byline: Virginia Business

In 2020, Washington became the first Black president of Virginia’s largest and most diverse public university. He was previously dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

A first-generation college graduate, Washington holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.

Under his leadership, Mason established the state’s first College of Public Health at its Fairfax campus in 2022. GMU also is undertaking a major expansion of its Arlington campus; the $250 million Fuse at Mason Square building, where the Institute for Digital InnovAtion and School of Computing will be housed, is expected to be complete in May 2025.

George Mason has received significant donations in recent years, including a $50 million bequest, announced in May 2023, from late Loudoun County businessman Donald G. Costello to endow business school scholarships. In May, the Peterson Family Foundation, the family behind the Peterson Cos. real estate development firm, donated $5 million to the college’s Center for the Arts improvement project.

In fall 2023, Mason enrolled its largest freshman class with more than 40,000 students.

Hoff joined Hooker Furniture in 2017. He served consecutive terms as president of the upholstery, case goods and legacy brands divisions before being named its first nonfamily CEO in 2021, the same year the company rebranded as Hooker Furnishings.

Celebrating its century mark this year, Hooker Furnishings has upholstery manufacturing facilities throughout Virginia and North Carolina, and showrooms in North Carolina, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Hooker noted a significant net sales decrease during its fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings call. The company reported consolidated net sales of $93.6 million — a decrease of $28.2 million, or 23.2%, over the same period last year. As a result, Hoff announced plans to cut operating costs by 10% across the board, a record cut for the company.

Hoff was elected as second vice president of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation in 2024. He also serves as board vice chair for the High Point Market Authority and as a member of the American Home Furnishings Alliance board.

Rothrock is now the highest-ranking Virginia-based boss of the Richmond Flying Squirrels Double-A baseball team, although he shares duties with Brendon Porter, the team’s president, who spends part of his time in Alabama. The 2024 season is Rothrock’s seventh as the Squirrels’ general manager, but most of the drama has happened outside of the stadium lately.

In May, the Richmond City Council approved a financial structure to build a new stadium for the Squirrels — a move required by Major League Baseball for the city to keep the team. Richmond will issue $170 million in general obligation bonds; revenue from the stadium and surrounding development would be expected to pay off the debt. The new stadium, replacing the aging Diamond, is aiming to open for the 2026 season, but as of late July, construction had not started.

Nonetheless, Rothrock sounded upbeat in April, just before the 2024 season opener, as the Squirrels had installed new protective netting to shield fans from wild balls landing in the stands.

A former linebacker on the Liberty University Flames football team, Rothrock has a degree in sports management.

A native of Cuba who grew up in Texas, Castellanos has led the Greater Washington, D.C., market for Merrill, the wealth management division of Bank
of America, since the end of 2022.

Before that, Castellanos was Merrill’s Greater Virginia Market Executive and served as Hampton Roads market president for Bank of America. He
also previously worked for Bank of America’s policy office, where he focused on cyber and international policy issues. 

Before going into finance, Castellanos held a whole other career: He spent two decades as a Foreign Service officer serving in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. He was an associate with the National Intelligence Council and served on inter-agency boards where he helped to guide U.S. policy, foreign collection and investments. 

A George Mason University graduate, Castellanos is active with Merrill’s Hispanic Latino Advisory Council. In September 2023, Castellanos made the opening remarks at the 46th annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He also sits on the advisory council of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, a nonprofit that works to build a pipeline of Latino talent.

In mid-March, Hutchins became interim CEO and a board member of the government-sponsored home mortgage company, replacing Michael J. DeVito, who stepped down after three years. Hutchins will fill the position until the company appoints a permanent leader or until Sept. 30. 

Hutchins, who boasts three decades in the financial services industry, was named president of Freddie Mac in 2020. He began his career at the company in 2013, serving as a senior vice president and then an executive vice president of investments and capital markets.

Hutchins went to work at Salomon Brothers in 1986 and spent a decade there. At UBS from 1996 to 2007, Hutchins filled several roles, including serving as the global head of the fixed income, rates and currencies group. From 2008 to 2013, he was CEO of The PrinceRidge Group, a financial services firm he co-founded.

Freddie Mac reported a net revenue of $21.2 billion in 2023, down slightly from $21.3 billion in 2022, and a net income of $10.5 billion, up 13% year-over-year. At No. 36 in the 2024 Fortune 500 ranking, Freddie Mac is Virginia’s top-ranked company on Fortune’s U.S. and Global 500 lists.

Following a vote by Roanoke-based Member One Federal Credit Union’s customers, Virginia Credit Union’s merger with Member One was finalized Aug. 1. The combined credit union is expected to be the state’s third largest, with combined assets of $7 billion and about 500,000 members.

Shockley will remain president and CEO of the combined credit union, and Frank Carter, president and CEO of Member One, will serve as senior executive business adviser until he retires.

Under Shockley’s leadership since 2016, VACU reported more than $5.32 billion in assets in 2023 and boasts more than 320,000 members. The credit union opened five branches in Richmond last year.

Shockley earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Radford University and his MBA from Liberty University. He is the board secretary for PSCU, a credit union service organization. 

In the community, Shockley serves as board chair of the YMCA of Greater Richmond and as the immediate past chair of the Virginia Council on Economic Education. He also sits on the board of the Virginia-West Virginia Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In August 2023, Kotter was tapped to become Greater Washington managing partner for Ernst & Young, replacing Kevin Virostek, who retired. Kotter has worked at EY since 1998 and previously served as an assurance partner.

In addition to client-serving responsibilities, Kotter is responsible for managing Ernst & Young’s Greater Washington offices. He has served as a global client service partner for Marriott International.

He has also served as co-director of EY’s mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year program, as a member of the Americas Advisory Council and U.S. Partner Principal Council, Assurance Partner Forum and the U.S.-East Region Partner Forum. He has also served on the steering committee for the local chapter of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and as a board member of The Global Good Fund and Boy Scouts of America’s National Capital Area Council.

Kotter holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University and an MBA from George Washington University.

EY posted $49.4 billion in revenue for fiscal 2023, up from $45.4 billion the previous fiscal year.

A licensed broker in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., Swaak is co-chief operating officer, partner and managing broker for TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, which he joined in 2007 as a partner. The firm has handled some of the most expensive residential sales in the Washington, D.C., area, including the Fairfax County home purchased by the former owners of the Washington Commanders, Dan and Tanya Snyder. In June, it was put on the market for $60 million, which would be a record-setting price for the region if it goes for that amount.

Former vice president of national sales at New Jersey’s Realogy, Swaak also worked in hotel development and franchise sales.

In 2021, Swaak served as board president for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, and in 2022, he was named NVAR Realtor of the Year. He also sits on Virginia Realtors’ board of directors. Swaak received his bachelor’s degree in hotel administration and an MBA in finance from Cornell University. He lives with his wife and two college-age children in McLean.

HOW I BALANCE WORK AND PERSONAL LIFE: In residential real estate, I’m on call 24/7, and that’s OK.

Benevento was named the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.’s permanent president and CEO in April. He had served as interim leader since September 2023, after his predecessor, Bob Stolle, stepped down.

The nonprofit operations arm of a state authority, VIPC provides strategic commercialization and funding support to Virginia-based tech startups. Benevento takes its reins amid a big push to build the commonwealth’s reputation as a hub for innovation in the life science and biotech industries. To that end, Gov. Glenn Youngkin in June announced a $96 million proposal to develop a Virginia Research Triangle, similar to North Carolina’s. In May, Youngkin and Benevento announced that VIPC is partnering with seven venture capital fund managers to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based high-growth startups.

Before VIPC, Benevento served as a state deputy secretary of commerce and trade. He also worked stints at Goldman Sachs and private equity firm THL Partners.

Benevento graduated  from Cornell University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Before taking the reins in Prince William County in 2019, Winn was the director of Arlington Economic Development’s Business Investment Group, where she played a major role in recruiting Amazon.com’s $2.5 billion-plus HQ2 East Coast headquarters.

Prince William reported it had won 31 projects, representing more than $1.9 billion in intended capital investment, 641 new jobs and 777 retained jobs, in 2023. That momentum looks to carry into the current year; Belmont Logistics broke ground in March on a $110 million warehouse campus.

The county has seen enormous growth, particularly with data centers. If completed as planned, the Prince William Digital Gateway, a potentially $40 billion project, would be the largest data center complex in the world, although it faces lawsuits from county residents.

Winn graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned a master’s degree in real estate development from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Winn is immediate past president and nominating committee chair of the Virginia Economic Developers Association’s board of directors. She’s also a member of the George Mason University President’s Innovation Advisory Council.