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Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2023: TONY BENNETT
The No. 4-seeded Cavaliers suffered a painful loss to No.13-seed Furman University in the first round of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but Bennett — who this season became the winningest coach in the team’s history — took the setback in stride, celebrating the Cavaliers’ 25th appearance at the Big Dan[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: TING XU
A Shanghai native, Xu graduated from Old Dominion University and settled in Richmond in 1989. She was working as a computer programmer for the state health department in 1993 when she started a small decorative flag venture in her garage, investing $20,000. Established in part to provide work for her parents, who had been engine[...]
Real Estate 2023: JAMIE THOMAS
In January, Thomas was named executive managing director and brokerage market leader for Virginia, a position that gives him oversight for about 60 brokers as well as all brokerage operations, recruitment, retention and business development in Norfolk, Richmond and Charlottesville. A Richmond native, Thomas replaced J. Scott Ada[...]
Transportation 2023: WEBB ESTES
As the great-grandson of the company’s founder, Estes is the fourth generation of his family to lead Estes Express Lines, one of the nation’s largest privately owned freight carriers. Before being named president and COO in January, he was vice president of process improvement. His father, Rob Estes, continues to serve as ch[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: CHARLES ‘CHUCK’ PROW
Prow has been named to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of top government contracting executives nine out of the 10 years since the list began in 2014. He worked at Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM before becoming president and CEO of Vectrus in 2016. In July 2022, Colorado-based Vectrus merged with Mississippi[...]
Manufacturing 2023: PRABHAT JAIN
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 the past 40 years, Jain grew the company from 35 employees to more than 2,700 across five plants. Last fall, it opened an ad[...]
Manufacturing 2023: KAI FRIEDRICH
Friedrich has worked for Swiss equipment manufacturer Liebherr Group for almost 20 years, and after holding management roles in Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Switzerland, he joined Liebherr’s U.S. operations in 2021 as its managing director and director of the global company’s earthmoving and material handling technology. H[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: STEVEN C. ‘STEVE’ SMITH
Smith is carrying on his family’s legacy at the helm of K-VA-T, the Southwest Virginia operator of Food City supermarkets. His father, Jack C. Smith, grew the K-VA-T empire from a single Piggly Wiggly store opened in Grundy in 1955. Steve Smith joined the family business after graduating from James Madison University in 1979, [...]
Professional Services 2023: JOHNNY C. TAYLOR JR.
A lawyer and human resources executive, Taylor has led the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) since 2017. The global professional association has about 400 staff members and represents about 325,000 human resources professionals worldwide, across more than 575 chapters. An expert in workplace topics, Taylor frequently [...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: MATT CALKINS
In 1999, Calkins co-founded cloud computing and enterprise software firm Appian, which reaped $236.9 million in cloud subscriptions revenue in fiscal 2022, up 32% from 2021. The company’s total 2022 revenue was $468 million, up 27% from the prior year. Calkins expects cloud subscription revenue to continue climbing and anticip[...]
Economic Development 2023: CORRIE BOBE
Bobe is sparking growth in rural Southern Virginia, which is still rebuilding from losing its textiles industry decades ago. In January, city officials participated in the groundbreaking for Dan River Falls, the $85 million public-private mixed-use redevelopment of the shuttered White Mill textiles factory building. And in May, [...]
Finance | Insurance 2023: THOMAS S. GAYNER
On Jan. 1, Gayner became Markel’s sole CEO after serving more than six years in an unusual co-CEO arrangement with Richard Whitt III, who retired after more than two decades at the Fortune 500 insurer and holding company. Gayner, also chief investment officer, joined Markel in 1990. As CEO, Gayner oversees three divisions: ins[...]
