byline: Virginia Business

Since joining ICF International in 1987, Wasson has risen to become the global consulting and technology services provider’s chairman and CEO. During the past two decades, ICF has doubled in size every five years on average. It reported fiscal 2023 revenue of $1.96 billion, up 10% from the previous year.

Wasson, who holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s degree in policy and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, previously served as ICF’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

In 2022, ICF, which has about 9,000 employees worldwide, relocated its global headquarters from Fairfax to Reston.

Wasson is a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a member of the Dean’s Executive Committee for the College of Engineering at the University of California, Davis, received the UC Davis College of Engineering’ Distinguished Alumni Medal for Business Achievement in 2014 and has been named three times to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list, which recognizes the most impactful government contracting executives.

Marx became Grant Thornton’s D.C. market managing principal in July, leading the Arlington regional office for the Chicago-based U.S. arm of the global accounting firm network. He succeeds Greg Wallig, who left in June. 

With more than 25 years of experience, Marx has been a tax principal at Grant Thornton for 13-plus years. From 2015 to 2020, he led the firm’s Tax Accounting and Risk Advisory practices for its Atlantic Coast region.

He previously was managing director of tax services for LECG Business Consulting. (Grant Thornton purchased its parent company’s tax and business consulting groups in 2011.) Marx has also worked for InfraSource Services, Comcast and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He holds bachelor’s degrees in education and accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Tulsa. He often leads classes and panels at events hosted by The Financial Executives Networking Group, the Tax Executives Institute and the American Bar Association.

Grant Thornton employs about 375 people in Virginia and more than 72,800 worldwide. It posted U.S. revenues of $2.4 billion and $7.5 billion globally for fiscal 2023.

Jain has been CEO of Virginia Transformer, the continent’s largest U.S.-owned power transformer manufacturer, since 1982 — 14 years after he arrived from India, mechanical engineering degree in hand. Over 42 years, he has grown the company from 35 employees to more than 2,700  across six plants.

Jain started as a machine shop foreman in 1965 at Hindustan Motors in India and worked as a product engineer at Robinson Halpern, later becoming division manager. There, Jain secured a patent for a high temp accelerometer. He earned his master’s in material science at Villanova University and an MBA at Lynchburg University.

In January, architecture, engineering and construction firm Burns & McDonnell named Virginia Transformer a 2023 Empowering Diverse Partnerships Partner of the Year.

Also in January, Roanoke Area Ministries announced plans to purchase and renovate a building on Elm Avenue to relocate from its longtime home on Campbell Avenue and expand its services to homeless people. The facility, opening in 2025, is to be named the Jain Care Center after Jain’s family, who donated significantly toward the facility purchase and pledged to match donations made to a fundraising campaign through March.

Burton, who specializes in labor and employment law, has defended employers in federal court cases involving disability, the Family and Medical Leave Act and age discrimination. He’s also defended clients in claims brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has represented management in labor contract negotiations and arbitrations.

After graduating from Elon College, Burton earned his law degree from the University of Richmond. Burton joined Williams Mullen in 1993 after clerking for the Virginia Supreme Court.

Burton has served on Williams Mullen’s board of directors since 2012 and was named the firm’s Hampton Roads managing partner in 2016. He chairs the Virginia Bar Association’s labor and employment law section’s council.

In 2018, Burton was chosen as King Neptune, presiding over the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival. He also chairs the festival’s board.

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Raised on a Lunenburg County tobacco farm, Baine attended Virginia Tech, earning an electrical engineering degree. Starting out as an associate engineer, Baine has worked for Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy for nearly 30 years.

Baine became president of Dominion Energy Virginia in 2020, responsible for all facets of a vertically integrated electric utility serving roughly 2.8 million customers across Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. He also oversees Dominion’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm under construction off the coast of Virginia Beach; in February, an agreement was announced to sell a 50% stake in the project to investment firm Stonepeak for nearly $3 billion. In July, Dominion Energy Virginia declared plans to create CVOW-South by acquiring a 40,000-acre offshore wind lease off North Carolina’s Outer Banks for $160 million from Avangrid.

Baine is a board member for the Dominion Energy Credit Union, ChamberRVA, Venture Richmond and the Southeastern Electric Exchange. Last year, he was inducted into the Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) Hall of Fame and the Virginia Tech Academy of Engineering Excellence. He is rector of Virginia Tech’s board of visitors and a member of the American Revolution 250 Commission.

On Sept. 1, Ash succeeded John Goodman as CEO and chair of the board of managers for Accenture Federal Services, an Accenture subsidiary that serves U.S. federal government clients. Goodman stepped down on Aug. 31 and will retire March 31, 2025.

Ash previously served as chief operating officer at AFS since 2022. He joined Accenture in 1996 and moved to AFS in 2002, where he held various roles, including lead of the Public Safety Portfolio, which handles clients for homeland security, law enforcement and first-response agencies.

In May, AFS completed its acquisition of Cognosante, a Falls Church-based provider of IT support to government agencies with public health missions, for an undisclosed amount. That same month, AFS won a $789 million Navy cybersecurity contract and the $127 million U.S. Army Enterprise Application Modernization and Migration contract.

In July, AFS reported winning a $250 million contract to operate and maintain IT for the Bureau of Land Management.

Accenture’s fiscal 2023 revenue was $64.1 billion, up 4% from 2022. The AFS subsidiary has approximately 15,500 employees.

An Ohio University alumnus, Ash is an executive sponsor of AFS’ Hispanic American Employee Resource Group.

A six-time winner of Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award recognizing leading government contracting executives, Smith joined Fortune 1000 defense contractor Parsons in 2016 and quickly rose through its ranks; today, she serves as chair, president and CEO.

Smith helped take Parsons public in 2019 and led its acquisition and integration of many companies, including its $400 million acquisition of Xator in 2022 and its $43 million purchase of IPKeys Power Partners in 2023.

Before Parsons, Smith held executive posts at Honeywell Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University and a master’s in electrical engineering from Syracuse. She serves on Edison International’s board.

Parsons, which has more than 18,000 employees globally, posted $5.4 billion in 2023 revenue, a 30% annual increase. In March, Parsons announced a contract worth up to $1 billion from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for project and construction management support. In April, it announced a contract capped at $1 billion to deploy advanced counter-nuclear smuggling systems for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

LMI has experienced several changes since Wagoner became CEO of the government contracting and consulting firm in 2020. In 2021, LMI acquired Suntiva, expanding its digital and workforce solution offerings, and sponsored the establishment of the Space Force Association Space Center of Excellence, an effort that aims to foster collaboration in the space domain.

In 2022, LMI further expanded its presence in the space defense industry with the purchase of Colorado-based Synaptech and sold its for-profit subsidiary LMI to a consortium of investors, which rebranded the remaining nonprofit entity as NobleReach Foundation. And in 2023, LMI announced a five-year contract from the FDA to support modernizing its business operations.

Before joining LMI, Wagoner was sector president at Reston-based Fortune 500 company Science Applications International Corp. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from William & Mary and an MBA from Virginia Tech. He serves on the global advisory council for the USO and the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Earlier this year, Wagoner received his fifth Wash100 Award from Executive Mosaic, recognizing the most impactful government contracting executives.

A 22-year veteran legislator, McDougle was tapped as minority leader after Republicans failed to regain control of the state Senate in the November 2023 elections. He’s served as an ally to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, pushing for tax cuts and to return Virginia to federal vehicle emissions standards rather than the California rules the state has followed since a Democratic-backed law passed in 2021.

McDougle, an attorney in private practice, previously worked as a prosecutor for Hanover County, specializing in domestic violence cases and co-founding the county’s Child Advocate Response Team.

McDougle chairs the Senate Republican Caucus and serves on the Commerce and Labor, Courts of Justice, Finance and Appropriations, Rehabilitation and Social Services, and Rules committees. He is a graduate of James Madison University and William & Mary.

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ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE ENTERING POLITICS: “To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well” – John Marshall