Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: PARKER, DREW

Carter Machinery has deep roots in Virginia, tracing back to 1928, when Robert Hill Carter founded Virginia Tractor in Richmond. The company was the state’s first Caterpillar dealership, and it is still going today as an independent dealer with more than 30 locations. It has more than 2,300 employees in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

Parker is the eldest son of the dealership’s former owner and CEO, Jim Parker, whom he succeeded as CEO in 2018. In 2020, the company purchased Baltimore-based Alban Tractor, expanding the business into Maryland, Delaware and Washington. In June, the company announced it had entered a multiyear partnership with the Washington Commanders, becoming the team’s official equipment partner. It also sponsored a Ducati bike competing in MotoAmerica Superbikes’ competition at the Virginia International Raceway in August.

Carter Machinery runs an apprenticeship program for technicians that gives participants 400 hours of instruction and 2,000 hours of on-the- job training and mentoring, which started in 2022.

Parker holds an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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