First joining Thalhimer as an associate broker in 1995, Warfield now leads the real estate firm’s seven offices and 450 associates in Virginia. In 2016, he became Thalhimer’s fourth CEO since its 1913 foun ing. He has been chairman of Thalhimer’s board since 2017.

As of June 1, Eric Robison succeeded Warfield as company president, after having led T alhimer’s capital markets team. Warfield retains his chairman and CEO titles.

Thalhimer Realty Partners, one of the company’s subsidiaries, is now the sole principal of the team developing the commercial and residential portions of Richmond’s $2.44 billion Diamond District project, which are being built around the new CarMax Park baseball stadium for the Richmond Flying Sq irrels.

In 2024, Thalhimer completed more than 1,800 transactions with a total volume of mo e than $1.96 billion.

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Bowman Consulting Group, founded in 1995 as a five-person company, followed Bowman’s 15-year stint at Urban Engineering. The publicly traded engineering services firm has about 2,400 employees with 100 offices nationwide, nine of them in Virginia.

In 2024, Bowman, who remains CEO, was succeeded as president by Michael Bruen, the firm’s former chief operating officer. Bruen resigned in October 2024 and retired in January; the company hasn’t named a successor. Bowman was succeeded as board chairman in May by James Laurito, former chief technology officer of Fortis.

Bowman Consulting Group has been on a buying spree since going public in 2021, acquiring more than 30 companies. In February, it purchased UP Engineering in Texas.

Bowman Consulting Group climbed to No. 72 this year on Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms list and debuted at No. 137 on the outlet’s Top 150 Global Design Firms list last year. Bowman also ranked No. 4 in May on Zweig Group’s Hot Firms List of the fastest-growing architecture, engineering, environmental, planning, construction and related professional services firms. The company reported $426.6 million in gross contract revenue for 2024, up 23.2% from the previous year.

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Weinstein leads a multifamily real estate development and management company founded by her father, Marcus Weinstein, in 1952. She joined the company in 1994 with her husband, Ivan Jecklin, who serves as co-president.

Weinstein Properties began as a developer of single-family homes in Richmond in the 1950s, expanding into apartments and commercial real estate in the 1960s and ’70s. Today, the company operates apartment communities in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, with a portfolio of more than 20,000 units. It employs over 600 people.

Weinstein’s parents are major philanthropists known for their support of the University of Richmond and the Carole and Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center. Allison Weinstein and her husband joined them in 2019 in giving $2 million to UR’s chaplaincy to fund student travel.

Weinstein previously worked in the recruiting and personnel department for a Chicago-based law firm. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984 and her law degree there in 1987.

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Hitt Contracting, one of Virginia’s biggest general contracting firms, was started by Hitt’s grandparents in 1930. In 1984, Hitt joined his family’s company as an assistant project manager. He rose through the ranks to become co-president in 2005 and was named co-chairman of the newly formed board in 2017, ushering in a new generation of leadership that includes CEO Kim Roy. The company earned $8.7 billion in 2024 construction revenue, up from $5.6 billion in 2023.

This year is going swimmingly too, as Hitt Contracting won a joint contract on Boeing’s $1 billion expansion project in Charleston, South Carolina, and acquired health care construction firm Central Consulting & Contracting, which has managed nearly $1 billion in projects. Hitt’s six-story, 270,000-square-foot headquarters in Falls Church is slated for completion in late 2026.

A Georgia Tech graduate, Hitt has been a major supporter of Virginia Tech, including giving $5 million toward construction of the new Hitt Hall to house the Myers-Lawson School of Construction, where he serves on the industry advisory board. Hitt also supports multiple charities, including Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Breakthrough T1D and the Wounded Warrior Project.

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In 1982, Clarke not only graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering; he also founded MEB General Contractors, a full-service construction firm and master builder. Previously president, he transitioned to CEO and chairman when David M. Ervin was promoted to president in January 2024.

Launched with a handful of employees as a small federal government contractor serving military installations across the Hampton Roads area, MEB has since grown into a 380-employee firm with $136 million in revenue for 2023.

MEB’s portfolio includes projects such as the Greater Williamsburg Sports and Events Center, a 200,000-square-foot basketball and volleyball venue under construction, and the 285,000-square-foot Virginia Beach Sports Center. MEB also completed the Norfolk Ohio Creek Watershed National Disaster Resilience Project, which won the Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate‘s 2023 Award of Excellence for Best Sustainable Project.

Clarke received the Virginia Tech Myers-Lawson School of Construction’s Outstanding Service Award in 2010 and represents Virginia Beach on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission.

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In September 2024, Wills was tapped to succeed Don Graul as CEO. The construction company with clients throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast has more than 1,400 employees and reported 2024 revenue of

$781.79 million. Branch’s CFO from 2017 to December 2024, Wills also was CFO at M+W Americas, a global engineering, procurement and construction firm.

In June, Branch was recognized by the Carolinas Associated General Contractors with its Community Impact Award for Branch’s work in disaster response and recovery in North Carolina following the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Roads & Bridges magazine named the NC 540 Triangle Expressway, a Branch project, its No. 1 road of 2024.

A Texas State University alum, Wills earned his MBA from Regis University. He serves on the boards of Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley and Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor.

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Bain became Long & Foster’s president and CEO in 2023. Founded in 1968, Long & Foster has more than 7,000 real estate agents across seven states and Washington, D.C. Bain joined Long & Foster in 2010 as president of its insurance and home warranty businesses.

Berkshire Hathaway affiliate HomeServices of America acquired Long & Foster in 2017, and in 2018, Bain took on oversight of Long & Foster Property Management and Long & Foster Rental Service Center. Bain rebranded the property management business as HomeServices Property Management in 2022, and in early 2022, launched Insight Home Inspections.

In March, HomeServices of America denied reports that it was in talks to be sold to Compass, the Washington, D.C., region’s largest real estate brokerage by sales volume.

Long & Foster completed 34,000 transactions in 2024. Prior to joining Long & Foster, the Allegheny College graduate served as vice president and general manager for Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Insurance Services. He founded internet insurance startup InsRateDirect.com in 1998 and was managing partner at the McDonnell Bain Group.

He negotiated both companies’ sales to larger insurance companies in 2002.

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Founder of the 40-year-old Comstock organization, Clemente is the son-in-law of NVR founder Dwight Schar, who is a co-owner of Comstock Partners with Clemente. Both are major shareholders of Comstock Holdings, which is among the mid-Atlantic’s largest developers of mixed-use and transit-oriented developments. Comstock’s 2024 revenue was $51.3 million, with a managed portfolio of 72 properties.

It’s best known for developing Reston Station, the 10-acre, mixed-use development near Reston’s first Metro station. The 28-floor JW Marriott Hotel and Residences on The Row at Reston Station, a 243-room hotel that will include 93 condos, is set to open in September. Comstock also filed a plan in March to expand Reston Station into a 130-acre development with new residential and commercial buildings.

Starting in 2023, the company has advocated building a casino in Fairfax County, which requires action by state legislators. Three years in a row, bills have failed, but boosters have voiced hope for progress in 2026. Clemente blamed an “out-of-state special interest group” for the defeat in February without specifically

naming MGM, which owns the MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino in Maryland.

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A five-decade Hampton Roads real estate veteran, Wolcott leads a residential real estate and property management company created by the 2023 merger of Rose & Womble Realty and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Towne Realty.

With more than 750 agents across southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, the firm has the backing of TowneBank and is a licensee of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway luxury real estate franchise.

In December 2024, the brokerage issued a public apology as part of a housing discrimination settlement with Dr. Raven Baxter. In May 2024, the white, 84-year-old owner of a Virginia Beach condo tried to cancel the residence’s sale after discovering Baxter was Black. RW Towne Realty represented the condo’s owner in the sale. The seller (whom Wolcott previously described as “horribly misguided”) and the brokerage reached a settlement with Baxter, who ultimately purchased a different home.

Wolcott is president of the Real Estate Information Network board, the region’s multiple listing service. She also serves on TowneBank’s Virginia Beach regional advisory board. A past Virginia Realtors president, she received a 2019 lifetime achievement award from the Hampton Roads Realtors Association.

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A Hampton Roads native, Holland started Atlantic Bay in 1996, three years after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Old Dominion University. Today, the mortgage lender has served more than 180,000 homeowners across the country, and Atlantic Bay employs more than 800 people at 138 branch offices in 17 states.

Holland maintains close ties to ODU, serving as a member of its board of visitors and a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation’s board of trustees. Additionally, Atlantic Bay has naming rights for the football game day complex at the university’s stadium.

The company also contributes to community organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeast Virginia, as well as holding an annual week of service while Atlantic Bay employees take time to do service projects.

Holland created the AB Cares program for civic causes, as well as employment wellness initiatives. In 2006, Holland helped found the Virginia chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization, or YPO, a global leadership group of chief executives.

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