Education 2023: TIMOTHY SANDS
Known among Hokies as “the Sandsman” — a nod to the Hokies’ football anthem, Metallica’s “Enter the Sandman” — Sands joined Virginia Tech in 2014 after serving as interim president at Purdue University. Sands signed a contract in August 2022 to stay on as president through the 2027 academic year. During his tenur[...]
Finance | Insurance 2023: JOHN C. ASBURY
Discovering an affinity for banking during a summer job while still in college, Asbury began his 30-year-plus career as a commercial credit officer at Wachovia Bank & Trust. He would serve in a variety of executive roles, including as president and CEO at New Mexico’s First National Bank of Santa Fe, before landing in his [...]
Real Estate 2023: ALBERT G. ‘BEAU’ VAN METRE JR.
Van Metre’s late father founded his family real estate development company in 1955, partnering with B.B. Wills to build the first Van Metre Homes in Burke, a Fairfax County suburb. Like Northern Virginia, Van Metre Cos. has grown exponentially in the decades since. Beau Van Metre joined the company in 1963. In 2002, he was [&h[...]
Education 2023: JAMES E. RYAN
Ryan, who became the University of Virginia’s ninth president in 2018, has spearheaded several growth initiatives at the state’s flagship university, including the School of Data Science, a new performing arts center and the Karsh Institute of Democracy — all projects funded by donors, including a record 2019 gift of $120 [...]
Economic Development 2023: BUDDY RIZER
Head of Loudoun’s economic development since 2007, Rizer is best-known for helping build the county’s Ashburn area into the data center capital of the world. More than 70% of the world’s internet traffic comes through Data Center Alley in Ashburn, with data centers projected to pay $570 million in county taxes just in 2024[...]
Health Care 2023: AMY CARRIER
Since arriving at Centra in 2021, Carrier spearheaded the development of the health system’s strategic plan and this year launched an ambitious $500 million, four-year modernization plan. Established in 1987 through the merger of Lynchburg General Hospital and Virginia Baptist Hospital, Centra Health serves more than 500,000 p[...]
Education 2023: DAVID DORÉ
A newcomer to Virginia, Doré arrived in April as the Virginia Community College System’s new chancellor. It was quite the jump in scale from Doré’s previous role as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, which ser[...]
Law 2023: WILLIAM R. ‘BILL’ VAN BUREN III
Growing up in a family that formerly owned the Daily Press newspaper in Newport News, Van Buren learned to manage a wide variety of challenges. From canyoning in the Swiss Alps to negotiating complex mergers, he’s always enjoyed learning new skills, although Van Buren says he “still gets the shakes” when he looks at the [&[...]
Education 2023: MAJ. GEN. CEDRIC T. WINS (U.S. ARMY, RET.)
A 34-year U.S. Army veteran and 1985 VMI alumnus, Wins became the first Black superintendent to lead “the West Point of the South,” the nation’s oldest state military college, following the resignation of his predecessor in 2020. Wins joined at a time when VMI, known for its demanding “Rat Line” boot camp, was the subj[...]
Telecommunications 2023: DAVID C. WAJSGRAS
Wajsgras took over as CEO of Intelsat in April 2022 soon after the McLean-based satellite operator’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and financial restructuring. A little more than a year later, in June 2023, news surfaced that merger talks between Intelsat and its Luxembourg-based competitor SES had been called off. Las[...]
Real Estate 2023: JON JENNINGS
The third generation to lead the general contracting firm started as a masonry firm in 1952 by his grandfather, bricklayer Lawrence Floyd Jennings, Jon Jennings oversees about 350 employees and a large portfolio of projects in the Richmond and Washington, D.C., regions. Larry Jennings, L.F.’s son and Jon’s father, joined the[...]
Finance | Insurance 2023: JOHN C. STANCHINA
Stanchina became mid-Atlantic CEO for professional services and insurance firm Marsh McLennan Agency in 2011. Named a top workplace by the Richmond Times-Dispatch for the past four years, the agency provides business insurance, employee health insurance and benefits, retirement and private client insurance products. Stanchina wa[...]