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Telecommunications 2024: DAVID WAJSGRAS
Wajsgras was named CEO of Intelsat in April 2022, shortly after the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and financial restructuring. Merger discussions between Intelsat and competitor SES stalled in 2023, but in April, the McLean-based satellite-services provider announced an agreement where it will be acquired by i[...]
Law 2024: COURTNEY MOATES PAULK
Paulk has led Hirschler since 2018, when she became the first female president of the now-78-year-old firm, which has more than 90 attorneys in offices in Fredericksburg, Richmond and Tysons, and is the state’s seventh largest law firm. Paulk also heads Hirschler’s litigation section. After graduating from Mary Washington [...]
Government | Politics 2024: LUKE TORIAN
As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Torian oversees the creation of the single biggest piece of legislation his chamber passes every year: the budget. Difficult in the best of times, the budget process in recent years has been complicated by divided state government. In 2023, with Republicans in control of the House [...]
Banking | Finance 2024: JAFFRAY WOODRIFF
In April, the University of Virginia opened the School of Data Science building, which was built using a portion of a $120 million gift in 2019 from the Quantitative Foundation, the family foundation of Woodriff and his wife, Merrill, who are both alumni. The donation remains the largest in U.Va.’s history. Woodriff started st[...]
Transportation 500: NISSIM YOCHAI
Yochai was tapped as Zim American’s president in October 2022. The U.S. company, a subsidiary of Israeli cargo shipping company Zim Integrated Shipping Services, moved to the Hampton Roads region in 2001, and last year announced it was investing $30 million to relocate and expand its U.S. headquarters, which moved from Norfolk[...]
Insurance 2024: MONICA SCHMUDE
Schmude doesn’t hesitate to tussle with health care executives. In April, Chesapeake Regional Healthcare distributed a statement complaining that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield had paid the hospital 25% less than other hospitals in Hampton Roads. By the next month, Schmude had fired off an editorial to The Virginian-Pilot[...]
Law 2024: MARGARET F. HARDY
Hardy became the first female president in Sands Anderson’s then-175-year-old history in 2017. The trajectory that took her to the top at the state’s ninth largest firm has been far from a straight line. A graduate of Johnston-Willis Hospital School of Nursing, Hardy worked as a registered nurse for 15 years, including a sti[...]
Real Estate 2024: SHAWN TIBBETTS
Tibbetts added the role of president to his chief operating officer position in February, when Armada Hoffler also announced it expects to appoint him as CEO in spring 2025 upon current CEO Louis Haddad’s retirement. Haddad will then serve as executive chairman for a year. A real estate investment trust that operates across se[...]
Banking | Finance 2024: RICHARD FAIRBANK
After earning an economics degree and an MBA from Stanford University over a decade, Fairbank landed at Virginia’s Signet Bank, where he co-created the business that became Capital One, the Fortune Global 500 credit card giant. Fairbank became CEO in 1994 during Capital One’s initial public offering. In 2023, the bank report[...]
Living Legends 2024: MARY McDUFFIE
A Wellesley College alumna, McDuffie served as Navy Federal Credit Union CEO from 2019 until her retirement, announced in September 2023. Dietrich Kuhlmann, formerly the credit union’s chief operating officer, succeeded McDuffie on March 1. Before joining the credit union in 1999, McDuffie was senior vice president of marketin[...]
Manufacturing 2024: TOM HAYES
Hayes began working for the tobacco products manufacturer in 2006, serving as chief financial officer and senior vice president before becoming president of Swedish Match in 2020. Swedish Match manufactures and distributes chew bags, moist snuff, cigars, tobacco-free nicotine pouches, matches and lighters. Among its notable bran[...]
Real Estate 2024: GEORGE B. CLARKE IV
In 1982, Clarke didn’t just graduate from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering; he also founded MEB General Contractors, a full-service construction firm and master builder. Launched with a handful of employees as a small federal govern-ment contractor serving military installations across the Hampton [...]
