023, he was appointed to U.Va.’s board of visitors for a four-year term.

Manning earned his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

After 24 years as an advertising executive with Tribune Publishing’s The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press, Till became the first female publisher in the 172-year history of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2022. She also serves as regional vice president of sales for the newspaper’s parent company, Lee Enterprises. Till joined Lee Enterprises in 2020 as vice president of sales for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Lee’s Virginia markets.

A staunch mentoring advocate, Till serves as a mentor for ChamberRVA and for the Strome College of Business and the Women’s Initiative Network at her alma mater, Old Dominion University, whose alumni association named her a Distinguished Alumni Honoree in 2022. The mother of five also chairs the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation and is a board member for the United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, Virginia Arts Festival and ChamberRVA, as well as a trustee for An Achievable Dream Henrico.

In August, Till told Richmond Times-Dispatch staffers that the newspaper will move in April 2025 from its 300 E. Franklin St. location, where the paper has operated since 1923. Shamin Hotels purchased the building in 2020, with the T-D leasing the fourth floor. Till did not announce the paper’s new location.

Payne and his team helped secure a 65,000-acre development deal in Southwest Virginia, announced in November 2023, with Fortune 100 energy company Energy Transfer as part of the Energy DELTA Lab initiative. His team is leading a 10-year strategy, developing the land with projects that could generate 1 gigawatt of power. The deal also includes converting a 400-acre previously mined property into a multitenant data center site.

Payne spent two decades in politics, helping candidates on both sides of the aisle, before working in economic development.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy at William & Mary and an executive MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He serves on the Darden foundation’s board of trustees and chairs the William & Mary Real Estate Foundation.

INTERESTING PLACE I’VE TRAVELED: Walking on the beach in St. Andrews, Scotland

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I’ve been learning to play the electric bass guitar with the help of Fender’s app so that one day I can be good enough to play in either an ’80s hair metal or ’90s grunge cover band.

A 1980 McDonald’s All-American High School Band drummer, Mengucci aspired to have a career in music, but his father suggested he explore the more practical emerging field of computers. So, Mengucci earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Clarkson University and an MBA from Syracuse University.

Previously CACI’s chief operating officer and president of U.S. operations, Mengucci in 2019 became president and CEO of the Fortune 1000 contractor, which has 23,000 employees worldwide and reported $6.7 billion in 2023 revenue. Before CACI, Mengucci worked at Lockheed Martin, where he was president of its information systems and global solutions civil segment. 

CACI is the only U.S. manufacturer of optical communications terminals for satellites and spacecraft, setting a data-sending distance record of 200 million-plus kilometers this year.

Last year, prevailing over protests from other government contractors, CACI won a $5.7 billion contract to modernize IT service delivery for the Air Force. CACI announced in April that it had acquired Quadrint, a Falls Church-based IT contractor for the intelligence community. In June, CACI announced it had secured a $2 billion NASA IT contract.

Mengucci is a trustee of Clarkson and serves on the executive committee of the Professional Services Council.