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Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: HERRING, DEL. CHARNIELE

When Democrats took control of the House of Delegates in 2020, Herring became the first woman and first African American to serve as majority leader. After Republicans retook the chamber following the 2021 elections, she became caucus chair but returned to her majority leader role when her party narrowly reassumed power in 2024.

Early experience with homelessness helped shape Herring’s outlook, and she attended George Mason University through the school’s Student Transition Empowerment Program, which assists disadvantaged students in transitioning to a college environment. Herring later became a lawyer and was first elected to the General Assembly in 2009. She served as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia from 2012 to 2014.

In recent years, Herring has carried several of Democrats’ signature pieces of legislation, including bills to legalize marijuana possession and join Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate carbon market. In 2025, she sponsored an amendment that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, which the House and state Senate passed.

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2025 Virginia 500: Health Care | Biotech | Pharmaceuticals

Education 2025: KELLY, REAR ADM. WILLIAM G. (U.S. COAST GUARD, RET.)

After nearly four decades of service in the U.S. Coast Guard, Kelly became CNU’s sixth president in 2023.

Founded in 1960 as Christopher Newport College, a two-year branch of William & Mary, CNU is a four-year public university with about 5,000 students. The new Science and Engineering Research Center is under construction and expected to open in January 2026.

Before coming to CNU, Kelly served as the 42nd superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where he is a 1987 alum.

Kelly has a master’s degree in instructional systems design from Florida State University and a certificate in human resource management.

His awards include the Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Coast Guard Commendation Medal, Coast Guard Achievement Medal and the permanent Cutterman’s Pin.

Kelly was awarded the Federal Distance Learning Association Diamond Award and served as an adjunct professor at Florida State.

The New York native served as chair of the Coast Guard Academy’s board of trustees, president of the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance’s board of directors and as a member of the NCAA’s Minority Opportunities and Interest Committee.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: WENSINGER, JEREMY

In June 2024, Wensinger suceeded Chuck Prow as and contractor V2X’s president and CEO. Wensinger also serves on V2X’s board of directors. The change follows the 2023 move of V2X’s headquarters from Colorado to Tysons. V2X was formed by the $2.1 billion merger of Vertex and Vectrus in 2022 and has about 16,000 employees.

With $4.3 billion in 2024 revenue, V2X placed No. 737 on this year’s Fortune 1000 list. V2X serves national security, civilian, defense and international clients with solutions related to logistics, operations, and aerospace. In July, the Air Force awarded the company a potential $4.3 billion T-6 aircraft support contract.

Wensinger, who previously served as Peraton’s chief operating officer, has more than three decades of experience as a defense and contracting executive. He started his career at Harris Corp. and also was president of PAE’s National Security and Solutions business, chief operating officer of GTSI, and chairman and president of Cobham Defense Systems.

Wensinger has degrees from Bowling Green State and the University of South Florida.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: GILLILAND, AMY

As president of General Dynamics Information Technology, Gilliland oversees roughly 30,000 employees. She joined parent company General Dynamics in 2005 and became GDIT’s president in 2017.

GDIT reported $8.75 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, contributing to General Dynamics’ overall revenue of $47.7 billion. The company has logged several high dollar contracts in recent years, including a potential $5.6 billion 10-year Air Force contract to support mission partner environmental operations announced in November 2024. GDIT also acquired Florida AI firm Iron EagleX in 2024, and in February, the company won a potential five-year, $1 billion contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to support cloud-based infrastructure.

Gilliland started a mental health campaign called “How are you, really?” at GDIT in 2021 after an employee’s suicide. GDIT partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2024.

A former Navy surface warfare officer, Gilliland has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and master’s degrees from Cambridge and Georgetown . She serves on the boards of BNY Mellon and The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and works to raise awareness for Rett Syndrome.

Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: JONES, KHALID

Following his appointment by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024, Jones took the helm of the Virginia Lottery, an agency whose responsibilities continue to grow as the state embraces more forms of gambling.

Besides overseeing traditional scratch and draw games, the state lottery has been charged with regulating casinos and internet sports betting. For fiscal 2024, the Virginia Lottery reported record-breaking revenue of $5.5 billion, and for the calendar year, the state’s three casinos raked in nearly 32% more in adjusted gaming revenues than in 2023. Two more casinos are under construction in Petersburg and Norfolk.

An attorney, Jones previously was a partner at All American Licensing, a sports and entertainment branding, marketing and licensing firm, and SourceRock Partners, an investment firm focused on real estate, media, sports and technology.

Jones, who hails from Little Rock, Arkansas, holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Stanford Law School. He also co-founded several businesses, including the now-disbanded esports organization Echo Fox, as well as consulting firm Kolier Group, whose clients included the Multi-State Lottery Association, Paramount Global and Universal Music Group.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: GEVEDEN, REX D.

Headquartered in Lynchburg, manufactures reactors, fuel and components; develops and manufactures microreactors for national security and space applications, and provides nuclear technical services at labs and facilities.

Geveden joined BWXT in 2015 as its chief operating officer before becoming CEO in 2017. He previously was an executive at Teledyne Technologies and a chief engineer and associate administrator at NASA.
A Fortune 1000 company, BWXT has approximately 8,700 employees — including about 2,840 in Virginia — and reported $2.7 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue, up from $2.49 billion the previous year.

In February, the company announced it had received $2.1 billion in Navy contracts to manufacture nuclear components for Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, and in July, it won an additional $2.6 billion in Navy contracts for nuclear reactor components.

In early 2025, the company also completed its $100 million purchase of L3Harris’ Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, in Jonesborough, Tennessee; in

April, it bought land in Tennessee for a centrifuge plant. Geveden has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Murray State University. He’s chairman of the board for TTM Technologies and is a trustee for the Research Association.

Education 2025: GUIDERA, AIMEE ROGSTAD

In 2021, Guidera was the first state secretary appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a signal of the importance he placed on the post.

A proponent of charter schools and parental involvement in , Guidera is responsible for leading the state’s public schools and has significant influence on postsecondary institutions, including the Virginia Community College System. In 2022, the state began establishing K-12 lab schools — public, nonsectarian schools based at and .

Her tenure has not been without controversy, including pushback over what critics see as anti-transgender state policies in public schools and history curriculum revisions involving teaching about race. In March, she issued a memo urging Virginia-based institutions that receive federal funds to review all policies to ensure compliance with President Trump’s executive order on Title VI and race-based practices.

Guidera was the founder, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign, a nonprofit focused on using student testing data to improve schools.
Before founding DQC, Guidera was director of the Washington, D.C., office of the National Center for Educational Achievement and vice president and chief of staff for the National Alliance of Business.

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Energy 2025: PIERCE, SHANNON O.

A Surry County native, Pierce succeeded Robert Duvall in April as leader of the utility serving more than 310,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Southeastern Virginia.

Pierce didn’t grow up dreaming of working in , the field where she’s spent her entire career.

Fresh out of the University of Virginia School of Law, Pierce took a job at McGuireWoods in the energy and practice group. From there, she moved to Georgia to work as counsel at AGL Resources, which was purchased in 2016 by VNG’s parent, Southern Company Gas.
Pierce is happy to have landed in the industry.

“The work is always fascinating,” she said in a Virginia Business interview in 2024. “It’s tangible in terms of having a purpose. Our mission [is] to enrich the lives of the customers that we serve and make sure that they have the energy that they need for their lives and for our economy.”

In May, VNG broke ground on its $50 million operations headquarters in Chesapeake. In July, the Chesapeake City Council approved zoning for VNG’s proposed compressor station. The State Corporation Commission will next consider approval.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: LEVY, DAVID

In 2023, Levy was tapped to lead Amazon Web Services’ worldwide public sector business, overseeing contracting activities for Amazon.com’s cloud computing subsidiary, as well as business for educational, nonprofit and organizations.

In 2024, AWS recorded $107.6 billion in net sales, increasing 19% year-over-year from 2023 and surpassing $100 billion for the first time.

In January, AWS and McLean-based Fortune 500 government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton announced a partnership to speed digital transformation for U.S. federal agencies, including enhancements using artificial intelligence in national security and deterring cyberattacks. That comes as the Trump administration has sought to improve government efficiency while slashing costs.

Levy previously served as AWS’ vice president of U.S. government, nonprofit and health care business. Before joining AWS, he spent 12 years at Apple, leading teams that helped the U.S. government adopt new mobile technologies. Levy also worked for Monster.com, started Empire Capital

Management and co-founded Sulla Technology Group, where he served as chief operating officer.
Earlier this year, the Texas Tech University alumnus made Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Awards list for the sixth time.