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Education 2023: ANNE M. KRESS
As president of Virginia’s largest community college — and one of the largest community colleges in the country — Kress oversees faculty, staff and nearly 70,000 internationally diverse students on six campuses near Washington, D.C., including NOVA’s Medical Education Campus in Springfield. In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vi[...]
Real Estate 2023: MARK C. LOWHAM
Lowham has led the Washington, D.C.-region arm of the luxury real estate company since 2011. His office handled the record $48 million sale of the state’s most expensive home, Fairfax County estate River View, to former Washington Commanders owners Dan and Tanya Snyder in November 2021. (According to news reports, the couple h[...]
Media 2023: JIM VANDEHEI
VandeHei began his path to media entrepreneur as a reporter in the Washington, D.C., journalism trenches, first as a congressional and White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal from 2000 to 2003, and then for three years at The Washington Post, where he also covered Congress and the executive branch. He left the Post [&he[...]
2023 Virginia 500: Living Legends
Gilbert T. Bland CHAIRMAN, THE GILJOY GROUP; PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN, URBAN LEAGUE OF HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA BEACH Joan P. Brock PHILANTHROPIST, VIRGINIA BEACH Ric Edelman FINANCIAL ADVISER, AUTHOR, PODCAST HOST, GREAT FALLS The Hon. Roger L. Gregory JUDGE, 4TH U.S. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, RICHMOND John R. Lawson II EXECUTIVE […]
Real Estate 2023: DONNA MacMILLAN-WHITAKER
As the development partner to fashion and music superstar Pharrell Williams, MacMillan-Whitaker has achieved a significant level of prominence in Hampton Roads, but she’s no flash in the pan. MacMillan-Whitaker has worked in the commercial retail industry since 1985, representing national retailers throughout the mid-Atlantic [...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: Y. MICHELE KANG
Born in South Korea, Kang moved to the United States as a teen with her family, driven to succeed. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and her master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. An entrepreneur who started companies and bought and invested in others, she has always been focused o[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: ROBERT S. ‘BOBBY’ UKROP
Ukrop’s name is synonymous with his family’s former Virginia grocery chain that opened in 1937 and was purchased in 2009 by Dutch retail conglomerate Ahold. In recent years, Ukrop rebooted one of the Ukrop’s stores’ most beloved features: its line of prepared foods. Not long after the sale of the grocery chain, he and hi[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: SHAWN PURVIS
Assuming the roles of president and CEO of QinetiQ US in February 2022, Purvis has nearly three decades of experience working in defense, intelligence and cybersecurity. Purvis joined the tech company from Northrop Grumman, where she was most recently enterprise services sector president and a corporate vice president. Before jo[...]
Finance | Insurance 2023: CHRISTOPHER M. ‘CHRIS’ SHOCKLEY
Under Shockley’s leadership, the Virginia Credit Union received a 2023 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, marking the first time the credit union made the list. The state’s third largest credit union, Virginia Credit Union reported more than $5 billion in assets for 2022, and has more than 300,000 members. A Roanoke native [...]
Government | Politics 2023: JASON MIYARES
Miyares, whose mother fled communist Cuba in the 1960s for the United States, is the first Hispanic person elected to statewide office in Virginia. He became the state’s attorney general in 2022 after representing part of Virginia Beach in the House of Delegates for six years. Since assuming office from a two-term Democratic A[...]
Real Estate 2023: FRANK ‘BUDDY’ GADAMS
Gadams and his firm are known for their commercial and residential projects, but he has also led community-based projects like the restoration of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Gadams founded Marathon in 2000. He is also one of the founders of the YPO (formerly Young Presidents’ Organization) Virginia Chapter. A Downtow[...]
Living Legends 2023: RAYMOND A. ‘RAY’ RITCHEY
Often regarded as one of the most influential players in the Washington, D.C., area’s real estate arena, Ritchey announced in March his plans to shift away from his full-time role with Boston Properties at the end of the year. He led the national real estate investment trust’s Washington-region operations, including 170 empl[...]
