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Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: BROWN, REID A.
Brown is among the fourth generation to run Brown Distributing, a company that began in 1919 as a bottling operation for cherry cola and has grown into a major beverage-distribution business. He joined the family business in 2006. His brother, Jason Brown, came on board in 1999 and serves as vice president. Brown Distributing se[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: BORCHES, ELIZABETH ‘LIZA’ MYERS
Founded in 1924 by Borches’ great-grandfather, Carter Myers Automotive is one of Virginia’s largest car sales groups, with 24 dealerships selling 18 brands. It ranks 80th on Automotive News’ Top 150 Dealership Groups list, up seven spots from the previous ranking. Borches became CEO in 2012. CMA employs more t[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: CREEDON JR., MICHAEL C.
Creedon became permanent CEO of Dollar Tree in December 2024, after being appointed interim CEO the preceding month, when Rick Dreiling stepped down, citing health problems. Creedon joined the Fortune 500 discount retailer as chief operating officer in 2022, after over six years with Advance Auto Parts. Recent years have challen[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: WEIHRAUCH, POUL
Since taking the reins at the candy and pet food giant in September 2022, Weihrauch has been aiming to double its sales by 2033. He joined Mars in 2000. With approximately $55 billion in 2024 sales, Mars is the largest privately held company in Virginia and the fourth largest in the nation, with approximately 150,000 […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: SHEEHY IV, VINCE
Sheehy carries on his father’s legacy as an auto dealer, manning the largest dealership group in Virginia and one of the largest in the nation. His late father, Vincent Sheehy III, founded Sheehy Ford in Maryland in 1965 as a suburban business near the newly built Capital Beltway. Sheehy Auto Stores was ranked No. 33 in [[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: WARREN THOMPSON
Thompson became an entrepreneur as a teen, when he purchased and ran his family’s hog farm in Windsor. He now heads the largest minority-owned food and facilities management corporation in the nation, which he founded in 1992 with the purchase of 31 Bob’s Big Boy restaurants. Thompson Hospitality provides dining serv[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: SEVER, MICHAEL
Sever, a longtime Hershey employee, was named plant manager of the candymaker’s Stuarts Draft manufacturing facility in 2022. He had previously been site operations leader at the facility, which produces nut-based candies like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Almond Joy. The plant, which opened in 1982, is the second[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: RAMPOLDT, JOEL
Lidl, a German discount retail grocery chain, entered the U.S. market in 2017. But it struggled to compete with its chief rival, Aldi, and Lidl has changed its U.S. CEO three times since 2018. In 2023, Rampoldt took the reins as the first American to lead Lidl’s U.S. division and its expansion. As of July, […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: QREITEM, FOUAD A.
In the late 1990s, Qreitem founded Capital Restaurant Group, the company behind Paisano’s Pizza, based in Chantilly. He opened his first Paisano’s location in the Shops at Fair Lakes 25 years ago and the brand became a franchise model in 2009. The company now has more than 40 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Washi[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: POHANKA, GEOFFREY
Pohanka’s family has been selling cars since Frank Pohanka opened a Washington, D.C., dealership in 1919. Today, headed by Frank’s grandson Geoffrey, the company has more than 20 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Texas, and is one of the largest Virginia-based auto dealerships. It had revenue of roughly $2 billion [...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: NASH, WILLIAM D. ‘BILL’
Nash began at CarMax in 1997 as an auction manager, working his way up to president and CEO in 2016. Founded in 1993 in Richmond as a subsidiary of electronics retailer Circuit City, Fortune 500 company CarMax is the country’s largest retailer of used cars, employing almost 30,000 people, including 3,300 in Virginia. It re[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: PARKER, DREW
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[...]
