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Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: SABATO, LARRY

Virginia’s most notable political pundit, Sabato in 1998 founded the Center for at the University of Virginia, which hosts programs about civic , electoral politics and youth leadership. In 2024, the center broke ground on a $10 million expansion, expected to open in early 2026.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball newsletter makes predictions about electoral races nationwide, including presidential races. The Crystal Ball has maintained a high accuracy rate, although its prediction of a 2016 Hillary Clinton win forced Sabato and staff to admit they “blew it.” In 2024, the prognosticators came to the conclusion that Kamala Harris would edge Donald Trump but noted, “It would not be a surprise if either candidate won.” In January, Sabato was part of a “Jeopardy!” clue during the Tournament of Champions.

A U.Va. graduate and Rhodes Scholar from Norfolk, Sabato serves on the advisory board for U.Va.’s Karsh Institute of Democracy and is a New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 books and a four-time Emmy winner.

INTERESTING PLACE I’VE TRAVELED: The old Soviet Union in December 1976. There were telltale signs of a society already deteriorating badly under authoritarianism and communism.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: WALKER, TOM

Walker launched aerial drone services provider DroneUp in 2016 after spending 17 years as president of software company Web Teks. He also spent nearly 17 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

DroneUp partnered with Walmart in 2021 to deliver items by drone, expanding the retailer’s delivery network, but in December 2024, DroneUp and Walmart cut ties, ending operations and Walmart’s investment in the company.

In August 2024, DroneUp received FAA certification allowing it to expand commercial operations, and in January, it announced a partnership with Toronto-based Volatus to streamline drone-based cargo delivery in the U.S.

In 2022, DroneUp announced it would establish a $20.2 million drone research center at Richard Bland College in Petersburg. It has also partnered with Carilion Clinic and Riverside Health System to deliver medications.

Walker has spoken about the need for a system to coordinate unmanned operations after reports of hundreds of incidents between drones and commercial airlines. He was named a Mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year by EY in 2024.

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2025 Living Legends: HARDEE, CARL L.

In May, Hardee retired as president and CEO of Lawson Cos., the Virginia Beach residential real estate development, construction and management company that focuses on affordable, low-income and market-rate multifamily housing.

He joined Lawson in 1991 as a regional property manager at subsidiary Lawson Realty, then became its president five years later. In 1999, Hardee became the parent company’s vice president and chief operating officer, and in 2016, he was named president and CEO. Aaron Phipps succeeds Hardee as the company’s head. Hardee also serves on TowneBank’s Portsmouth board.

A Gulf War veteran who graduated from Virginia Military Institute, Hardee has spent much of his time outside of work devoted to civic service. He is vice president of Southeast Virginia Community Foundation’s board. In an interview with Multifamily Executive in January, Hardee said he expects to spend more time “serving others and philanthropy,” as well as going on mission trips both locally and possibly abroad.

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2025 Living Legends: MORRIS, NIGEL

In 1994, Morris co-founded Capital One Financial with Richard Fairbank, who remains the credit card giant’s chairman and CEO. Morris served as Capital One’s president and chief operating officer until 2004, when he decided it was time for something new.

In 2007, Morris partnered with Frank Rotman to launch QED Investors, a fintech venture capital platform. Today, the company has invested in more than 250 companies, including 31 unicorns. Investments include Credit Karma, Klarna and SoFi Technologies. QED Investors has about $4 billion under management.

In a June interview, Morris said that Capital One was “the first real fintech,” and with the $35 billion acquisition of Discover, it’s “now the biggest credit card company on the planet.” He advises fintechs to consider working in the consumer lending sector, which continues to be an area of growth.
Morris has been named to Forbes’ annual Midas List, which recognizes the top venture capitalists in the world, for the last five years.

Although Morris grew up in England mostly, he is “at least” half Welsh. In 2023, he became part owner of the Swansea City soccer club in Wales.

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2025 Living Legends: THOMPSON, BRUCE L.

One of Hampton Roads’ most prominent developers and hoteliers, Norfolk native Thompson is best known for developing the Cavalier Resort, which includes the restored historic Cavalier Hotel as well as two new hotels, restaurants and residences on 21 acres at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, a $435 million project.

Thompson opened his first hotel in the early 1980s. Under the name Professional Hospitality Resources (PHR), Thompson’s hotel empire grew. He founded Gold Key as a timeshare company, along with marketing and finance companies to assist with timeshare sales. The privately owned Gold Key | PHR has annual revenues exceeding $140 million and employs more than 2,400 people.

Virginia Business’ 2021 Person of the Year, Thompson has had a long and colorful career, working as a concert promoter and ski trip organizer before entering the hospitality industry. He also has raised money for ALS research in honor of his son, Josh, who died from the disease. Thompson is a member of the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors. He served as state finance chair for friend Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 campaign; the governor attended Thompson’s 2023 wedding in Italy.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: BIDZOS, D. JAMES

A native of Greece, Bidzos is an internet and cybersecurity pioneer and an early advocate for encrypted commercial software. VeriSign, a company he founded in 1995 as a spinoff of RSA Data Security, is the world’s largest internet domain name registration and infrastructure provider. Any address with a .com or .net domain suffix is registered with the S&P 500 company.

More than 368 million domains ending in .com or .net were registered in the first quarter of 2025. In November 2024, the company announced the renewal of its .com registry agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and Warren Buffett purchased 378,000 shares in VeriSign for about $74 million in December, bringing his company Berkshire Hathaway’s total ownership to 13 million shares worth $2.6 billion.

Bidzos began his career at IBM in the 1970s, served as president and CEO of RSA Data Security and co-founded RSA Laboratories, a cybersecurity research organization that created early encryption software.

VeriSign reported revenue of $1.56 billion in 2024, up 4.3% from the previous year.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: USTICA, JOHN

Before being named president and CEO in 2022 of the U.S. contracting arm of German tech conglomerate Siemens, Ustica served as SGT’s senior vice president and chief financial officer. Now, he oversees a contracting firm focused on securing and modernizing infrastructure.
Before joining SGT in 2018, Ustica was a general manager for Siemens’ manufacturing hub in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also led strategic product initiatives for the conglomerate’s global generator manufacturing network.

Ustica is a University of Central Florida graduate and earned an MBA from Rollins College. He serves on the board of the Northern Virginia Technology Council as well as the Professional Services Council. In June, Washington Executive awarded Ustica with its CEO of the Year award for public companies with revenue greater than $100 million and less than $500 million.

In April, SGT announced it had won a spot on a $400 million FBI task order for facility operations and maintenance.

FIRST JOB: I worked on high-performance boats when I was in high school.

NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Went to the top of Pike’s Peak in June and ended up in a snowstorm!

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Education 2025: COLLINS, LANCE R.

Collins came to Virginia from Cornell University in August 2020 to build Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus and aid the commonwealth’s efforts to close a regional tech talent gap.

The first academic building on the Alexandria campus opened earlier this year, but computer science and engineering students started classes in temporary quarters in 2021. Virginia Tech also announced in May it’s setting up a new Institute for Advanced Computing in Alexandria that will be focused on AI, machine learning and quantum computing.

In Collins’ five years with Virginia Tech, the number of its computer science and computer engineering master’s degree students based in the D.C. area has grown to more than 500. Innovation Campus graduate students are part of Virginia’s $1.1 billion Tech Talent Investment Program, which aims to graduate 31,000 computer science and engineering grads in the next two decades.

Collins, who has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2021. He also is a board member for Mitre, a McLean-based not-for-profit research and development company.

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Health Care 2025: DAVIS-HAGENS, PAT

Davis-Hagens has had a busy 2025 as Bon Secours expands its Hampton Roads facilities. The health system opened its Harbour View Center, an approximately $80 million, 100,000-square-foot hospital in Suffolk, in May.

That month, Bon Secours also opened a primary care clinic in Portsmouth, and in June, its women’s imaging center in Portsmouth opened.

Additionally, Davis-Hagens oversees operations at in Franklin, Newport News and Portsmouth, as well as at other Bon Secours facilities in the area. Bon Secours Hampton Roads has about 5,000 employees.

Before taking her current post as president of the Hampton Roads market in 2021, Davis-Hagens was president of The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health in Ohio, part of the national Bon Secours Mercy Health system. She also worked for two decades at Illinois’ Provena Covenant Medical Center in a variety of leadership positions.

A former nurse, Davis-Hagens earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Salem State College in Massachusetts and an MBA from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire.

ON INTEGRATING AI: Very excited! Although scary, we have the ability to improve and enhance care delivery and patient engagement in their care.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: DAHUT, KAREN

Dahut became CEO of , a subsidiary focused on and educational contracting, in 2022. Before joining , Dahut led Booz Allen Hamilton’s $4 billion global business.

Dahut served in the U.S. Navy for six years, including at the Navy Research Institute in Maryland. As a civilian, she worked at the Logistics Management Institute, a Tysons-based nonprofit federal contractor, before joining Booz Allen.

Dahut has a bachelor’s from Mount St. Mary’s University and a master’s degree from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. Named four times to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of top government contracting , Dahut also sits on the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and the Center for a New American Security.

Google Public Sector has a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, a Data & Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence and a Federal AI Solution Factory with Accenture Federal Services, supporting federal agencies. In March, Fortune 500 defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced it is working with Google Public Sector to integrate Google’s generative AI capabilities to enhance national security, and scientific applications.