Founded in 1972, Kastle Systems is a building and security systems provider that employs 700 people, including over 100 Virginians.

An investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ein also is a minority owner of the Washington Commanders, which plans to build its new stadium on the RFK Stadium site.

In March, Kastle bought a majority stake in Sterling-based building security company i2G Systems. Although the company did not disclose financial terms, Kastle officials said this was its largest ever investment.

Ein is founder and owner of MDE Sports & Entertainment, which owns the management rights of the Mubadala Citi DC Open tennis tournament through its MDE Tennis company, the Washington Justice esports franchise and Washington City Paper. Ein also started the Washington Kastles, a World TeamTennis franchise.

Arguing for an upgrade to the Rock Creek Tennis Center, where the Citi Open is played, Ein has proposed adding more tennis courts and a community center to the property.

Before starting his firm, Ein worked for the Carlyle Group, Brentwood Associates and Goldman Sachs. He received a bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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In 2023, Hyder succeeded Stewart D. Roberson as president and CEO of the architecture firm, as Roberson stepped into the board chair role. Hyder was no newcomer; he joined Moseley in 1993 after earning his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture. In the past 30 years, Hyder has served as an architect, operations manager and leader of the firm’s higher education sector, as well as vice president and secretary of Moseley’s board.

The 12-office architectural firm founded in 1969 serves clients in the K-12, higher education, civic, justice, senior living and multifamily housing sectors. This year, the company rebranded to the singular Moseley from its previous name of Moseley Architects, and it appointed five new design principals who focus on strategic planning and establishing firm-wide design standards. The firm is involved in major projects at Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University, as well as out-of-state ventures.

Moseley was listed fourth on Building Design & Construction‘s rankings of the nation’s largest senior living facility architecture and justice facility architecture firms for 2024

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Fiorillo began his career at ECS in 1993 as a field technician. In 2020, he was promoted to president of the ECS Group after serving as chief operating officer.

Founded in 1988, ECS focuses on geotechnical, construction materials, environmental and facilities engineering; it has grown to more than 100 offices with over 2,900 employees spread across the country. In April, it was ranked No. 66 in Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms, and in May, Zweig Group ranked it the 50th fastest-growing architecture, engineering and construction firm across the U.S. and Canada on its Hot Firm List. Additionally, it was No. 144 in Engineering News-Record’s Top 200 Environmental Firms list released in October 2024.

As president and CEO, Fiorillo leads the development of the organization’s long- and short-term strategies and manages overall operations.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Auburn University, received his MBA from George Mason University and earned his master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida. Fiorillo serves as board chair for the nonprofit U.S. Hunger.

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Novack has been president of Balfour Beatty’s building operations in the mid-Atlantic since 2023, tasked with providing strategic oversight for construction operations in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Pennsylvania.

He has been with the Dallas-based contracting and management company for more than two decades, providing operational support for approximately $2.5 billion in projects. Novack has been involved with a variety of major projects, including the Virginia State Capitol’s visitors center, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Prince William County, NPR’s headquarters in D.C., and a new gate at Dulles International Airport.

In March, Novack won the American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington’s outstanding division leader award.

Balfour was the project manager for two residential towers at 2000 and 2001 S. Bell St. in Arlington County, known as Valen and The Zoe, that started leasing a few months ago. They offer a combined 775 units, as well as 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Novack graduated from Alfred State College in New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management, and George Mason University, where he completed his MBA.

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With more than 30 years in the commercial real estate industry, Johnson started working for The Staubach Co. in 1995, ultimately serving as president for the mid- Atlantic region until the firm merged with JLL in 2008.

A Fortune Global 500 commercial real estate and investment management company, JLL helps clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. Its reported revenue for 2024 was $23.4 billion, a 13% increase from 2023. JLL has operations in more than 80 countries and more than 108,000 employees.

Johnson says the most rewarding part of his career has been mentorship and education. Through his work with JLL University, the comprehensive training course the company provides for new brokers, he’s had the opportunity to shape the curriculum for younger generations and help shepherd the careers of younger brokers.

Johnson has served JLL clients from offices in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., for the past 15 years. A University of Maryland graduate, Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international development.

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Named CEO in 2022, Faulkner previously served as chief operating officer and president of property management for Breeden, which has about 425 employees in Virginia.

Previously, Faulkner was president and COO of Lawton Lumber, and he also worked for American Coating Technologies and Procter & Gamble. As Breeden’s CEO, he oversees a real estate development and property management company founded more than 60 years ago by Ramon W. Breeden Jr., whom Faulkner succeeded as CEO.

The company has a portfolio of more than 25,000 apartments and 2 million square feet of retail and office space. Breeden appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in 2022 and 2023, with 205% growth attributed to expansions in its third-party construction and property management divisions. In October 2024, Breeden’s $66 million apartment complex Pinnacle on 31st Street in Virginia Beach opened.

A West Point graduate who served in the Army as a platoon leader and personnel officer, Faulkner is a past chair of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s board, and he says that supporting animal protection organizations and protecting the Hampton Roads region from sea-level rise are priorities for him.

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Jennings is the third generation to lead the general contracting firm, which was started as a masonry firm in 1952 by his bricklayer grandfather, Lawrence Floyd Jennings. Larry Jennings, L.F.’s son and Jon’s father, joined the company in 1965 and helped expand the business into general contracting.

In the 1980s, the company made another shift, building a backlog of large-scale private projects for commercial developers. Today, Jon Jennings oversees about 350 employees and a large portfolio of projects in the Richmond and Washington, D.C., regions. L.F. Jennings’ fiscal 2024 revenue was approximately $405 million.

The firm serves the mid-Atlantic, with offices in Cary, North Carolina, Falls Church and Richmond; clients include Target, Whole Foods Market, Federal Realty Investment Trust and Trammell Crow.

Current projects include the New Manchester Flats VI in Richmond and The Henley, a multifamily development in North Carolina.

Richmond’s Mutual on Main apartments, a 168-unit property that emerged from the renovation of the Mutual Assurance Society Building constructed in 1905, won three awards for adaptive reuse and historic restoration.

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Founded in 1965 by Peterson’s late father, Milt, Peterson Cos. is responsible for some of the most prominent

and successful mixed-use retail, residential and office developments in Northern Virginia and Maryland, including Fairfax Corner, Fair Lakes, National Harbor, Burke Centre and Tysons McLean Office Park.

Peterson, who became executive committee chairman in 2016 and CEO in 2018, helms the 170-employee real estate development firm, which also develops self-storage and industrial projects, including data centers. In May, the CIA purchased a 10-story office building in Chantilly for $246.4 million from Peterson Cos.

The Peterson Family Foundation made significant donations in 2024, including a $20 million gift to Inova Health System and a $5 million donation to George Mason University to renovate its Concert Hall auditorium.

A 1986 Middlebury College graduate, Peterson serves on George Mason’s board of visitors and the boards of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and Youth for Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization started by former NFL coach Joe Gibbs.

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Divaris co-founded his real estate firm more than five decades ago in South Africa, where he earned degrees in accounting and real estate marketing, and then brought the company to Virginia

in 1981. The following year, Divaris Real Estate, one of the companies now under the Divaris Group umbrella, opened its doors in Virginia Beach.

Today, the firm manages or leases more than 40 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space nationwide under subsidiary Divaris Property Management. Divaris Group has offices in Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke, as well as North Carolina, California and Washington, D.C.

In March, the company announced that the Virginia Beach Town Center, a property Divaris and Armada Hoffler started building in 1986, is now 99% occupied, with Clark Nexsen, Kimley-Horn and Associates and other businesses renewing and expanding their leases in five towers.

The Divaris Group continues to be a family business, with Michael Divaris, Gerald’s cousin and co-founder, as president and Tony Divaris, his nephew, as chief operating officer.

In 2024, Divaris Real Estate acquired S.T. Burke Retail Partners in Philadelphia.

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While a student at George Washington University in 1974, Kettler got his start in real estate by remodeling apartments. A third-generation builder and the product of a long line of real estate developers, he left school to focus on work. After discovering a passion for community development, he founded real estate development company Kettler in 1977.

On the advice of the late Fairfax developer John “Til” Hazel Jr., Kettler, then in his early 20s, bought up as much land in the county as he could. His first big development was Sully Station in Centreville, a 3,000-home community. Since then, Kettler has been involved with developing major Northern Virginia projects such as Tysons Corner Center, The Boro and One Loudoun.

With a mission to build planned communities with access to transit and infrastructure, his company has developed more than 30,000 multifamily units, 10 million square feet of commercial space and over 75,000 homes in 40 master- planned communities, as well as numerous mixed-use communities in the Washington, D.C., area.

In 2024, the Leesburg Town Council approved the town’s first data center project, a 33-acre, 54-megawatt proposal from Kettler and partner Springfield East.

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