Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

2026 Va. Leadership on the move: David Wajsgras

David Wajsgras became head of cybersecurity company Everfox in January. Formerly known as Forcepoint Federal, Everfox serves U.S. and foreign government agencies. With more than 25 years of senior leadership experience across commercial and defense sectors, Wajsgras most recently was CEO of McLean-based satellite communications company Intelsat. He succeeded Sean Berg.

2026 Va. Leadership on the move: Josh Wilson

At the start of the year, Wilson took the reins at LMI, succeeding Doug Wagoner, who transitioned to the role of chairman on the company’s board. A former U.S. Army officer who served two tours in Iraq, Wilson joined LMI in 2014 as a program manager. He previously served as president of markets, growth and technology at the government consulting firm since 2023. ■

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: CHRISTOPHER J. NASSETTA

Nassetta is the longtime president and CEO of one of the world’s largest companies. Hilton has a portfolio of 9,400 properties in 146 countries and territories, and about 500,000 employees worldwide.

Nassetta joined Hilton in 2007 after investment firm Blackstone acquired the company in a $26 billion deal. Hilton went public again in 2013, and by the end of 2022, Nassetta had more than doubled the company’s footprint.

Hilton ranked No. 380 on the list last year. The company reported $11.17 billion in revenue for 2024, up from $10.23 billion in 2023.

A University of Virginia alumnus, Nassetta spent 10 years at Host & Resorts, serving first as chief operating officer and then as president and CEO before taking the helm at Hilton.

Nassetta is immediate past chair of the U.S. Travel Association. He sits on the powerful board of directors for the Business Roundtable, the association of the nation’s top CEOs, and he turns up regularly on CNBC and other national media outlets.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: PHEBE N. NOVAKOVIC

Novakovic has led , one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, since 2013. During her tenure, General Dynamics, with Newport News Shipbuilding as a subcontractor, won the Navy’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract, worth up to $24.2 billion, to build nuclear submarines.

The Fortune Global 500 company employs over 100,000 people and reported $47.7 billion in 2024 revenue, up 12.9% from 2023. Ranked No. 36 on Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in business list in 2025, Novakovic is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

The company and its subsidiaries, which include General Dynamics Information Technology, continue to win large contracts. In November 2025, its Electric Boat subsidiary won a $2.3 billion Columbia-class submarine contract from the Navy, and another unit, NASSCO, received a $1.7 billion contract to build Navy vessels. In January, General Dynamics’ stock rose 3% after President Donald Trump proposed a $1.5 trillion military budget.

A corporate director for JPMorgan Chase, Novakovic chairs the board of the Association of the United States Army.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: EDWARD A. PESICKA

In 2019, Pesicka became CEO of logistics and supply company , which was rebranded at the start of the year.

The company saw some major changes in 2025, announcing in October plans to sell its largest segment, Products & Healthcare Services, for $375 million to Platinum Equity, a California private equity firm. Pesicka said the corporation plans to focus on its Patient Direct service, which provides home medical equipment and has proved profitable. Although Accendra was ranked No. 395 on the 2025 Fortune 500 list, the company is expected to fall off the list this year after the segment’s sale.

In June 2025, Accendra announced it had backed out of a $1.36 billion deal to buy Rotech Healthcare Holdings, a Florida-based home health care business. The company paid a termination fee of $80 million in cash.

A Muskingum University and Case Western Reserve University graduate, Pesicka previously held several leadership roles in his 15-year stint at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: KIM ROY

In 2017, Roy became the first nonfamily member to lead the then-80-year-old Hitt company. Interested in building from a young age, she graduated from with a bachelor’s degree in and joined Hitt in 1999 as an assistant project manager.

Founded in 1937, Hitt has more than 2,000 employees across 14 U.S. office locations. The company reported $8.7 billion in 2024 revenue and ranked No. 10 on Engineering News-Record’s list of the top 400 general contractors in 2025, jumping 16 spots from 2024.

Hitt’s recent projects include a $1 billion expansion of Boeing’s facilities in Charleston, South Carolina. In January 2025, Hitt broke ground on its new six-story, 270,000-square-foot headquarters in Falls Church, expected to be completed late this year.

Roy is also president of Foundation, a nonprofit she helped launch focusing on the company’s philanthropic initiatives, and she serves on Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering advisory board.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: HORACIO D. ROZANSKI

Rozanski leads global management, technology, engineering and consulting firm , the largest provider of AI services to the federal government. Booz Allen employs about 29,600 people worldwide and reported fiscal 2025 earnings of $12 billion.

Born in Argentina, Rozanski started out at Booz Allen as an intern in 1991, working his way up to president and CEO in 2015.

Federal spending cuts led to Booz Allen laying off 7% of its workforce in May 2025 and announcing more layoffs in October after a weak quarter. Rozanski also said the company would restructure to cut $150 million in annual costs.

Meanwhile, the company announced plans to relocate its headquarters from McLean to a new, smaller building in Reston in 2027, and it tripled its $100 million venture capital commitment, intending to invest in more defense tech startups.

Nevertheless, Booz Allen continues to land major contracts, including a combined $1.2 billion in awards last spring from the Air Force and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: TIMOTHY SANDS

Sands became the land-grant university’s 16th president in 2014, and he is under contract to stay through 2027.

He has led the development of ‘s $1 billion campus in Alexandria for graduate computer science and engineering programs. The campus’s first academic building opened for classes in January 2025.

Virginia Tech has received notable donations in recent years, including $50 million from Boeing and two $50 million gifts for the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke. In December 2025, the university received a $20 million anonymous donation toward its athletics department.

Sands previously was executive vice president for academic affairs and provost of Purdue University. Trained as a scientist whose research focused on light-emitting diodes, he holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sands is chair of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, which maintains oversight over the division’s finances, litigation and infractions process. His two-year term ends in August.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: KENNY SMITH

In the musical chairs game that is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.’s C-suite, Smith was named CEO in mid-December 2025. He succeeds interim CEO Michael Hutchins, ‘s president, who took over for Diana Reid after she was fired in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Reid herself had been at the helm of the mortgage provider, Virginia’s highest ranked company on the , only six months before her dismissal. William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has made moves toward initiating public offerings for both entities.

Smith, a CPA who spent 27 years at Deloitte Consulting and is a Texas Tech graduate, also serves on Freddie Mac’s board. Freddie Mac was listed at No. 80 in the Fortune Global 500, with $122 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, a 13% rise from 2023. The business was ranked No. 38 on the 2025 Fortune 500.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: STEVE SCHORER

Schorer took on the top leadership role at Reston-based in 2024.

Peraton is a portfolio company of Veritas Capital and has more than 17,000 employees. Schorer previously served from 2017 to 2021 as CEO of Alion Science and Technology, which Huntington Ingalls Industries purchased for $1.65 billion from Veritas, and he served as a senior adviser for Veritas before taking the lead at Peraton. He was president of DynCorp International.

In June 2025, Peraton filed a protest after the U.S. Strategic Command awarded a $1.5 billion task order to Information Technology, but it lost the protest last September. The company’s 2025 revenue is expected to be about $8 billion, with a slight decrease from 2024 possible.

In October 2025, Peraton filed notification with the state that it intended to lay off 92 staffers at its headquarters in December.

Schorer has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and completed executive management training at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Return to 2026 Virginia Power 50 list