New York-based Arkay Packaging Corp., a major folding carton manufacturer, plans to spend $11 million to upgrade equipment and expand its Botetourt County operations, a projected that is expected to create 50 jobs.
Founded in 1922 Arkay provides packaging for cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies. The company has a 140,000-square-foot plant in Botetourt, which it opened in 1996.
The company also has a location in Hauppage, N.Y.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Botetourt County to secure the project. Funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
Wegmans Food Markets announced the grand opening dates Thursday for its two locations in greater Richmond. These are the first Wegmans to open in the region and the first during the company’s 100th anniversary in 2016.
Wegmans Midlothian, a 115,000-square-foot store, will open at Stonehenge Village Shopping Center on Sunday, May 22. The company’s Short Pump store, a 120,000-square-foot supermarket, is set to open at West Broad Marketplace on Sunday, Aug. 7.
Wegmans said hiring and training is ongoing for both stores. The company is now accepting applications for a variety of part-time customer service and culinary positions across every department. Full-time openings remain for chefs, line cooks, and restaurant service jobs.
Applicants can apply online at www.wegmans.com/careers, or call 1-877-WEGMANS (934-6267) for more information.
“Now is the time to apply. Although our stores won’t open for several months, we bring new employees on board quickly in order to provide best-in-class training,” Wegmans Human Resources Manager Heather Gole said in a statement. “We’re known for putting employees first, offering competitive pay and benefits, and flexible scheduling. Many of our company leaders today cite Wegmans as their first job and went to college with tuition assistance from our employee scholarship program.”
The Wegmans Employee Scholarship Program is a point of pride for the company. Since the program began in 1984, more than 32,000 employees have been awarded scholarships totaling $100 million.
Wegmans Midlothian and Wegmans Short Pump will each employ about 550 people, 500 of whom will be new to the company and hired locally. Both locations will also offer The Pub by Wegmans, a full-service family restaurant within the store, known for fresh, seasonal food and local craft beer.
In an era not so long ago, the only time many companies thought about their employees’ health was when they took a sick day.
Today, with a heightened awareness about the importance of monitoring personal health and health-care costs, wellness has become a watchword for the companies on Virginia Business’ annual list of Best Places to Work in Virginia.
Everything from yoga to massages is on the menu as companies encourage their workers to stretch and bend on the yoga mat, or de-stress on the massage table.
But those are only a few of the ways wellness is being promoted to an increasingly health-conscious workforce.
This is the sixth year that Virginia Business has compiled the Best Places list in cooperation with the Best Companies Group, a Pennsylvania-based firm. Since then, 10 companies have been on the list all six years. Nine have made the list for five years, and 17 have been Best Places for four years. (see chart)
In late 2015, about 150 companies registered to become one of Virginia’s Best Places to Work in 2016. One hundred were selected in three categories: small (15-99 U.S. employees); midsize (100-249) and large (250 or more).
Best Companies Group benchmarked the companies on a list of core values: leadership and planning; corporate culture and communications; role satisfaction; work environment; relationships with supervisors; training and benefits; and pay and overall employee engagement.
Forbes recently reported the results of a 2014 Monster.com survey of 6,800 people, which found that 42 percent of workers left a job because of stressful environments and another 35 percent considered changing jobs because of stress.
About 40 percent of respondents cited exercise as a strategy for reducing stress, and an increasing number of companies have incorporated exercise into their smorgasbord of benefits.
Getting exercise
At mHelpDesk, a technology company in Fairfax, exercise is by the clock. At 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., one of the company’s employees leads an intense, 5-minute workout, welcoming other employees to join.
Vincent Wong, the company’s co-founder and CEO, says the exercise leaders are employees with other duties, but they have been personal trainers, or have had similar roles in past jobs.
At another technology company, HumanGeo in Arlington, a free fitness center in the building offers weight training, treadmills, elliptical machines, showers and lockers for employees.
The Fahrenheit Group, a consulting firm in Richmond, gives its employees ergonomic work stations and alternative furniture such as standing desks and stability balls for seating. In addition, Fahrenheit workers have access to a nearby gym.
Keith Middleton, a co-managing partner at Fahrenheit, says the wellness program is in line with the company’s philosophy of maintaining a proper work/life balance.
“We’ve been able to attract talented people that we might not have been able to otherwise,” Middleton says of the benefits of a coordinated wellness program.
“You’re competing not only on price, but benefits and lifestyle,” Middleton adds.
Another Richmond consulting firm, The Frontier Project, also offers a multi-faceted wellness program ranging from access to exercise equipment to a variety of ergonomic seating choices, such as balance balls in lieu of chairs to encourage employees to get up more and move during the day.
Yoga mats and other equipment also are available for employees to either exercise or practice mindfulness during the day.
Mindfulness is generally defined as a mental state achieved by focusing your awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings and thoughts. It is frequently used as a therapeutic technique.
On the physical side, The Frontier Project has bike racks on-site to accommodate those who cycle to work and to encourage others who might want to.
At the Belvoir Federal Credit Union in Woodbridge, a yoga instructor comes in biweekly for classes after hours, and a Wellness Committee organizes biking, hiking and kayak outings.
Weight loss
The Virginia Credit Union’s headquarters in Richmond has a wellness program that includes a health fair and friendly challenges promoting weight loss, water consumption and walking, among other activities.
In the weight loss challenge, employees pay $15, which is matched by the credit union to create a winning pot for the top competitors.
“Our last challenge saw participants lose 768 pounds, or about 3 percent of the group’s total weight,” says Glenn Birch, director of public and media relations for the credit union.
During a recent four-week water challenge, in which participants are urged to drink water instead of sugary drinks, 318 participants drank a collective 4,853 gallons of water.
Birch says the credit union offers a menu of other wellness-related activities, such as gym membership reimbursement, eight hours of annual leave for getting an annual physical and quarterly “lunch and learn” programs on wellness.
At SimVentions, a Fredericksburg company that focuses on the defense industry, employees can enjoy basketball and weight training at the area YMCA twice a week. Company flag football and coed softball teams in local leagues also are part of the mix, as well as after-work music and jam sessions.
Dynamis Inc., a health-care company in Fairfax, provides free personal training sessions with the CEO’s trainer and has yoga mats, weights, bouncing balls, skipping ropes, in addition to a well-equipped gym in the building, with high-tech exercise machines and towel service, showers, a locker room and 24/7 card access.
At the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), based in Arlington, the company’s free wellness program consists of boot camp, strength training and yoga classes four days a week, both during and after the work day.
Boot camp regimes typically involve both cardiovascular and strength training. “Classes are designed to bring employees together to work out, relieve stress and get to know one another,” says Krista Silano, a company spokeswoman.
All classes are led by certified training professionals and are free to staff.
SRC, a national technology company with an office in Chantilly, says most of its offices offer robust fitness centers at no charge.
For those not in a location with fitness facilities, the company pays for fitness club memberships. SRC also provides on-site bike storage and locker rooms to encourage employees to exercise on a schedule that works best for them.
Fitbit reimbursement Carfax, a vehicle data company based in Centreville, wants the wheels to keep turning on its employees’ fitness. It offers an incentive to help them accomplish that: a Fitbit reimbursement program.
Fitbit is a digital tracker that, depending on its configuration, can help people keep tabs on their activities, exercise, food, weight and sleep.
At its Virginia office, Carfax encourages the practice of “power minutes,” during which employees get up from their desks each hour for at least one minute to get their heart rates up.
At FinFit, a financial education company in Virginia Beach, employees are given an opportunity to push their activity to a new level with a boot camp wellness program offered through Jim White Fitness. The fitness and nutrition studio offers a wide variety of programs that can lead to weight loss or more general fitness.
Accounting Principals, a staffing company with an office in Glen Allen, pays for a triple whammy of wellness programs for employees: gym, weight loss and smoking relief.
Inserso Corp., a technology company in Vienna, provides workers with organized group sessions led by a personal trainer.
Impact Makers, a Richmond consulting company, likes to highlight its lunchtime yoga classes for employees.
The Navy Federal Credit Union provides employees who work in its branch offices up to $300 a year to use toward health- and fitness-related activities. The money can be used for gym memberships or to purchase fitness equipment.
NES Associates LLC, a technology company in Alexandria, offers headquarters employees weekly Zumba and fitness classes, as well as weekly delivery of fruit.
Hitting the trail
For some companies, wellness can mean a brisk walk or run.
At the office of American Global Logistics, a transportation company in Martinsville, employees have access to the Dick and Willie Passage Rail Trail, a 4.5-mile asphalt path that winds through the city. Employees are encouraged to walk, run, bike or even roller-blade their way to fitness.
At Damuth Trane, an energy services company in Chesapeake, workers seeking a fitness boost are directed to the Green Mile, a mile-long painted line in the company’s parking lot, available for walks or runs.
At the Virginia Beach offices of Studio Center, which creates, records and produces commercial media for TV and radio, the company’s facilities are two football fields apart, the perfect distance for a long walk to help employees get their blood stirring.
Studio Center says that regular on-site Ping Pong and Foosball competitions keep their employees on the go.
Independent Container Line Ltd. in Glen Allen sponsors sports and race teams and suggests that employees take advantage of nearby walking trails and volleyball courts.
Meditation sessions
Sometimes workers need more than exercise to feel better, chase the blues away or work at an optimum performance level.
Think meditation.
The Healthcare Distribution Management Association in Arlington is on top of that idea with in-house meditation sessions.
Create Digital Inc., a full-service digital agency in Richmond, also sees the advantages of meditation. It offers yoga, meditation and information about how to create a healthy eating lifestyle.
BOSH Global Services, a technology company in Newport News, has a program, “Thin It to Win It,” that incorporates regular exercise, consumption of fruits and vegetables and weight loss.
If employees think they have trouble sticking to the routine, the company can set up a buddy system to keep everyone motivated.
Medical assessments
Many companies on the Best Companies lists include regular medical assessments of their employees as part of their focus on wellness.
Edward Jones, an investment firm headquartered in St. Louis, offers employees free online assessments and biometric screenings to measure cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure, with up to $1,560 in premium discounts earned for participating, getting good results and not smoking.
Old Point National Bank in Hampton offers workers free blood pressure checks, cholesterol screenings and mammograms annually.
When your job requires a lot of sitting, the body can rebel.
Sitting might have contributed to the lower back pain that has troubled Marty Einhorn, a managing partner with the Norfolk-based accounting firm Wall, Einhorn and Chernitzer P.C.
Heather Sunderlin, director of employee services at the firm, says that Einhorn’s chiropractor suggested that perhaps one of those sit-or-stand desks would help. And it did, she says.
That was about all the motivation the company needed to provide similar desks to all of its employees.
“These desks have motors,” Sunderlin says. “You can raise or lower them with the touch of a button.”
“It’s helped our employees in terms of morale,” Sunderlin says.
The company recently moved into a new space, the 12th floor of the SunTrust building in Norfolk, and designers laid it out to promote collaboration and health and wellness, with a lot of natural light and, of course, the new desks.
Eventually, Sunderlin says, the company will bring in a couple of treadmill desks, so employees can have the option of reading their emails while walking their way to better health.
She adds that the sit-to-stand desks have already prompted a lot of questions from clients who come into the office.
When the treadmill desks arrive — well, who knows what the questions might be?
Sinclair Television Group Inc. is renewing a 100,000-square-foot lease in Monday Properties Twin Towers in Rosslyn for the company’s regional WJLA and News Channel 8 platforms.
According to Monday Properties, Sinclair’s renewal continues an extensive occupancy history at the Towers. In July 2014, Sinclair acquired WJLA and News Channel 8 from Allbritton Communications which had been a Towers tenant for over 15 years. The towers are located at 1000 and 1100 Wilson Boulevard.
Monday Properties President Tim Helmig, whose firm’s regional headquarters resides at 1000 Wilson Boulevard, said in a statement, “WJLA and News Channel 8 have been valued tenants in the Towers for over 15 years and we’re pleased to continue our special partnership with Sinclair. … The Towers proximity to the D.C. region provides Sinclair’s media outlets the ability to cover stories quickly in an unencumbered location that is free from transportation inefficiencies.”
Joe Judge, Mike Rodan, Wendy Blue and Robb Johnson of JLL represented Sinclair Television Group in the transaction. Monday Properties was represented in-house by Helmig, John Wharton and Deniz Yener.
Monday Properties has invested in the towers and recently reopened a renovated 8,000-square-foot fitness facility in the buildings and is offering free access to tower tenants.
That amenity follows infrastructure investment of more than $50 million in improvements that include lobbies, elevators and escalator modernizations, HVAC system and parking garage upgrades in recent years and a planned rooftop deck, The project offers more than one million square feet of LEED gold certified trophy office space.
“This recent robust leasing activity in the Towers is a reflection of the investments we’ve made into providing the modern amenities tenants want,” said Helmig.
With each passing election, government seems to become a little more dysfunctional. Instead of the basic blocking and tackling of lawmaking, what we’re mostly getting is politicians blocking the opposition, but not tackling the issues. Despite a plentitude of campaign-trail promises, meaningful legislation is grinding to a halt.
'Depending on your perspective, you might think this refers either to national politics or to Virginia politics. It applies to both. Virginia’s statehouse has become a microcosm of Dee Cee. What happens in Dee Cee stays in Dee Cee because nothing is ever really accomplished there. Likewise in Richmond, it’s all blocking and no tackling, with progress grinding to a halt.
Still both parties cling to a belief that having a majority will make things different. Let’s see: Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. House and Senate, as well as both houses of Virginia’s General Assembly. Still, it’s apparent that having a nominal majority is not enough to enact most legislation. Maybe that’s because the Republican majority really isn’t in agreement with itself, much less with the Democrats.
On the national scene, the ideological gulf between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seems a lot less wide than the ocean-size chasm between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.
Likewise in Virginia, the difference between state Sen. Dick Black (R-Loudoun) and, say, former state Sen. Walter Stosch (R-Henrico) is a lot greater than just about any two Democrats in the General Assembly. Stosch, along with state Sen. John Watkins, retired in 2015, making it harder to find moderate Republicans in the Senate. When it comes to the House of Delegates, it’s arguable that moderate Republicans have long since left the building.
Contrast this with statewide elections, where Democrats have been victorious in all statewide or national elections since Republican Bob McDonnell was elected governor in 2009. Count them: Barack Obama (second term), Tim Kaine, Terry McAuliffe, Mark Herring, Ralph Northam and Mark Warner. Unable to win on the larger playing field, Virginia’s Republicans have been reduced to being a legislative party.
What’s at work here? At the very least, this is an unintended consequence of gerrymandering. The Republicans win in narrowly crafted districts that discourage local opposition. Incumbents are more afraid of losing in primaries than in general elections. These same districts are irrelevant in statewide races.
What else? Certainly urban versus rural dynamics come into play. The urban areas of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads are packed with Democratic voters and have the population power to determine the outcome of statewide races, while the Republican base resides in less populous, rural areas.
Both of these are good explanations, but other changes are less obvious. It wasn’t that long ago that our nation saw the rise of the tea party. What is less obvious is that the tea party’s most effective route to power wasn’t through launching a third party, but instead through a calculated, systematic takeover and makeover of the Republican Party. Out with the centrists and in with the extremists.
Take, for example, the defeat of Rep. Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, by Dave Brat in the 2014 Republican primary. Brat’s ideology is more libertarian than tea party, but third-party and independent candidates rarely win. Brat defeated Cantor by challenging the powerful incumbent in his own party.
The electoral system proscribed by the U.S. Constitution promotes a two-party system. Our system of winner-take-all elections grants power only to the winning party; any second-place party must have the support of close to half of the population to have any chance of winning. This puts any third party at a significant disadvantage. The U.S. system is unlike proportional representation systems used in Britain and many other countries to ensure representation of minority viewpoints.
More than half of the world’s top 25 economies have multiparty systems that necessitate coalitions between two or more parties to create a legislative majority. The cooperating parties agree to disagree on some things while working to agree on others. This is lacking in Washington. It is also lacking in Virginia. Let’s face it, the all-or-none approach just isn’t working.
Early on, the tea party established itself as a marketable brand, but it had to take its political power through the two-party system. The Republican Party — with its combination of evangelicals, social conservatives, gun rights activists, immigration hawks and fiscal conservatives — was the logical choice. Not with a bang, but a whimper, came the end of moderate Republicans. This bifurcation is preventing an effective majority.
The business community abhors uncertainty, but it also hates a lack of progress. We are currently seeing little change or investment. We have continual increases in health-care costs and entitlements, largely borne by the business community.
Regardless of what you favor, campaign promises from both Republicans and Democrats are largely going undelivered. Citizens aren’t getting what they’ve voted for.
Maybe what we need is a governing coalition.
When Ronald Crutcher stepped down as president of Wheaton College in 2014, he had no plans to stop working but also had no intention of leading another school.
During his 10 years at the Norton, Mass., college, he had increased enrollment, created new academic programs and raised $137.6 million despite the ravages of the Great Recession. Before Wheaton, he had been provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for five years at Miami University of Ohio, his alma mater.
An accomplished cellist who has played with many symphony orchestras, Crutcher thought he was ready for a break from academia, perhaps leading an arts organization instead. But while being interviewed to be president of a major symphony orchestra, “I found myself talking very passionately about some aspects of the educational program for the symphony, and it occurred to me, literally as I spoke, that I hadn’t been that passionate when talking about raising money for classical music concerts,” he says.
I had to really take a step back and think about that,” he adds. “And so, after the interview, I wrote the search consultant and I said, ‘Thanks for the opportunity, but it’s clear to me I don’t have the passion for this job. I think it’s best for me to stay in my own lane.’ ”
Crutcher realized that, although he had been Wheaton’s president during a challenging time for all colleges, the job didn’t seem like work to him. He told his wife, Betty, “If I can find the right school, a school where faculty and staff take their roles as mentors to students seriously, as was the case at Wheaton, I’ll do it again.”
He had one additional requirement: “I wanted a school that didn’t need fixing” culturally or financially.
The University of Richmond fit the bill. In July, Crutcher became UR’s 10th president, succeeding Ed Ayers who had led the school since 2007.
Increasingly diverse campus
Crutcher, who turns 69 in February, believes the 186-year-old Richmond university combines the best qualities of Wheaton and Miami. Wheaton is a private liberal arts college with about 1,600 students, while Miami is a public university with an enrollment of about 16,000. UR, a private institution, has about 4,200 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in five schools. “I like the smaller size, but I also like the complexity we have here” because of the five schools, he says.
UR trustees appear to be equally confident they found the right person for the job. Allison Weinstein, a trustee who co-chaired the search committee, says the candidate pool was strong. Even before committee members met Crutcher, however, they considered him to be in the top tier, she says. On paper, he was a compelling candidate because of his administrative experience and accomplishments in the performing arts.
“Meeting him sealed the deal,” Weinstein says. “He possesses qualities that don’t often go together. He exuded what I would describe as a calm energy. He appeared extremely disciplined and somewhat formal but also managed to show that he is warm and fun-loving.”
Crutcher is the first African-American president at UR, whose student body has become increasingly diverse in recent years. “We have about 23 percent students of color on the campus, and if you include the international students, it’s close to 30 percent. Ten years ago that number was not quite even 10 percent,” says Crutcher, who notes that in coming years nearly half of the students graduating from U.S. high schools will be first-generation Americans and/or persons of color.
A high priority for Crutcher is creating a campus on which students from diverse backgrounds can learn from each other and thrive. He believes, however, that simply recruiting more minorities doesn’t break down barriers. For him, an important part of encouraging diversity is learning how to have a civil discourse among people with differing views.
“The challenge is most young people don’t know how to do that, and I think there are a lot of reasons for that,” he says. “They haven’t had any good models. Certainly the Congress is not a model. Social media also doesn’t help in that regard … What we need to do is find a way to teach our students how to have these conversations, and it means patience. It means focusing on listening skills, understanding.”
Wheaton developed “dialogue action teams,” in which small groups of students from varying backgrounds worked with a facilitator to develop a plan to deal with a certain topic or problem. “The goal is to develop a trust level among the participants so you can have very open and honest conversations,” Crutcher says.
Becoming a ‘flexible learner’
The new UR president also is a staunch champion of liberal arts. He is founding co-chair of Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), a national campaign begun by the Association of American Colleges & Universities to promote liberal arts.
“I think, unfortunately, many people don’t really understand what a liberal education is,” Crutcher says. “They make it either/or. Either you get a liberal education or you get skills for jobs … The way we see it at LEAP is that, in order to flourish in the 21st century, in a global, information-based society where things are changing rapidly, you have to be what I call a flexible learner.”
He notes that, according to one estimate, students who graduated from college in 2010 will have 13 to 16 different jobs by the time they are 40. The experience of Crutcher’s daughter, Sara, seems to confirm that prediction. Since graduating from Hampton University nine years ago, she already has had eight jobs in four cities.
A liberal-arts education, Crutcher maintains, prepares “today’s graduates to deal with solving problems that we’re not even aware of yet, using tools that haven’t been developed yet and approaches that people haven’t thought of yet.”
A collaborative style
The veteran college administrator has a collaborative management style, which reflects the influence of his musical background. For the past 36 years, he has performed in the U.S. and Europe as a member of The Klemperer Trio with violinist Erika Klemperer and pianist Gordon Back. (Klemperer and Back are married and live in London.)
In an ensemble, musicians have no conductor and must negotiate with one another in deciding how to play a piece, Crutcher says — “how fast you go, how slow you go, how loud as well as other nuances of the interpretation.”
“I’m also a good listener, which is important for a leader,” he says. “I know when to assert myself and when to kind of sit back and let other people take the lead. Being a leader is not all about you making all the decisions yourself. You have to have a team of people.”
Highly important to Crutcher is the ability of faculty members to listen to students. That emphasis stems in part from the influence a music professor had in mentoring him when he was a teenager (see related story “An ear for music“.) He is proud to list that focus on students as one of UR’s strengths.
“One of the things that you hear consistently from both current students as well as alums is the fact that faculty here really care about their students and take the time to get to know their students,” Crutcher says. “Any student who graduates from the University of Richmond and hasn’t connected with at least one faculty member to the extent that he or she can get a recommendation from that faculty member has missed an opportunity.”
Patricia Rowland, the rector of the UR board trustees, says that, since arriving at the university, Crutcher and his wife also have been mentoring students, continuing a practice they began at Wheaton. The university president also has formed a relationship with every trustee, she says.
“I think the board just feels we could not have made a better selection,” Rowland says. “This is working out even better than we thought it would. He has emerged as such a great leader.”
The résumé Academic career: 10th president and professor of music, University of Richmond, since 2015; president emeritus, Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., since 2014; president, Wheaton College, 2004-2014; provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, Ohio, 1999-2004; director and Florence Thelma Hall Chair of Music, Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin, 1994-1999; vice president of academic affairs and dean of the conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, 1990-1994; assistant/associate professor of music and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
1979-1990. Education: Bachelor’s degree (Phi Beta Kappa), Miami University of Ohio; master’s degree and doctorate, Yale University Fellowships: Fulbright Fellowship, Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship and Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Honorary degrees: Wheaton College, Colgate University, Muhlenberg College Musical career: A member of The Klemperer Trio and member of the Richmond Symphony board; former member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and several other symphonies; former board member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Berklee College of Music; former president of Chamber Music America. Family: Married to Betty Neal Crutcher, founder and president, Cross Cultural Mentoring Consultants. They have a daughter, Sara, a graduate of Hampton University, who works in advertising in Detroit. Interests: Music, cycling, working out, cooking.
Ronald Crutcher’s career as a cellist, music professor and college administrator began when a music teacher at his junior high school in Cincinnati tested all of the students on their sense of pitch.
The test revealed Crutcher had an excellent sense of pitch, he recalled in a Richmond Times-Dispatch column on the value of a liberal arts education. The teacher then gave him the choice of any instrument to play.
“I chose the cello,” Crutcher said in the column. “I could, in retrospect, conjure some artful, far-seeing reason for this choice, but the truth is that at the time, I was 14 years old and self-conscious about my body, and I reasoned that I could hide easily behind a cello.”
But he couldn’t hide his talent. Just eight months later, he played two movements of a Bach suite at a state music teachers competition. In the audience was Elizabeth Potteiger, a music professor at Miami University of Ohio.
She invited him to attend a music camp at the university. After the camp, she offered to provide Crutcher free lessons on Saturdays if he could find a way to travel each week from Cincinnati to the university in Oxford, Ohio, 35 miles away.
For three years, he made the trip to the university, a three-hour roundtrip on two different bus lines. But the effort paid off. At 17, he won the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. He attended Miami University of Ohio on a merit scholarship and graduated as a member of the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. Crutcher went on to study at Yale where he earned a master’s degree and the first doctoral degree in musical arts awarded to a cellist by the university.
A music professor for many years, he moved into administration while at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the 1980s.
Crutcher returned to Miami University of Ohio as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in 1999 before becoming president of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., in 2004.
He is a former member of his hometown Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and performed with several other orchestras. Since 1980, he has been a member of The Klemperer Trio.
Crutcher will perform in a solo recital in the Richmond Symphony’s summer series on July 7.
Jefferson Lab in Newport News hopes the U.S. Department of Energy will give it the go-ahead to build a $1 billion electron-ion collider.
The facility, formally known as the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, is one of two vying for the project. Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York is also a contender.
A collider is used by researchers to understand what lies inside a nucleus and what holds it together. “It’s a fundamental knowledge that may have no practical importance for 100 or 200 years,” says Andrew Hutton, associate director of the accelerator division at Jefferson Lab. “It’s pure long-term research.”
“At Jefferson, we have an electron machine and would like to add an ion complex. In Brookhaven, they have an ion collider, and would like to add an electron complex,” Hutton says. “We see this as our future, and they see it as their future.”
The Department of Energy is expected to take three years to make its decision, but preparations in Newport News already have begun. The city will provide land for the Jefferson Lab to expand and “to build the electron-ion collier should that [bid] be successful,” says Newport News City Manager Jim Bourey.
The collider project construction would cost about $1 billion, he says. The city expects the economic impact for the region will be approximately $4 billion, with the creation of more than 4,000 jobs, most of them in construction or skilled labor positions, over 10 years.
The city owns half of the 16 acres that would be provided for the lab for its expansion. The remaining half is owned by the Newport News school district, which now has an operations and transportation service center on the property. It would be relocated.
About 1,400 scientists from around the world do research at the lab, helping to boost the local economy. “They live here when they do their research,” says Robert McKeown, the lab’s deputy director for science.
Newport News’ technology sector is on an upswing. “One hundred thirty years ago, Newport News was on the map because of the shipyard [now known as Newport News Shipbuilding]. Now people look at it for Jefferson Lab and high technology,” Hutton says, noting an accompanying change from a blue-collar to a more high-tech workforce. “My job is to make sure Virginians are proud that we are here.”
BAE Systems has notified about 530 employees at its Norfolk shipyard that they could be laid off in March. This workforce reduction, scheduled to take place around March 18, follows 400 layoffs at the shipyard late last year. The Norfolk shipyard employs about 1,075 workers. “These further reductions are necessary to align the Norfolk shipyard with lower demand for its services,” the company said in a news release. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Cincinnati-based retailer Macy’s Inc. has announced the closing of six Virginia stores. Three are in the Richmond area and another three are in Hampton Roads. The stores are among 40 stores that the company is closing nationwide as it tries to reduce expenses by $500 million. The stores in Virginia that are scheduled to close employ nearly 500 workers. They are in Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk and Henrico County. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Mitsubishi Kagaku Imaging Corp. planned to lay off 83 people in Chesapeake, starting in January. In a news release, the California-based company, also known as Future Graphics, said it will close its monochrome toner plant on Volvo Parkway in Chesapeake in March. (The Virginian-Pilot)
The Virginia Beach firm Poole Mahoney PC spun off its family-law practice and changed its name to Poole Brooke Plumlee PC on Jan 1. The new family law firm is Mahoney Nashatka Richmond PLLC. It has five lawyers and is located next to Poole Brooke Plumlee. Among those joining Mahoney in the new firm are partners Shantell Nashatka and Andrew Richmond. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Hampton Roads’ first meadery, Silver Hand Meadery, opened its doors in Williamsburg on Nov. 21. It produces a honey-based alcoholic drink, which was popular in the Middle Ages. (Daily Press)
Portsmouth-based TowneBank plans toacquire Chesapeake-based Monarch Financial Holdings Inc., the parent company of Monarch Bank, in a deal worth $220.6 million. The acquisition would create a $7.3 billion bank with 20.6 percent of bank deposits in the Hampton Roads market. The merger is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
SHEANANDOAH VALLEY
With a long history in producing pork, hog farmer and Shenandoah County Supervisor Steve Baker recently added a processing facility at Baker Farms in Mount Jackson. In the past, Baker had coordinated with a processor a few miles away to prepare his products for distribution. Baker Farms ships out a variety of pork products that are now butchered, smoked and packaged on site. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Kingspan Insulation LLC is planning a $25 million upgrade to its Frederick County facility. The enhancements are expected to create 15 new jobs. Kingspan makes insulation products and systems for building fabric and building services applications. Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $500,000 performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program for the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Obenshain Law Group, based in Harrisonburg, has expanded its trial practice with the opening of a Richmond office and the addition of Lawrence L. “Chip” Muir Jr. Muir will focus on commercial, intellectual property and cybersecurity litigation in addition to white-collar criminal cases. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Edinburg-based Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (Shentel) plans to buy Colane Cable TV in West Virginia for $2.4 million. Founded in 1955 in Omar, W.Va., Colane is a video, Internet and home-phone provider serving the southwestern part of the Mountain State. Shentel’s services include wireless voice and data; cable video, Internet and voice; fiber network and services; and local and long distance telephone. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Funding has been approved by the Waynesboro City Council for a local branch of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. The council voted unanimously to provide an economic incentive of $1 million for the $7.5 million satellite campus. The money is contingent on state and private funding and requires approval from future councils. The Virginia Museum of Natural History’s main site is in Martinsville. (News Leader)
SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
As grading approaches completion, Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre (CCBC) in Henry County already is drawing significant interest from industries, according to Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development President/CEO Mark Heath. Henry County Deputy Administrator Dale Wagoner says the grading project is scheduled to be completed in the spring. (Martinsville Bulletin)
Hardide Coatings has opened a production facility in Henry County — the only one that it currently operates in the United States. Just two people worked there in early January, but the company aims to create up to 29 jobs at the plant in the Bowles Industrial Park during the next three years. Based in England, Hardide makes patented hard-wearing tungsten carbide coatings for customers in the oil and gas and flow control markets. (Martinsville Bulletin)
Martinsville-based Hooker Furniture Corp. plans to acquire the business of North Carolina-based Home Meridian International (HMI) for $100 million. The deal, the largest in Hooker’s 91-year history, is expected to more than double the size of the company and make it one of the nation’s top five furniture companies. HMI is the parent company of five business units, including Pulaski Furniture, Samuel Lawrence Furniture, Samuel Lawrence Hospitality, Prime Resources International and Right 2 Home. HMI is expected to operate as a Hooker division. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Danville Regional Medical Center held a groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 20 for the new Chatham Diagnostic Imaging Center. The imaging center will include digital X-ray, ultrasound and mammography. The facility was also have office space for specialists and LabCare services. The center is expected to begin operating in late summer. (Work It, SoVa)
Southside Virginia Community College (SVCC) will begin offering a new program this year aimed at training students to become power-line workers. Electric utilities expect many of their current workers to retire in coming years. SVCC’s proposal was one of five successful entries in the first Governor’s Competition for Talent Solutions, which was announced last fall. The Power Line Worker Training Program will receive a $200,000 matching incentive grant from the commonwealth. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Daly Seven of Danville was honored with the Marriott Horizon Award. The award “recognizes the best of the best in hotel management companies that partner with Marriott,” according to a news release. Bob Daly, Shelayne Sutton, Charisse Kleinman and Niles Daly of Daly Seven accepted the award Dec. 10 at a Marriott Conference. Daly Seven is a family-owned hotel development and management company headquartered in Danville. (Work It, SoVa)
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
Alpha Natural Resources in January announced plans to sell 23 mines in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois. Alpha filed for Chaper 11 bankruptcy in August amid economic pressures spurred by sharp declines in the sale of both metallurgical and steam coal and stringent government regulations. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Chemical distributor Chemsolv Inc. agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties for two episodes of criminal misconduct at its southeast Roanoke facility. Jamison Austin, vice president and general manager, pleaded guilty on the company’s behalf in December to one count each of unlawful transportation of hazardous waste and unlawful storage of hazardous waste. (The Roanoke Times)
The Virginia Community College System plans to use a nearly $2 million federal grant to retrain approximately 210 workers affected by Alpha Natural Resources layoffs. The U.S. Department of Labor grant will provide re-employment services to former coal industry workers wanting access to jobs in emerging and growing fields. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Starting this fall, select students can earn their medical degree and MBA at the same time through a program developed by Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. Program administrators expect to enroll students in the fall. They will take core MBA courses plus electives in information technology. (The Roanoke Times)
The VT KnowledgeWorks Innovation Challenge is accepting applications through Feb. 19. The annual Innovation Challenge prize provides $100,000 worth of mentorship and business support services to a winning team of Virginia Tech faculty, staff, students and/or alumni proposing to establish a new venture in Blacksburg, based on Virginia Tech-owned technology. (The Roanoke Times)
According to county officials, 2015 was a good year in Sullivan County, Tenn., and in Washington County, Va., including Abingdon. Economic development leaders in all three localities said 2015 was highlighted by new industries and job creation. In Washington County, 500 new jobs will be created as a result of new developments announced in 2015, with $36 million worth of investment. (Bristol Herald Courier)
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Omaha, Neb.-based BH Media Group acquired The Free Lance–Star, its website and print operation from Sandton Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. The Free Lance-Star and its predecessors have served the Fredericksburg area since 1885. BH Media Group now owns 32 daily newspapers as well as related weekly newspapers in the U.S. (The Free Lance-Star)
Arlington-based defense contractor CACI International Inc. plans to acquire Reston-based L-3 National Security Solutions Inc. (L-3 NSS) for $550 million. L-3 NSS is the government services division of L-3 Communications. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Cvent Inc. has sold its consumer-ticketing business, acquired three years ago for more than $5.9 million, to San Francisco-based Vendini Inc. for $3 million. Tysons-based Cvent, an event management software provider, said that selling off that part of its business — at a loss — would enable it to focus its resources on its corporate event management solutions and group business platform for the hospitality industry. (Washington Business Journal)
General Dynamics Corp. plans to move its corporate headquarters from Falls Church to Reston. The defense contractor will relocate to a planned 190,000-square-foot building at 11011 Sunset Hills Road. The site is owned by an affiliate of Boston Properties Inc., according to land records. (Washington Business Journal)
Arlington-based Graham Holdings Co. has launched CyberVista, which strives to help corporate board members and executives understand cyber issues that affect their organizations and provide the tools to oversee and manage those cyber risks. CyberVista also plans to introduce a cybersecurity certification preparation program for practitioners and IT professionals, as well as a continuing education program for practitioners already in the field or looking to get into it. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
HITT Contracting Inc. has acquired Trademark Construction, a 55-employee general contractor based in Houston. HITT, a Falls Church-based general contractor, said the acquisition will strengthen its presence in Texas and expand the firm’s ability to serve clients. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Two major players in Northern Virginia announced a collaboration that aims to advance personalized medicine. Inova, the largest health system in the region, and George Mason University say they will work together to conduct translational research and share resources. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Nexstar to acquire Media General
Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. plans to acquire Richmond-based television station owner Media General Inc. in a $4.7 billion deal.
The deal, announced Jan. 27, follows the termination of a previous agreement between Media General and Iowa-based Meredith Corp.
Meredith will receive the $60 million termination fee and will have an opportunity to negotiate for the purchase of certain broadcast and digital assets now owned by Media General.
The combined Nexstar-Media General company will be based in Irving, Texas, and called Nexstar Media Group Inc.
Nexstar Media will have annual revenue of more than $2.3 billion. It will have 171 television stations in 100 markets reaching about 39 percent of U.S. television households.
Nexstar will acquire all outstanding shares of Media General for $10.55 per share in cash and 0.1249 of a share of Nexstar Class A common stock for each Media General share.
The deal also includes potential additional consideration in the form of a contingent value right. It would entitle Media General shareholders to net cash proceeds from the sale of company’s spectrum in an upcoming Federal Communication Commission auction.
The transaction, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, values Media General at $17.14 per share
The deal is subject to a vote by stockholders of Media General and Nexstar, FCC approval and other regulatory approvals.
Nexstar plans to divest some television stations to obtain FCC approval.
The deal is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter this year.(VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Brink’s Co., a major secure transportation and cash management services company based in Richmond, has reached an agreement with New York-based activist investment fund Starboard Value LP under which three new directors have been added to Brink’s board and two current directors have retired. Brink’s also said that Thomas C. Schievelbein, Brink’s chairman, president and CEO, will retire. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia is moving forward with a plan to speed train travel between Washington and Richmond by 2025. The state’s rail agency and the Federal Railroad Administration are exploring the feasibility of higher-speed rail on the stretch connecting the two cities. Cutting down the travel time between the cities from the current 2 hours and 45 minutes to 90 minutes would make train travel more attractive to travelers in the corridor. Ridership between the cities was 186,268 in the past fiscal year, according to Amtrak. (The Washington Post)
The Lynchburg Regional Chamber merged with the Region 2000 Business and Economic Alliance to become the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance. Megan Lucas has been named the new organization’s president and CEO. (WDBJ7.com)
Martin’s Food Markets will close three of its 22 Richmond-area stores next summer, affecting more than 350 employees. The grocery chain said it plans to close stores in Richmond, Hanover County and Petersburg. According to the company, the leases for the stores are set to expire “and a business decision was made not to extend the leases for these stores.” (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
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Vincent Wong, the company’s co-founder and CEO, says the exercise leaders are employees with other duties, but they have been personal trainers, or have had similar roles in past jobs.
Carfax, a vehicle data company based in Centreville, wants the wheels to keep turning on its employees’ fitness. It offers an incentive to help them accomplish that: a Fitbit reimbursement program.
At Damuth Trane, an energy services company in Chesapeake, workers seeking a fitness boost are directed to the Green Mile, a mile-long painted line in the company’s parking lot, available for walks or runs.