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2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Michael Elliott

In 2022, Elliott was named VCU Health System’s first chief operating officer, and moved to Richmond from Lynchburg, where he was chief transformation officer at Centra Health. He also worked for Sentara Health and earned a doctorate in pharmacy and master’s in health administration at VCU. In 2024, he was elected cha[...]

2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Roberta Tinch

Tinch has been a hospital leader for more than 15 years, including at HCA Johnston Willis Hospital in Richmond and HCA Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, and has been recognized for her volunteer work by the March of Dimes. In 2023, Tinch was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Emerging Leaders. She joined Inova in [...]

2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Benita Thompson-Byas

Thompson-Byas joined the company started by her brother Warren Thompson right at its launch in 1992. Over the past three decades, Thompson Hospitality has grown from a group of 31 Big Boy restaurants to become the nation’s largest minority-owned hospitality business. Thompson-Byas is in charge of the company’s partne[...]

2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Melissa Cade

Cade was promoted to her current role in January 2024, after 24 years with the credit union as director of its call center, director of retail, regional president of branches and senior vice president of product and innovation. She now oversees Chartway’s branch and member care teams, as well as the credit union’s mu[...]

2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Deirdre C. Gonsalves-Jackson

Trained as a biologist, Gonsalves-Jackson leads Virginia Wesleyan’s online, Japanese, evening and weekend programs under the umbrella of the VWU Global Campus. She’s been recognized for STEM outreach and has received multiple teaching and community engagement awards. In 2024, she was promoted from dean to vice presid[...]

2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Yvonne Allmond

Allmond joined TowneBank in 2005 and has more than three decades of experience in banking and finance. Although she moved around in her youth as part of a military family, Allmond is today settled into Hampton Roads civic life, having served on boards for Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University Foundation and the Virgi[...]

Pharma company invests $1.5M on Prince William expansion

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Granules Consumer Health, a subsidiary of Granules India, will invest $1.5 million into expanding its operations in Prince William County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.  The company plans to install new manufacturing lines at its existing Manassas facility, with an aim of creating nearly 100 [...]

Contributor Content

For Government Contracting Companies, AI Can Be a Gift That Keeps on Giving

Report highlights how AI can benefit a GovCon business, offers best practices for a successful AI journey By Kim Koster Government contractors make their living working for, and being held accountable to, the U.S. government and by extension, the American public. That means they have to deal with a uniquely challenging set of ri[...]

A smaller slice of the pie

In health care, there’s a moment when mistakes are more likely to occur: shift changes. As rigorously as medical staff may document patient histories, these “handoffs” can present a weak link in care. According to The Joint Commission, a health care quality assessment organization, miscommunication contributes to two-t[...]

Generous Virginians 2024: A heartfelt donation

In philanthropy as in business, Dwight Schar sees the wisdom in doubling down when the stakes — and the impact — of an investment are high. In May 2023, three decades after their initial donation to the organization, Schar and his wife, Martha, made a $75 million matching gift to Falls Church-based Inova Health System. [&hel[...]

Truth, justice, and the Liberty Way

The past four years have been rough on Liberty University’s reputation, judging by the sheer tonnage of negative press that the Lynchburg-based evangelical education powerhouse has received. But with a $2 billion-plus endowment and one of the nation’s largest private, nonprofit college enrollments, Liberty appears to[...]

The Power 50

Power can be measured by metrics such as wealth and how many people you lead, as well as what one does with that power. Is your company undertaking bold growth strategies? Are you the visionary executive leading huge initiatives? Are you bringing massive infrastructure projects to fruition or making seismically impactful philant[...]