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A practical plan for U.S. 220

Picture an hourglass: Flip the timer over, and the sand at the top funnels through a small opening to pool in the wider receptacle at its bottom.

Now imagine if that hole in the middle were wider; sand would flow more freely.

That’s how business leaders in see the U.S. corridor between and the border. The wider the gap — the more capacity 220 has — the more can flow to destinations north and south.

The Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor, a group consisting of business leaders from Southern Virginia and the Roanoke and New River valleys, wants to grow commerce in the region and, specifically, would like to see improvements made to about seven miles of U.S Route 220 between in and the North Carolina line. 

Virginia lawmakers seem to be on board. In 2023, the General Assembly instructed the to develop a plan to improve the section of road by relocating and regrading southbound lanes, designing safer intersections and extending turn lanes. Expected to be completed this fall, the study will cost about $200,000, money that will come from ‘s state planning and research fund, according to an agency spokesperson.

Del. Eric Phillips, R-Henry, and Jim Frith, chair and co-owner of Martinsville-based Frith Construction, both stress that the area has seen significant economic activity in recent years. This includes Poland-based glass fabricator Press Glass, which invested $155 million to expand at Henry County’s Commonwealth Crossing Industrial Park in 2023.

“When you make stuff, you’ve got to transport it,” Phillips says.

In 1991, members of Congress made plans to establish Interstate 73 as a high-priority corridor that would run from South Carolina to Michigan, but it wound up as a 93.5-mile route limited to North Carolina. Later plans explored extending I-73 to Interstate 81 in Roanoke, but those proposals “just died,” Frith says. “There was just no way it would ever be funded.”

In 2020, VDOT released a study looking at a possible bypass from U.S. Route 58 to the North Carolina line. Building a new interstate and that project would both require more than improving the existing corridor.

And proponents say an improved road is better than the status quo.

“We’re just happy that there’s some forward momentum beginning to happen,” Phillips says.

Associate Editor Beth JoJack contributed to this article.

VIPC partners with VC funds to invest $100 million in 100 startups

The is partnering with seven fund managers to $100 million in 100 Virginia-based .

Through the partnership, announced May 20 by Gov. and named Virginia Invests, will commit $40 million to the seven funds using previously awarded from the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. In December 2022, ‘s office announced that Virginia had been approved for up to $230 million from the SSBCI program, with about $173 million of that going to VIPC.

“The lifeline of a high-growth entrepreneurial ecosystem is the ability to tap into capital,” Youngkin said, “and that’s exactly what Virginia Invests is all about. How do we accelerate growth? How do we amplify good ideas? How do we unleash opportunity by bringing together people who want to invest in all of this and people who need the money to make it go?”

The funding firms have committed an additional $60 million, and they will select the 100 high-growth startups to invest in during the next three to five years. By contract, firms not headquartered in Virginia will have to provide 1.5 times the funding they receive, while firms headquartered in the state will make a 1:1 match, Youngkin told reporters.

“One of, I think, the really important steps was to recognize that picking companies is not something that we should do,” he said. “We should invest in funds that are picking companies, and that also allows us to have the ability, if companies are doing well and more capital is being put to work well, then potentially, we could invest some more. But the resources and the expertise that are represented by these seven funds in particular deep sectors is unique.”

The seven fund managers focus on founders who are typically underserved. They are Washington, D.C.-based 100KM Ventures; New York-based AIN Ventures; Houston-based The Artemis Fund; Portland, Oregon-based The BFM Fund; Chapel Hill, -based Idea Fund Partners; Atlanta-based Valor Ventures; and Tysons-based Veteran Ventures Capital, which recently moved its headquarters from Tennessee to Virginia.

“This is the first round of [funding] commitments. There’ll be more,” Youngkin said.

The nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority, VIPC provides strategic commercialization and funding support to Virginia-based tech startups.  

Out & About July 2024

1. James W. Dyke Jr. with McGuireWoods Consulting received a lifetime achievement from the May 16 in Richmond. L to R (front row): Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don L. Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth; former Gov. Douglas Wilder; Dyke. L to R (back row): Virginia Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, former U.S. Sen. George Allen. Photo by Kaveh Sardari, courtesy Virginia Chamber of .  2. Hollins University held its annual reunion weekend May 31 through June 2. L to R: Mary Ann Harvey Johnson, class of 1967; Agnes Reid Jones Jenny, class of 1944; Mary Clare Abbott, class of 2025; and Hollins President Mary Dana Hinton prepare for the parade. Photo by Anna Logan Lawson, courtesy Hollins University.  3. L to R: Henry Ware, executive sales director at Total Quality , Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander and Hampton Roads Alliance President and CEO Douglas Smith celebrated at a June 4 ribbon-cutting for the freight brokerage’s new Norfolk office. Photo courtesy City of Norfolk.  4. The 25th annual meeting of shareholders at the Convention Center May 22 included a celebration of Judge Richard S. Bray, who died May 4 and was lead director of TowneBank’s corporate board. Bray family members attended, L to R: Bryan Bejarano, Bobby Bray, Oscar Bejarano, Dawn Bray, Shannon Bejarano and Kaylee Bejarano.  5. L to R: Jason Ferguson, Central Virginia Community College’s associate vice president for professional and career studies; Christine Kennedy, Lynchburg Regional Alliance chief operating officer and executive vice president; and Jason Clark, CVCC’s coordinator of CTE initiatives, attended a May 9 business appreciation event hosted by the Bedford County Economic Development Authority at The Venue at 109.

For The Record July 2024

CENTRAL VIRGINIA

Developers broke ground May 30 on The Helios, a $54 million, rent-restricted, solar-powered apartment building in Henrico County, according to an announcement by Bank of America, which is financing construction. A joint venture between Spy Rock Real Estate Group and Crescent Development, both based in Richmond, the apartments will replace an abandoned motel. The project, which is being built on 8.2 acres on Chamberlayne Road, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Three mid-rise buildings with elevators will house 186 units with one to three bedrooms. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Chesterfield County unveiled on June 7 its newly renovated softball and baseball complex at Harry G. Daniel Park, The Diamonds at Iron Bridge. Renovations for the park’s six fields totaled $4.1 million, and funding came from a surplus lodging tax revenue. The complex’s upgrades included resodded fields with better drainage; new fencing, backstops and dugouts; improved seating; increased shade; and repaved parking lots. The June 7 ceremony also kicked off the Starz Gold Summer Showcase, a weekend tournament with more than 60 softball teams from several states. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy announced June 3 it had closed on its$4.3 billion sale of subsidiaries Questar Gas and Wexpro to Canadian pipeline and energy company Enbridge. Salt Lake City-based natural gas utility Questar serves more than 1.2 million customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. Wexpro supplies natural gas under a cost-of-service agreement to Questar. The deal was first announced Sept. 5, 2023, and this sale was the second of three deals between Dominion and Enbridge announced then that has since been finalized. The first was Dominion’s $6.6 billion sale of East Ohio Gas to Enbridge. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Envigo parent company Inotiv was fined more than $35 million on June 3 in relation to the mistreatment of dogs at Envigo’s Cumberland County facility, from which 4,000 beagles were rescued in 2022. An Envigo subsidiary, Envigo RMS, pleaded guilty to conspiring to knowingly violate the Animal Welfare Act, and subsidiary Envigo Global Services pleaded guilty to knowingly violating the Clean Water Act. In addition to paying the largest fine recorded in an Animal Welfare Act case, Inotiv will be subject to increased animal care standards and to a compliance monitor, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (Axios)

The University of Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia will pay $9 million in settlements related to the deadly 2022 shooting on U.Va.’s campus. On May 31, Albemarle County Circuit Judge Claude V. Worrell II approved $2 million settlements for each of the families of slain students D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler. Two U.Va. students who were injured in the shooting, Michael Hollins Jr. and Marlee Morgan, are receiving a cumulative $3 million from two other settlement agreements that did not need court approval. (The Washington Post)

A former manufacturing facility in West Point will come roaring back to life with a $2.5 million investment by West Point Veneer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coldwater Veneer, Gov. Glenn ‘s office announced May 21. West Point Veneer expects to hire 92 people for the facility. Once open, the mill, located at 320 Dupont St., will produce wood veneer and ship it globally via the Port of Virginia. Coldwater Veneer CEO Dean Calhoun originally purchased the mill in 1997. Then, in 2017, Calhoun sold it, and the new owner closed it, according to Coldwater Veneer Chief Financial Officer Allen Frydenberg. He later repurchased it.(VirginiaBusiness.com)

EASTERN VIRGINIA

The $350 million Atlantic Park project backed by music icon Pharrell Williams in his hometown of Virginia Beach is progressing, with the 2.6-acre surf lagoon, entertainment venue and other pieces of the project expected to be delivered in spring 2025, Kathy Warren, Virginia Beach’s planning director, told city councilors May 28. A joint project between Williams and Venture Realty Group, Atlantic Park is supported by about $153 million in city funding and broke ground in March 2023. As of late May, the surf lagoon was about half done, the two parking garages were about 71% done, and the rest of the development was in various stages. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree announced in early June it was considering selling or spinning off its Family Dollar brand, which it acquired in 2015 for $8.5 billion. As of Feb. 3, Dollar Tree was operating more than 8,350 Family Dollar stores but has closed 550 retail locations of both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar as of the end of the first quarter of this year. The move comes shortly after the company’s announcement that it intends to acquire 99 Cents Only, a discount retailer in the western United States. In May, Dollar Tree purchased 170 leases of 99 Cents Only stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On May 22, Dominion Energy kicked off construction of the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, plunging the first monopile into the sea floor for the 176 wind turbines that will be erected 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline.
Also, a federal judge in late May denied a preliminary injunction seeking to halt construction of the wind farm. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by several conservative anti-offshore wind groups, argued that the wind farm construction negatively impacts endangered North Atlantic right whales. (VirginiaBusiness.com; The Virginian-Pilot)

A 90-day task force convened by Virginia Beach City Council found that the Virginia Beach Oceanfront should be reserved for tourism events that would fill at least 1,000 hotel rooms, pushing smaller community events to other parks or venues in Virginia Beach during the resort season. That was one of several recommendations presented May 27 by the task force to guide policies for public spending on the growing number of events in the city. Other recommendations included standardizing the application process to qualify for city sponsorship of a festival, and holding festival producers accountable for spending of city funds. (WHRO)

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Chandler
Chandler

John Chandler has been promoted to president and principal broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Property Management, the Norfolk-based real estate firm announced May 29. Chandler was previously the firm’s director of facilities and compliance and chief operating officer of its property management division, according to his LinkedIn profile. He succeeds his sister-in-law, Lisa Chandler, who announced her retirement in October 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

DeVore

Dustin H. DeVore was named managing partner of Kaufman & Canoles‘ Williamsburg office, effective May 21, the law firm announced. DeVore joined Kaufman & Canoles in 2002 and chairs the firm’s lender representation practice group and its credit union team. DeVore takes over from Gregory R. Davis, with whom he’s worked for the past 22 years. Davis will continue at the firm, where he focuses on trust and estate matters. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

An Ashburn-based tech company, Arthur Grand Technologies, was fined by the Department of Justice in May after it advertised that it was seeking white candidates for an open job posting. The posting was published on Indeed.com in March 2023 and said that the company was only looking for “U.S. Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates],” according to a Justice Department news release. The company must pay penalties of $38,500, and the agreement requires Arthur Grand to train its personnel on the Immigration and Nationality Act. (WTOP; Associated Press)

County-based Boeing received orders for only four new planes in May and, for the second straight month, none for its best-selling 737 Max, as fallout continues from the blowout of a side panel on a Max during a January flight. The results released in June compared unfavorably with Europe’s Airbus, which reported net orders for 15 planes in May — 27 sales but 12 cancellations. Boeing delivered 24 jetliners in May, including 19 Max jets, and it still has a huge backlog of more than 5,600 orders. (Associated Press)

McLean-based Capital One Financial is no longer the exclusive issuer of Walmart consumer credit cards, as of late May. The two companies announced they ended their consumer card agreement, which began in 2019. The announcement followed problems first uncovered in late 2022 and early 2023 by Reuters. In April 2023, Walmart filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end the partnership, and the judge ruled in March that the retailer could end the partnership. Capital One retains ownership and servicing of the credit card portfolio. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Inova Health System raised $83 million over the past year, surpassing the “Schar Challenge” issued by donors Dwight and Martha Schar when they made a $75 million matching gift to Inova in May 2023. More than 10,000 people made donations following the Schars’ gift, bringing the Falls Church-based health system’s total raised over the past year to $158 million, Inova announced in June. Dwight Schar founded Reston-based homebuilder and mortgage banker NVR. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

For the second time this spring, two planes nearly collided at Reagan National Airport in , prompting Virginia’s U.S. senators to again criticize plans to add more long-haul flights at the airport. In May, an American Airlines flight bound for Boston was told to abort its ongoing takeoff procedure as it was about to cross paths with a private plane that had already landed on an intersecting runway. In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner cited the near accident to again speak out against the recent decision to add more flights at DCA. Earlier in May, President Joe Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization package into law. (Washington Business Journal)

After close to two years of litigation, bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy, the Tysons-based business software company he co-founded, agreed in June to pay $40 million to resolve a tax fraud lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C.’s attorney general. It’s the largest income tax fraud recovery in the district’s history, according to a news release. The lawsuit alleged Saylor claimed to live in Virginia, a state with a lower income tax, and Florida, a state with no personal income tax, to avoid paying more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia. Saylor and MicroStrategy deny violating D.C.’s tax laws and admitted no wrongdoing. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Boxer Gifts, a British manufacturer of specialty, often wacky gifts, including the “poo timer” and “old-age emergency pants,” will $1.4 million to establish its first U.S. light manufacturing, distribution and wholesale operation in Harrisonburg, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced May 28. The project is expected to create 15 jobs. The specialty gift shop plans to retrofit a 10,000-square-foot warehouse on 0.74 acres at 955 Sawtooth Oak Circle that it purchased March 15 for $640,000, according to Boxer Gifts President Thomas O’Brien. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On May 29, a federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to a total of 168 months — 14 years — in prison for committing financial crimes against the EDA: 144 months for 29 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, and 24 months for one count of aggravated identity theft. A jury convicted McDonald on Nov. 1, 2023, of charges related to accusations that she used millions of dollars of EDA money without the authority’s board of directors’ permission for her own benefit. She was arrested on the charges in late August 2021. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

RideSmart, a Front Royal-based commuter service, began providing bus service on weekdays from Clarke County to Rosslyn and Washington, D.C., in May. The company held a May 15 in the Waterloo Park & Ride lot on U.S. 50. RideSmart is using a $1.5 million grant over five years from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public to cover costs to provide the bus service, which Todd Horsley, DRPT’s director of Northern Virginia transit programs, said is intended to be “seed money” for RideSmart to get the service up and running. A one-way trip costs $25, and a round trip is $39. (The Winchester Star)

Winchester-based weatherproof decking maker Trex is building a $450 million factory in Little Rock, Arkansas, that will greatly boost its manufacturing capacity. The company, which makes composite boards with sawdust and old plastic bags, is also rolling out new lines of premium decking, like one that mimics hardwoods and one that is cooler on the feet. The facility is being built on 300 acres with room to expand and probably won’t begin production until 2026. Although as of mid-May, renovation spending was expected to sputter and home improvement stores were reporting declining sales, Trex is betting Americans will add onto their homes instead of moving to new ones. (The Wall Street Journal)

Winchester-based health system Valley Health reported $77.8 million in fiscal 2023 revenue in a semi-annual meeting on May 14. The company had $7 million in operating earnings, and $77.8 million with investment earnings factored in. In 2022, Valley Health lost $71.8 million in revenue. Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz said the health system was still recovering from the pandemic, but staff retention rates were “back above pre-pandemic levels.” The system operates six hospitals — four in Virginia and two in West Virginia — along with urgent care clinics, physician practices, medical transport services and a retail pharmacy. (The Winchester Star)

The Warren County Board of Supervisors greenlit on June 4 a proposed hotel in the U.S. 340-522 commercial corridor. The board voted to approve a request for a conditional use permit for a hotel with a height of more than 40 feet and added a condition that no large or unnecessary illuminated signs face adjacent homeowners on the westbound side. Pennoni applied for the permit to build a four-story, 91-room Hyatt hotel on Hospitality Drive, proposing a 53-foot hotel with a 2-foot buffer. Green Pearl Hospitality owns the 3.8-acre property, which is adjacent to the DoubleTree by Hilton off Shadows and Hospitality drives. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA

After almost 30 years, is looking to update its comprehensive plan. During their May 28 meeting, county supervisors began what is expected to be a two-year process by awarding a $212,139 contract to the Berkley Group, a Bridgewater-based administrative consultancy firm that will assist county officials with the planning process. This marks the first time the county has updated its comprehensive plan since 1995. (Cardinal News)

Billions of investment dollars could be coming to Pittsylvania County with the development of a data center that was unanimously recommended by the planning commission at its June 4 meeting. The project represents up to $5 billion in investment and at least $120 million in annual tax revenue, according to the Pittsylvania County Industrial Development Authority. The data center, which would be the first of its kind in Pittsylvania, would also create up to 500 jobs. The commission recommended the rezoning of 946 acres off U.S. 58 in Ringgold, in the southeastern part of the county just a few miles outside Danville, for the project. (Cardinal News)

Last year, Sentara Health unveiled plans to invest $70 million to replace the aging Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston with a new acute care hospital. In June, the health care system announced the investment will be closer to $107 million. The 100,000-square-foot hospital is scheduled to be completed in summer 2026. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

VF, a Denver-based global apparel and footwear company with brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies, plans to close its distribution center in in March 2025, the company confirmed May 22. During a conference call, Bracken Darrell, who joined VF as the company’s president and CEO last summer, called the strategy “tough medicine that we needed to return to growth.” VF’s plans include “fixing the Americas,” turning around the Vans brand, reducing costs and paying down debt. VF experienced a 13% decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Virginia International Raceway was awarded three tourism grants totaling $50,500, the raceway announced June 3. The raceway received of $22,500 from the Virginia Tourism Marketing Leverage Program, $18,000 from the Virginia Special Events & Festivals Program and $10,000 from a Visit SoSi regional tourism grant. Two of the grants will be used to further asset development and special event support, mostly around the track’s flagship events, the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge and the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix. The third grant will help promote new corporate retreat and team-building capabilities to leverage the historic nearly 1,300-acre property and cross-promote the capabilities of several different local businesses that operate out of the onsite business park. (News release)

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Johnson

Jason Wells joined the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as executive vice president of manufacturing advancement on June 3, according to a release from the Danville-based economic development organization. Wells, who has nearly three decades of experience in high-performance manufacturing, replaces Todd Yeatts, who left in August. In his new role, Wells will oversee the operation and strategic direction of the Center for Manufacturing Advancement, which helps manufacturers introduce new and emerging technology into their operations and provides other services to industry leaders. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

A new collaborative initiative, Accelerate Southwest Virginia, will focus on infrastructure, economic development, health care, housing and lowering the cost of living in the region, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in Wise on May 23. Youngkin compared the initiative to Partnership for Petersburg, a multifaceted project he announced in August 2022. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is partnering with the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority to create a $10 million loan fund for economic development, and an additional $18.5 million can be made available, he said. Few details about the initiative or how it will be funded were released. (Cardinal News)

The Tennessee Department of Health has given Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, A grades and an annual stamp of approval, which has occurred as Ballad hospitals consistently fall short of performance targets established by the state. The state’s scoring rubric largely ignores the hospitals’ performance, so only 5% of Ballad’s final score is based on actual quality of care. Ballad has suffered no penalty for failing to meet the state’s goals in about 50 areas, including surgery complications. Ballad Health was created six years ago after Tennessee and Virginia lawmakers waived federal anti-monopoly laws so two competing hospital companies could merge. (Virginia Mercury)

The Southwest Regional Recreation Authority, parent organization of the Spearhead Trails, will receive $5 million in state funding over the next two fiscal years. The funds were included in the two-year budget that Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed in mid-May, according to a news release from the authority. Using the funding, the organization plans to hire 11 additional staff members, increase trail mileage, purchase equipment and make repairs to its headquarters building. A 2019 study from the Institute for Service Research found that the Spearhead Trails annually generate $18.8 million in economic impact to Virginia. (The Coalfield Progress)

The Health Wagon is working to establish the Southwest Virginia region’s first free and charitable pharmacy. The St. Mary’s Faith Pharmacy will be adjacent to the Health Wagon clinic in Wise and will have a drive-thru window. In early June, the pharmacy began conducting a pre-application survey to learn which medications were most needed by patients in the region. Separately, in May, state lawmakers removed $800,000 earmarked for the Health Wagon from the biennial budget following controversy over sharp increases in Health Wagon executives’ salaries. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Wise-based civil engineering and land surveying firm Thompson & Litton acquired Tennessee-based Tysinger, Hampton & Partners, T&L announced May 20. TH&P joined Thompson & Litton’s employee-owned operation on May 15 and is doing business as Thompson & Litton. Its office will remain in Johnson City, Tennessee. T&L serves a five-state mid-Atlantic client base from offices in Wise, Radford, Tazewell and Chilhowie; Bristol, Johnson City and Mosheim, Tennessee; and Princeton, West Virginia. (Bristol Herald Courier)

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Fincher,

Louise “Lou” Fincher, senior vice president of Emory & Henry University, has been named interim president of the Washington County-based private college beginning Aug. 1, as President John W. Wells steps down and becomes the school’s first chancellor in late July. 

Wells

The college is transitioning to being a university this fall. Fincher is also the inaugural dean of the E&H School of Health Sciences, a position she accepted in 2014, and became senior vice president in 2020. Fincher helped launch the health sciences school in Marion and has led the development of the Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Laboratory School (SWVA-HEALS). (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

Top Five July 2024

1   |   39 Virginia companies make the 2024 Fortune 1000

Thirty-nine companies headquartered in Virginia are on Fortune magazine’s 70th annual list, with 24 Virginia companies again making the elite . (June 4)

2   |  VDOT buys Owens & Minor’s Hanover headquarters for $33.5 million

The plans to move the state agency’s central office into the Mechanicsville building in summer 2025. (May 13)

3   |  VIPC launches $100 million fund partnership for Virginia startups

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. is partnering with seven fund managers to $100 million in 100 Virginia-based . (For more on this story, see Page 12.) (May 20)

CEO Joe Benevento speaks at May 20 event with Gov. in background. Photo courtesy Virginia Innovative Partnership Corp.

4   |  Capital One, Walmart end credit card agreement

McLean-based Financial is no longer the exclusive issuer of consumer credit cards. (May 24)

5   |  Hampden-Sydney College receives $20 million pledge

Richmond-based Endeavour Legacy Foundation pledged $20 million to Hampden-Sydney College, the second largest gift in the college’s history. (May 14)

StartVirginia: Heard Around Virginia July 2024

Auterion, a software maker for computing platforms that support drones and autonomous robotics systems, has relocated its headquarters to County from Moorpark, California, as it seeks to be closer to its defense-related customers. The company already had some of its 112 employees based in the Washington, D.C., metro area for several years, but Auterion’s new HQ at 3100 Clarendon Blvd. now serves as its global base of operations. It also maintains research and development offices in Munich, Germany, and Zürich, Switzerland. (DC Inno)

, a company that offers tools to help organizations raise funds, is bringing in some of its own. The company has raised $7.35 million in equity from five investors, according to a May 21 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Betterworld’s platform includes tools to set up auctions, raffles, crowdfunding, giveaways, ticketing and more charitable giving options. The company counts more than 95,000 users, including Boys & Girls Clubs, Make-A-Wish America, the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, and USA Cycling. (Richmond Inno)

Alexandria-based tech startup HyperSpectral raised $8.5 million in Series A funding, the company announced June 5. The round was co-led by New York-based RRE Ventures and Kibo Ventures, based in Spain, with participating venture capital firms including San Diego-based Correlation Ventures and San Francisco-based GC&H, the venture capital arm of Cooley. HyperSpectral uses spectroscopy to identify E. coli, salmonella, listeria and other dangerous pathogens for the agricultural and medical industries. (News release)

The in Danville awarded four businesses more than $52,000 in grants to open or expand their brick-and-mortar businesses in the city’s River District, the organization announced May 22. Nine businesses pitched, and four were awarded funding: Links Coffee House, awarded $13,000; Social Circle Content Marketing, awarded $8,000, plus a $2,500 Community Investment Collaborative grant prize; Nancy Parris Interiors, awarded $10,000; and Valkyrie Aerial Acrobatics, awarded $19,000. (News release)

As of early June, Arlington County cloud management startup had raised $14.5 million in funding to help boost its workforce and product offerings. The close of the Series B round brings the company’s total outside investment to $36.5 million since its founding by CEO Travis Stanfield and Kapil Thangavelu in 2020. SineWave Ventures, a San Francisco early-stage venture capital firm with a dual headquarters in Washington, D.C., led the round. Other firms that participated in Stacklet’s latest funding round include McLean’s Ventures, Palo Alto, California’s Foundation Capital and San Francisco’s Uncorrelated Ventures. (DC Inno)

Virginia Peninsula-based named three finalists during its May 16 micro-pitch competition: Growables, a Norfolk-based houseplant kit company; Lockgreen, a Suffolk-based company that makes locking stash boxes for cannabis; and Vix, a fitness app from Norfolk-based Beige, a company founded by three alumni. Each will compete at a championship pitch event for $5,000 in November, along with winners of three other micro-pitch contests held this year. (News release)

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-based fintech Koalafi has named Eric Kobe as president, the company announced May 17. He manages day-to-day operations and reports to Boomer Muth, the company’s CEO. Most recently, Kobe was CEO of Groundspeed, an insurance startup, and before that, held various management positions at Affirm, a leading buy-now, pay-later consumer financing company. “At Affirm, I witnessed the challenges that nearly 50% of prospective customers faced when denied credit,” Kobe said in a statement. “This represents a critical gap in financial access for an underserved population needing to make important purchases.” (News release)

MELODY DICKERSON

In December, Melody Dickerson added a new set of letters after her name: DNP, or Doctor of Nursing Practice. More than one person wondered aloud: “Why on earth did you go back and get your doctorate now?” 

The reality was Dickerson had contemplated going back to school for years, but the pandemic gave her the extra push she needed to enroll in Baylor University’s Executive Nurse Leadership Program.

“I was hungry for information I could use to improve myself as a ,” Dickerson says. Furthering her education was also an opportunity to set an example for her team of care-
givers, whom she has urged to do the same. “I needed to put my effort where my words were.”

Dickerson’s nontraditional career path has given her a unique perspective that informs the toolkit she deploys while leading more than two-thirds of VHC Health employees across various departments. In her first 90 days as chief nursing officer, she sought to address retention rates, particularly among nurses, by setting the expectation that people could grow their careers within VHC. The strategy worked; recruitment and retention rates have increased significantly under Dickerson’s leadership.

She’s also “really proud” of efforts she’s helped lead to increase access to care, including the 2023 opening of a new outpatient pavilion in . “This organization aligns so well with my personal values and beliefs,” Dickerson says. “I love going to work every day. It sounds cliche, but it’s really the truth.”

RELATED STORY: 2024 Virginia Women in Leadership Awards

MONICA SCHMUDE

A key performance indicator is a metric used to gauge a company’s performance, and, for Monica Schmude, the KPIs that matter most are the mental and physical well-being of her employees. “A company’s greatest asset is the health of its workforce,” she says, a particularly apt belief for the Virginia head of , who is responsible for 9,000 employees serving about 3 million Virginians.

Schmude started out wanting to be a dentist, but a college course in industrial psychology “just cooked for me,” she says, leading to a 30-plus-year career in health , rising through a series of increasingly impactful leadership roles before becoming ‘s Virginia president in 2023. She has garnered many honors, including being named one of the most powerful women in the Washington, D.C., region three times by Washingtonian magazine and being named to Virginia Business’ Virginia 500 list of the state’s most powerful executives last year.

Schmude often found herself to be “a party of one” in the executive ranks of the industry, which are overwhelmingly male, and she credits a series of mentors for helping her break through the glass ceiling. “Find that mentor who speaks for your strengths when you aren’t in the room and always be that person for someone else,” she says.

Throughout her career, as a sponsor of executive women’s forums, she has been that someone many times. “There couldn’t be anything more important,” she says, “than the support of other women.”

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AMY SEBRING 

The motto — Ut Prosim (from the Latin for “that I may serve”) — was made to order for Amy Sebring, who describes herself as “a servant .” In her dual roles as the university’s executive vice president and COO, the Tidewater native and daughter of two civil servants has to keep many plates spinning.

Her lengthy list of responsibilities includes oversight of the school’s administrative, financial, physical, technological and operational infrastructure, as well as support for its teaching, research and outreach missions. And although Sebring didn’t arrive at Virginia Tech until late 2022, she already has chalked up several accomplishments, including helping to secure state support for the expansion of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and has generated significant legislative interest in expanding clinical trials at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

During her 25-plus-year career in government and , Sebring has held a series of positions of increasing responsibility that included stints at both Virginia Commonwealth University and William & Mary.  

“It’s easy to get focused on a to-do list,” she says, but to be successful requires “looking for opportunities to step beyond and bring things forward to decision makers.” Being able to make complex matters readily understandable also has been crucial to her career development.

“Communication,” she says, “is a skill you can never overdevelop.”

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MARGARET SHAIA 

Margaret Shaia trained as an accountant, but says she had zero interest in being “a bean counter who sits in an office all day. I wanted to know what the numbers were saying.”  

That curiosity led her to a series of jobs at Virginia companies, where she became involved not just in financial oversight but got onto the floor to see how to better manage and improve operations. In her 16-year tenure at Richmond’s AMF Bakery Systems, for example, Shaia helped double revenues and transform the company into a global in industrial baking equipment. 

Since 2019, Shaia has been CEO and co-owner of , where, she says, she has put to use “everything I’ve done, times 500.”

Under her leadership, ASC, which builds enclosures for power generation equipment for facilities such as data centers, has undergone exponential growth. Revenues have expanded sixfold, she says, and ASC has added 235,000 square feet of manufacturing space. 

Shaia is proud ASC has been able to provide a career track for its employees, many of whom
are immigrants from the Philippines. These workers have been able to develop skills that lead
to higher wages, and that increased earning power has allowed many of them to buy houses and bring their families to this country. 

“I work long hours,” Shaia says, “but, end of the day, I am helping the community by giving people the opportunity to improve their lives.” 

RELATED STORY: 2024 Virginia Women in Leadership Awards