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Agriculture: NEIL A. HOUFF
Houff likes to say his company is “an important spoke in someone else’s wheel.” Based in the Shenandoah Valley, Houff Corp. started in 1975 as Houff’s Feed and Fertilizer, a family dairy farm turned fertilizer service provider. Neil Houff has been the company’s president since the early 1990s. Houff Corp. is owned by a[...]
Arts/Entertainment/Sports: BRIDGETTE C. BYWATER
Bywater became the eighth vice president and general manager of Kings Dominion in January 2021 after nearly 30 years in the theme park industry, including about 24 years working at Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. The Hanover County amusement park is a significant tourism draw and seasonal employer for Central Virginia. It was shut [...]
Education: MARY DANA HINTON
When Hinton became president of Hollins University in August 2020, she joined a different campus than she expected when she accepted the job the previous February. Formerly the president of the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, Hinton is a North Carolina native with degrees in religion and psychology from Fordham Universit[...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: JOHN GOODMAN
Goodman joined Accenture in 1998 and has held several leadership roles at the Fortune 500 company, including serving as managing director of its defense and intelligence portfolio. He’s led AFS, an information technology federal contractor and wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture, since late 2017. A former associate professor [...]
Federal Contractors/Technology: C. JEFFREY ‘JEFF’ KNITTEL
As commercial airline demand returns, Dutch aerospace manufacturer Airbus revealed plans to ramp up production of its A320 family of jetliners. In May, the company confirmed a third assembly line would be added at its manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, creating 1,000 jobs and new training programs, with the possibility o[...]
Finance/Insurance: SHANE McLAUGHLIN
As Wells Fargo’s president in Northern Virginia, McLaughlin oversees 100 branch locations and more than 700 employees. A member of Virginia Tech’s Class of 2000, McLaughlin joined Wachovia in 2004, working as a licensed financial specialist in Richmond. McLaughlin became Wells Fargo’s area president in Washington, D.C., in[...]
Nonprofits/Philanthropy: DR. WILLIAM P. MAGEE JR.
As one of 12 children, Magee says, his sense of risk-taking and independence was established at a young age. Solo bus and subway rides to and from his New Jersey home helped solidify his character. Early challenges and support, including from the high school principal who helped him get into college, set the foundation for [&hel[...]
Retail/Wholesale: DREW PARKER
In Salem, parents regularly entertain their toddlers driving past the gargantuan heavy equipment — dump trucks, dozers and excavators — on display at Carter Machinery. The Caterpillar dealership operates more than 30 locations in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., and has about 2,300 employees.[...]
Law: THE HON. MARK STEVEN DAVIS
In the late 1970s, Davis, then a high school junior, took a summer job working for the Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney’s office’s victim witness assistance program. He knew then that he wanted to pursue a career in law. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia and a law degree from […]
Law: BENJAMIN LEIGH
A real estate attorney, Leigh is president-elect of the Virginia Bar Association and will serve his term in 2023. Leigh joined the bar association in 1997, became active in its real estate section in 2011 and joined its board of governors in 2019. Raised in Northern Virginia, Leigh works with business and real estate clients [&h[...]
Professional Services: KEVIN VIROSTEK
Virostek coordinates EY’s full array of services for some of the company’s largest global clients and leads high-performing teams across the Washington, D.C., area. “As managing partner for EY’s Greater Washington-area offices, my priority is to connect clients with professionals who have had cutting-edge development opp[...]
Government/ Politics: GLENN YOUNGKIN
A first-time political candidate, Youngkin led a statewide Republican sweep last fall, in a campaign that mostly kept its distance from former President Donald Trump. Since taking office in January, Youngkin has leaned further rightward, saying he would seek to ban most abortions after 15 weeks and attempting to bar “inherentl[...]
