Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: CAPSHAW, CORAN

The Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, a max-7,500-capacity outdoor venue from Red Light and Live Nation Entertainment, opened in downtown Richmond in June. The $30 million amphitheater will host about 30 events per year and is expected to bring top-name artists to the greater Richmond region. Additionally, it will serve as a space for graduation ceremonies, city festivals and local events.

Headed up by and mogul Capshaw, Red Light manages dozens of major acts, including Dave Matthews Band, Chris Stapleton, Lionel Richie, Sabrina Carpenter and Phish. Capshaw’s journey in the music world began in the late ’80s when he began managing Dave Matthews Band, and in 1991, he founded artist management company . The company has since expanded into other ventures, including music festivals, branding, event production and management.

Capshaw also founded Starr Hill Presents and Musictoday and was instrumental in the success of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee. He developed the Ting Pavilion on ‘s Downtown Mall and co-founded independent record label ATO Records with Dave Matthews.

Return to the full list of this categories recipients.

Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: LEMBKE, KEVIN

On May 16, Busch Gardens hosted a parkwide celebration for its 50th anniversary, complete with 75-cent beer, a 1970s cover band, a fireworks finale and a “lookback presentation” from Lembke.

One week later, the park launched its newest attraction:   The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge, an homage to the original roller coaster that closed in 2009. The inverted coaster with 2,500-plus-feet of track travels up to 40 miles per hour.

Lembke became president of & Water Country USA in 2018 and has been part of the amusement park industry since 2000, when he started at SeaWorld Orlando. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA are owned by United Parks & Resorts, a name change for SeaWorld Entertainment, effective February 2024. The company owns 12 parks in the United

States and a 13th park in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Lembke serves on the board of Visit Williamsburg. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo, after which he interned at the marketing sales department of the Buffalo Bills NFL team before joining SeaWorld.

Return to the full list of this categories recipients.

Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: NYERGES, ALEX

Nyerges is now in his 19th year as director of the . Free to all visitors, the museum opened in 1936 and has more than 545,000 square feet of galleries, event space and dining. In the works is a 173,000-square-foot, $261 million expansion to be named for the late philanthropist Jim McGlothlin of Bristol and his widow, Frances. The project will also renovate about 45,000 square feet of existing gallery space. is expected to begin in late 2025, and the VMFA plans to open the wing in 2028.

The new wing will include more space for African, American and Native American art and contemporary art exhibits, as well as a special exhibition gallery suite and a 500-seat event space.

Ongoing is Rewind<<Fast/Forward, a series of immersive contemporary art installations.

Coming in November 2026 is an impressionist exhibit from the Dallas Museum of Art. A photographer, Nyerges holds a master’s degree in museum studies from George

Washington University and serves on the board of the university’s museum.

FIRST JOB: Delivering newspapers

FAVORITE TEAMS: Depending on the season, 1) Football: Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Rams, and 2) : Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers

Return to the full list of this categories recipients

Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2025: ROTHROCK, BEN

Becoming COO in 2023, Rothrock is now the highest-ranking Virginia- based boss of the Double-A team, although he shares leadership with Brendon Porter, the team’s president, who spends part of his time in Alabama. Rothrock also held the title of general manager from 2017 until this year, when the team announced Anthony Oppermann, who was chief marketing officer in the 2024 season, would assume the role.

While Oppermann oversees the club’s day-to-day operations, Rothrock is focused on of CarMax Park, the Squirrels’ new ballpark starting with the 2026 season. The 8,000-seat stadium with capacity for about 2,000 additional people standing replaces the aging Diamond and is expected to cost at least $110 million. Construction officially began with a ceremonial groundbreaking in September 2024. The Richmond Economic Development Authority’s board in August 2024 approved a 30-year lease and stadium development agreement in which the Squirrels will pay $3.2 million in annual rent for the next 10 years, with the rates decreasing after that point.

A former linebacker on the Liberty University Flames football team, Rothrock has a degree in management.

Return to the full list of this categories recipients.

Agriculture 2025: WIGNER, PRESTON D.

Wigner took the helm at Universal in October 2024, succeeding George C. Freeman, who retired after 16 years of running the world’s leading supplier of leaf tobacco.

Wigner, who joined Universal in 2003, was appointed the agriproducts company’s senior vice president in 2023, as part of a succession planning process. Previously, he’d served as the company’s vice president, general counsel and secretary.

For fiscal 2025, Universal Corp. reported $2.9 billion in revenue, a 7% increase over the previous year. “As we move into fiscal year 2026,” Wigner said in a late May statement, “we foresee continued strong demand for tobacco and larger tobacco crops shifting global markets to more balanced tobacco supply positions.”

In 2024, Universal completed a $30 million expansion of a Pennsylvania manufacturing campus of subsidiary Shank’s Extracts. The project added beverage-focused extraction and aseptic processing technology to the existing facilities.

Wigner has a degree in marketing from James Madison University and a law degree from the University of Richmond. Before joining Universal, Wigner was an associate at Williams Mullen law firm.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

 

Nonprofits | Philanthropy 2025: GHANIM, ISAM

Ghanim returned to ChildFund International in 2022, becoming its ninth president and CEO. He previously was vice president for the Africa region, vice president of global operations and executive vice president for programs before leaving to serve as Search for Common Ground’s president in 2018.

ChildFund, previously named the Christian Children’s Fund, spent $169 million in 2024 on programs focused on basic education, nutrition, early childhood development, health and sanitation, emergencies and micro-enterprise. The 85-plus-year-old nonprofit operates in 23 countries. Its programs and services reached 24.3 million children and families in 2024.

ChildFund has taken a strong stance against online sexual abuse of children, running a national campaign in the United States called #TakeItDown to build support for legislation to force technology companies to protect children online. In May, President Donald Trump signed the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (TAKE IT DOWN) Act.

Born and raised in Sudan, Ghanim earned a master’s degree from the University of Khartoum and began his international development career with CARE Sudan. He serves on the board of InterAction, a U.S.-based alliance of international NGOs and partners. .

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Real Estate 2025: LAUSTER, RONALD

President since 2018, Lauster manages a wide array of projects at the firm with $725 million in fiscal 2024 revenue. W.M. Jordan took on the second phase of the Norfolk-based Nauticus renovation

and expansion, and Old Dominion University’s $184 million biological sciences building, the university’s largest academic building now under , for which the company says it won a $142 million contract. In October 2024, construction started on the $107 million Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital; W.M. Jordan says it received a $90 million contract for the project.

Lauster also was an adjunct professor at Tidewater Community College, where he volunteered on several advisory committees and is an alum himself.

A graduate of the Civic Leadership Institute in Hampton Roads, he earned a bachelor’s degree in technology from Old Dominion University and graduated from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Chamber and Virginia Chamber of Commerce and is vice chair of Bon Secours Hampton Roads Foundation’s board.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Real Estate 2025: SCHALL, BENJAMIN

Before becoming CEO in 2022, Schall joined AvalonBay as president in 2021. He also sits on the publicly traded investment trust’s board of directors.

AvalonBay acquires, develops and manages communities around the country, primarily focusing on metropolitan areas in New England, the mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest and California. The company reported over $2.9 billion in 2024 revenue and more than $21 billion in total assets. As of March 31, it owned or held direct or indirect ownership interest in 309 apartment communities, of which 19 were under development, in 11 states and Washington, D.C., including a recent $620 million acquisition in Texas.

Prior to joining AvalonBay Communities, Schall was CEO and president of Seritage Growth Properties, a spinoff of Sears Holdings, and before that, chief operating officer of Rouse Properties, where he oversaw operations for 35 regional malls across

21 states. Schall received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Real Estate 2025: LEON, MILES

As leader of one of the largest development companies in the southeastern United States, Leon is responsible for all company operations and new business development. Founded in 1906, Nusbaum has a portfolio exceeding 30,000 units.

Among other deals, the company is handling Texas convenience store chain Buc-ee’s expansion into the commonwealth, which includes the new Rockingham County location — the first in Virginia — that opened June 30. The chain has plans for at least two more locations in Virginia: one in New Kent County and one in Stafford County.

In March, Nusbaum negotiated LS GreenLink USA’s purchase of 96 acres in Chesapeake, where it is building a $680 million advanced cable manufacturing and port facility.

Leon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and his MBA from the University of Miami. He serves on the Old Dominion University Real Estate Foundation and Downtown Norfolk Council boards, among other civic duties.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Real Estate 2025: ROY, KIM

In 2017, Roy became the first nonfamily member to lead the then-80-year-old Hitt company. Interested in building from a young age, she graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in and joined Hitt in 1999 as an assistant project manager.

Founded in 1937, Hitt has more than 2,000 employees across 14 U.S. office locations. The company reported $8.7 billion in 2024 revenue and ranked No. 10 on Engineering News-Record’s list of the top 400 general contractors this year, a jump of 16 spots from 2024.

Hitt’s recent projects include a $1 billion expansion of Boeing’s facilities in Charleston, South Carolina, for which Hitt is partnering with BE&K Building Group. In January, Hitt broke ground on its new six-story, 270,000-square-foot headquarters in Falls Church, expected to be completed in late 2026.

Roy is also president of Hitt Contracting Foundation, a nonprofit she helped launch focusing on the company’s philanthropic initiatives, and she serves on Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering advisory board.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.