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Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2024: BRIDGETTE C. BYWATER
Under Bywater’s leadership since 2021, the 49-year-old Kings Dominion theme park continues to seek out new concepts and ideas to entice and excite guests. The 400-acre amusement park is home to more than 60 rides, shows and attractions, including 13 roller coasters and Soak City, a 20-acre waterpark. The latest thrill is a[...]
Manufacturing 2024: THOMAS E. ‘TEDDY’ GOTTWALD
Gottwald joined NewMarket, parent company of Afton Chemical and Ethyl, in 1984 and worked in its petroleum additives and former plastics businesses before succeeding his father, Bruce, as chairman of the board two decades later. NewMarket traces its roots to Ethyl Gasoline Corp., a company acquired in 1962 by Albemarle Paper Man[...]
Banking | Finance 2024: HANS VonKRUGER
In July, VonKruger joined two fellow members of Bank of America’s Native American Professional Network, along with a few other coworkers, at the Indigenous Voices of the Americas reception in Washington, D.C. “I am so grateful to work for an organization that celebrates cultural experiences,” he wrote on LinkedIn. �[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: D. JAMES BIDZOS
A native of Greece, Bidzos is an internet and cybersecurity pioneer and an early advocate for encrypted commercial software. Verisign, a company he founded in 1995 as a spinoff of RSA Data Security, is the world’s largest internet domain name registration and infrastructure provider. Any address with a .com or .net domain [...]
Real Estate 2024: KIM ROY
In 2017, Roy was appointed the first nonfamily member to lead the then-80-year-old company. Interested in building from a young age, she graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in construction. Roy joined Hitt in 1999 as an assistant project manager. Founded in 1937, Hitt has more than 1,600 employees in 14 U[...]
Manufacturing 2024: KAI FRIEDRICH
Friedrich joined Liebherr’s U.S. operations in 2021 as its managing director and director of the global company’s earthmoving and material- handling technology. He also serves as a divisional director for construction equipment. Friedrich has worked for the Swiss equipment manufacturer for two decades, previously ser[...]
Manufacturing 2024: ANDY GIRVIN
Girvin manages the largest factory for chemical manufacturer AdvanSix, which boasts approximately 750 workers. In 1994, he joined Honeywell as a project engineer, working as global asset manager for its resin and chemicals division, which was spun off into AdvanSix in 2016. In spring 2023, Girvin faced challenges, including near[...]
Education 2024: DONNA PRICE HENRY
Henry is the college’s first female chancellor since its founding in 1954 as a junior college with two buildings. She presides over a four-year liberal arts college encompassing 396 acres with 26 main buildings, attended by more than 1,900 students. Chancellor since 2013, Henry previously spent 16 years in a variety of pos[...]
Manufacturing 2024: KOEN KNIPPENBERG
In June, Knippenberg began his new role as Volvo’s senior vice president in North America for Group Truck Operations (GTO), a position in which he oversees four vehicle assembly plants: Volvo’s New River Valley plant in Dublin; two Mack Trucks factories in Roanoke County and Pennsylvania; and a heavy-duty truck plant[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: REX D. GEVEDEN
Headquartered in Lynchburg, BWX Technologies manufactures nuclear reactors, fuel and components for the Navy, develops and manufactures microreactors for national security and space applications, and provides nuclear technical services at contractor-operated government labs and facilities. Geveden joined BWXT in 2015 as its chie[...]
Banking | Finance 2024: BRIAN HOLLAND
Holland went to work at a mortgage company after graduating with a finance degree from Old Dominion University in 1993. Three years later, he founded Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group. Today, the company has more than 800 employees and 139 branches across 17 states. Holland’s stepbrother, Stan Holland, is the firm’s presid[...]
Health Care 2024: MELINA DAVIS
The board of the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV), a trade organization that represents more than 30,000 physicians, physician assistants, residents and medical students, brought Davis on as its executive vice president in 2014 and made her its CEO four years later. During the Virginia General Assembly’s 2020 session, D[...]
