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September 2020 — For the Record
SOUTHERN VIRGINIA Danville voters will weigh in on a local casino in November, after a circuit judge ordered a referendum to appear on the ballot. Caesars Virginia, a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment Corp., plans to construct and operate a $400 million casino at the former Dan River Mills industrial complex in Schoolfield. The General Assembly […]
Sailing for the horizon
Tariff wars and the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a one-two punch to the Port of Virginia, but officials are focusing on the positive as expansions are completed at the port’s two largest terminals, and a dredging project to make Virginia the East Coast’s deepest port is running ahead of schedule. The third-largest East Coast [...]
Education
MAKOLA M. ABDULLAH PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY, PETERSBURG One of the state’s two land-grant universities, Virginia State was originally chartered in 1882 as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. From an initial class of 126, the Petersburg campus now has 4,385 undergraduate and graduate students. Since arriving in 2016 from his role as provost and […]
A sense of possibility
Luiz DaSilva became the inaugural executive director of Virginia’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) in March, returning to Virginia Tech after two years in Ireland, where he served as the director of CONNECT, a telecommunications research center at Trinity College Dublin involving 35 companies and 250 researchers from 10 Ir[...]
How we assembled the Virginia 500
If you called your local mayor or city manager — or, better yet, the governor — how quickly would your call get returned? That thought experiment was just one of several questions I had in mind as we were compiling this, our first annual edition of the Virginia 500. Assembling a list of the state’s […]
Law
FARHAD AGHDAMI MANAGING PARTNER, RICHMOND OFFICE; WILLIAMS MULLEN, RICHMOND In 1999, Aghdami joined Williams Mullen and became managing partner at the firm’s Richmond office in 2015. Focusing on wealth transfer tax, business succession and income tax planning, he counsels high net-worth individuals and families, middle-market business owners, institutional fiduciaries, family offices and charitable entities. As […][...]
Economic Development
TAYLOR ADAMS DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA BEACH DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VIRGINIA BEACH Under Adams’ leadership, Virginia Beach has seen several company expansions and relocations over the last year, even in the current economic crisis. In June and July alone, nine companies announced they would either locate facilities or expand in the city. Ranging from manufacturing and […]
Agriculture
CHAD BALLARD PRESIDENT, BALLARD FISH & OYSTER CO. INC., CHERITON Ballard represents the fifth generation of the 120-year-old-plus Cheriton-based Ballard Fish & Oyster Co. Before dedicating his time to the family business, Ballard worked in investment banking with BB&T Capital Markets. Ballard Fish & Oyster Co. is the parent company of Cherrystone Aqua-Farms and Chincoteague […][...]
Real Estate
J. SCOTT ADAMS PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA, COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL LLC, NORFOLK A nearly 30-year veteran in the real estate industry, Adams, who joined Colliers in January 2019, oversees the company’s Central and Southeast Virginia teams and, starting this fall, the Raleigh market. Last year, Colliers Virginia, which employs more than 350 people, reported $54.5 million in revenue. […]
Government | Politics
AMANDA CHASE SENATOR, SENATE OF VIRGINIA, CHESTERFIELD Chase is a proud, even defiant, conservative. She is an adamant backer of gun rights who has been known to pack heat on the statehouse floor, and she believes that abortion should be outlawed. A Virginia Tech graduate and former campaign manager for several conservative Virginia candidates, Chase […]
Kings Dominion closure brings economic woes
For the first time in its 45-year history, Kings Dominion has halted its roller coasters for an entire season, thanks to COVID-19. But beyond being disappointing for fans of the amusement park in Doswell, “the economic impact is huge,” says E. Linwood Thomas IV, director of economic development for Hanover County. “Kings D[...]
Manufacturing
R. MARCUS ‘MARC’ AMMEN CEO, UNIVERSAL FIBER SYSTEMS LLC, BRISTOL Ammen, who has served as CEO of Universal Fiber since 2009, joined the company in 2000 as chief financial officer and previously was president of Universal Fibers Inc., one of the corporation’s affiliates. Founded in 1969 in Bristol, Tennessee, the company has two units: Bristol, […]
