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Nonprofits/Philanthropy: DEBORAH M. DiCROCE
DiCroce has led the Hampton Roads Community Foundation since 2012, but before that, she spent more than three decades in higher education. As president of Tidewater Community College for 14 years, she led a decade of expansion at TCC. She also served nine years as president of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesvil[...]
Law: THE HON. ROGER GREGORY
The son of tobacco factory workers, Gregory has spent his life blazing trails. He’s the first person in his family to graduate from high school. After graduating from Virginia State University and the University of Michigan Law School, he and future Gov. L. Douglas Wilder founded a Richmond law firm in 1982. Wilder became the [...]
Law: PHILIPPE J.C. SIGNORE
Signore began his career as a physicist, earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and then a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. After earning his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, he transitioned to handling patents and intellectual property matters for a variet[...]
Economic Development: TAYLOR V. ADAMS
Adams’ favorite vacation spot is Virginia Beach, and his favorite beverage is the city’s famous orange crush, a mixture of vodka, orange liqueur, a splash of lemon-lime soda, and freshly squeezed orange juice. Nevertheless, this summer Adams was a finalist for the position of city manager in Salem, Oregon, a job that went to[...]
Agriculture: GEORGE C. FREEMAN III
Universal Corp. may be the world’s biggest supplier of leaf tobacco, but foodstuffs have helped boost the company’s portfolio recently. “Our plant-based ingredients platform is coming together nicely and is exceeding our expectations,” Freeman said in his May fiscal year annual report. Universal’s president since 2006 [...]
Education: PETER BLAKE
A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business’ executive program, Blake has led the state’s higher education council for a decade. He previously was a SCHEV research analyst and also served as the state’s secretary of education from 2005 to 2006 and as vice chancell[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: MATT CALKINS
While cloud computing and enterprise software firm Appian expects revenues of up to $446 million in 2022, a 21% increase from 2021, don’t expect any of that to come from Russia. Calkins told Yahoo! Finance in April that his company has never done business with “Putin’s Russia” and urged others to follow suit as global [&[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: DAVID DACQUINO
Dacquino, who has overseen the $1.6 billion federal contractor with about 9,000 employees since 2017, retired as Serco’s CEO in September 2021 but retains his position as chairman. He was succeeded as CEO by Tom Watson, senior vice president for Serco’s North American defense business. In September 2021, Serco was one of 55 [...]
Hospitality/Tourism: RITA McCLENNY
Nobody would describe McClenny as a job hopper. Almost a decade has passed since former Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed McClenny to head Virginia Tourism Corp. (VTC). Prior to that, the Southampton County native ran the Virginia Film Office, a division of the VTC, for more than two decades. A graduate of Fisk University in Nashvill[...]
Law: THOMAS C. INGLIMA
Inglima has been behind the scenes for multiple multimillion- and multibillion-dollar national mergers, acquisitions and sales. The Duke University and Georgetown University Law Center graduate specializes in such deals involving media, manufacturing and health care companies. His practice also handles venture capital and securi[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: DeETTE GRAY
Gray’s first job out of college was teaching math and science to middle schoolers in the 1990s. She integrated computers into the science curriculum to make learning more interactive and discovered a talent for writing code, leading her to become a software developer. Those experiences led her to CACI, where she works to moder[...]
Retail/Wholesale: ARIE KOTLER
Arko Corp., a holding company for the nation’s sixth largest convenience store chain, Richmond-based GPM Investments LLC, made the Fortune 500 for the first time in 2022, ranking No. 498. That’s an especially significant achievement considering the company began trading on the Nasdaq at the end of 2020. Kotler, a native of I[...]
