2020 Virginia CFO Awards winners
In an annual special report, here are the four outstanding chief financial officers nominated by their peers and chosen by a group including the editorial staff of Virginia Business magazine and previous CFO award recipients. Also: Read more about how CFOs in Virginia are keeping their ships steady in unprecedented financial turmoil. Large Nonprofit: Julie […]
Growth mode
Large Business | Carla Stoner, CFO Harbor Group International LLC, Norfolk Carla Stoner doesn’t come from a typical CFO background of working strictly as an accountant or CPA, but she had the chops to grow Norfolk-based real estate investment and management firm Harbor Group International LLC (HGI) from $3.8 billion in assets [...]
Smooth sailing
Small business | Mark Baumgartner, CFO Pender & Coward PC, Norfolk It’s safe to say Mark Baumgartner knows the ins and outs of Virginia Beach-based law firm Pender & Coward PC, where he has served as chief financial officer since 2017. Prior to becoming the firm’s CFO, Baumgartner had 20 years of experience working a[...]
CPAs discuss the economic health of their regions in 2020
We asked five certified public accountants for their take on the state of their regions. This is what they had to say. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. HAMPTON ROADS Maruja Evangelista Pabalan, CPA CEO | EDMARS and Associates CPA LLC | Chesapeake What are your favorite parts about living and working in […]
Downtown Norton gets a glow-up
Like other coalfield communities coping with the downturn of its signature industry, Norton is working to reinvent itself, says City Manager Fred Ramey. This fall, the city’s three-year, $2.3 million downtown revitalization reached a “technical end, but our project is not over and we’ll keep going,” says Ramey, who spear[...]
‘No name but team’
Marcus Stephenson is living his dream. After a nearly 15-year career in sports entertainment marketing and content (including stints with World Wrestling Entertainment and the Columbus Blue Jackets NHL team), Stephenson joined the Washington Football Team as its vice president of digital marketing and programming just one year a[...]
Out of the lab, into the market
Virginia Tech was born to promote business. The 1862 Morrill Act, which created land-grant universities including Virginia Tech, requires such universities to “teach such branches of learning as are related to … agriculture and the mechanical arts … to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes.�[...]
Essential workers
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted business models. It has forced employees to seek new office sites in their kitchens, bedrooms and basements. It has ushered in hybrid educational models involving in-person and virtual learning, and imperiled funding for colleges and universities. And nobody really knows what’s coming nex[...]
The VirginiaBusiness.com Top Five
The top trending stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from Sept. 16 to Oct. 15 included the news that Gov. Ralph Northam had tested positive for the coronavirus, exhibiting mild, coldlike symptoms. Daily Press office set to close in Newport News — Tribune Publishing Co. told newspaper employees it planned to close the newsroom by S[...]
Breaking barriers
Small Nonprofit | David Silver, CFO Medical College of Virginia Foundation, Richmond David Silver fell into the nonprofit world by chance. After graduating as a Russian history major from the University of Maryland in the midst of the early 1990s recession, Silver worked for several years at hotels and restaurants, where he woun[...]
Hemp industry takes another step forward
The co-founders of South Boston-based Golden Piedmont Labs want to give the county a boost by processing hemp from local farmers. “We were looking for a way to give back,” says Rick Gregory, who started Golden Piedmont Labs with Sterling Edmunds Jr. Both are Halifax County natives with extensive backgrounds in real estate an[...]