Health Care 2024: ANTHONY ‘TONY’ BAKER
Baker leads Fortune 500 pharma manufacturer Merck’s vaccine operations in Elkton. The company founded a plant in the Rockingham County town in 1941. Early in his career, Baker spent seven years at Pennsylvania-based Biopharm Project Solutions as a senior process specialist. He joined Merck in 2008 as a process engineer and[...]
Transportation 2024: RYAN BANAS
Banas oversees the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion, the largest highway construction project in Virginia’s history and one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country. Milestones this year included one on April 17 when the tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Mary, completed its much-anticipated jo[...]
Real Estate 2024: LAURA D. LAFAYETTE
Between her leadership positions with the Richmond Association of Realtors and the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service, Lafayette serves more than 6,800 Realtors in Central Virginia. This year, she’s become an even more powerful voice in the Richmond real estate community in the wake of a landmark court sett[...]
Transportation 2024: SHEPPARD ‘SHEP’ MILLER III
A former defense contracting executive and Norfolk native, Miller was appointed secretary by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2022. He is responsible for Virginia’s rail, roads, transit and ports. As chair of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Miller has a great deal of say on the state’s transportation funding of major ro[...]
Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: PHEBE N. NOVAKOVIC
Novakovic has led General Dynamics, the world’s sixth largest aerospace and defense company, since 2013. During her tenure as CEO, General Dynamics won the Navy’s largest-ever contract, up to $24.2 billion, to build nuclear submarines. The Fortune Global 500 company employs more than 100,000 people and recorded $42.3[...]
Retail 2024: DREW PARKER
Carter Machinery has deep roots in Virginia, tracing back to 1928, when Robert Hill Carter founded Virginia Tractor in Richmond. The company was the state’s first Caterpillar dealership, and it is still going today as an independent dealer with more than 30 locations. It has more than 2,300 employees in Virginia, West Virg[...]
Real Estate 2024: EUGENE J. BREDOW
Bredow has worked for NVR since 2004 and, after holding several executive positions in accounting and administration, became president of NVR Mortgage in April 2019. In 2022, he was appointed president and CEO of NVR, which operates in two business segments that include homebuilding and mortgage banking. Founded in 1980, the com[...]
Energy 2024: JOHN D. HEWA
Since its launch last year, Regional Internet Service Expansion has connected hundreds of Virginians to broadband internet. The $288 million project is a partnership between Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Firefly Fiber Broadband and Virginia localities that aims to bring high-speed internet to more than 36,000 businesses and[...]
Professional Services 2024: AMRY JUNAIDEEN
In January, Junaideen took over as Greater Washington market leader for Big Four global accounting firm Deloitte. He also serves as managing partner of Deloitte’s Northern Virginia offices in Rosslyn and McLean. Immediately prior to taking on these executive roles, Junaideen was principal at the Deloitte & Touche subsi[...]
Manufacturing 2024: JONATHAN JENKINS
Jenkins became president of Culpeper Wood Preservers in 2016. Started from a single location in Culpeper in 1976, the company today has 18 facilities on the East Coast and in Indiana and Tennessee. It is a leading manufacturer of pressure-treated lumber products for the residential, commercial, industrial and marine markets. Its[...]
Real Estate 2024: MIKE CULPEPPER
As Venture Realty Group’s in-house attorney and managing partner, Culpepper coordinates deal formation, land-use entitlement, and predevelopment services. Previously, he was an associate with law firm Williams Mullen’s real estate and land use team and a principal with Fee Simple Legal, focusing on real estate transa[...]
Law 2024: DOUGLAS S. GRANGER
Nearly four decades have passed since Granger went to work at Hunton & Williams in 1985 as a fresh-faced graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. While Granger has remained at the same firm, some things have changed. In 2018, Hunton & Williams merged with Andrews Kurth Kenyon, a Texas-based practice well kno[...]





















