In January, Um became CEO of StarKist, the packaged tuna and chicken company that moved its headquarters to Northern Virginia last year from Pittsburgh.
Owned by Dongwon Industries, a South Korean seafood company, StarKist has 4,000 employees globally and revenue of $210 million.
Having joined StarKist in November 2022, Um replaced former CEO Andrew Choe. Formerly a senior vice president of procurement at Seoul-based LG Electronics, Um came to StarKist with a challenge already in front of him: a lawsuit against the company, its parent and Del Monte, claiming that they conspired to fix and raise the price of canned tuna in the United States. In April, a federal judge granted a partial summary judgment on some of the claims, narrowing the lawsuit filed in Southern California. StarKist pleaded guilty to price fixing and was fined $100 million in 2018, and the current class action lawsuit by direct purchasers, including grocery stores, is an outgrowth of the federal price-fixing investigation.
A West Point graduate with an international MBA from Baldwin-Wallace University, Um has worked for Westinghouse, Merck, Dade Behring and Praxair.
Known for their philanthropy, Manning and his wife, Diane, donated $100 million in January to the University of Virginia to create the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which will focus on research into new medical treatments like cellular and gene therapies, nanotechnology and immunotherapy. Manning has said he hopes the institute will lead to cures for at least “five or six diseases,” including diabetes and genetic blindness. The couple also donated $1 million to U.Va. in 2020 to launch a COVID-19 research program.
Manning found his path to private equity by way of baby formula. He founded infant formula company PBM Holdings Inc. in 1997 and sold it to Perrigo in 2010 for $808 million. He then started PBM Capital, a health care-focused private equity firm that invests in pharmaceutical and life sciences companies developing innovative solutions such as gene therapy, targeted therapeutics and genome engineering.
Manning, who enjoys deep-sea fishing and spending time with his children and grandchildren, earned his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Ryan’s business philosophy is simple: “Take great care of your team and they’ll take care of our [customers], and the business will take care of itself.”
Ryan joined Langley Federal in 2012 after more than 20 years with Massachusetts-based Digital Federal Credit Union, where he was executive vice president and chief operating officer.
With more than 740 employees in Virginia, the Newport News-based Langley Federal’s assets grew by 21% in 2022, to $5.04 billion for the year.
The Fitchburg State University graduate serves on the board of Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and is a board member of the Langley For Families Foundation, the credit union’s charitable arm.
PERSON I ADMIRE:My dad is a Korean War veteran [who] had a successful and diverse career, but what I most admire was how he continued to learn and grow — giving back in retirement, including mentoring families and high-risk kids.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM:Boston Sports — Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics
Even early in life, Beauchamp was a businessman: He and his brother earned money by fishing balls out of the ponds and woods by a golf course, cleaning them up and selling them back to golfers. With such a business mindset, it’s no wonder he rose to Carpenter’s top leader, a role he’s held since 2020.
One of the world’s largest producers of foam products, including mattresses, Carpenter employs around 6,200 people at more than
50 locations globally, including 450 in Virginia. In June, Carpenter acquired the engineered foams line of Belgian competitor Recticel. The $492 million deal adds 32 manufacturing sites, 2,700 employees and $600 million in sales to Carpenter’s books.
Beauchamp joined the company in 2008 as national sales manager for Carpenter’s chemicals division. He previously worked for almost 19 years at Stepan, a chemical manufacturer.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Chicago Blackhawks
IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET:Leonardo da Vinci. I’d love to learn the ways that his mind worked and discuss his ideas.
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Traffic on 95 between Richmond and Washington, D.C.
A longtime Volvo Group employee, Knippenberg moved from his home country of Belgium to become vice president and general manager of the New River Valley Volvo Trucks plant in April 2022. Before that, he was vice president for the company’s plant in Ghent, Belgium, as well as managing director for Volvo Group Belgium for five years. For two years, Knippenberg was director of operations for Volvo Trucks North America at the Dublin plant.
The 1.6 million-square-foot, nearly 300-acre plant in Dublin is Volvo’s largest truck manufacturing facility and employs 3,600 people. It produces all Volvo trucks sold in North America. Knippenberg replaced former Dublin Vice President and General Manager Franky Marchand, who was promoted to senior vice president of international manufacturing of Volvo Group Trucks Operations last year.
NRV builds the Volvo VNR Electric semi-truck, which plays a crucial role in Volvo’s target of achieving 35% of global vehicle sales as fully electric by 2030.
In 2020, Volvo Trucks began accepting customer orders for the initial model of the Volvo VNR Electric, and commercial production started in 2021 at NRV.
The foundation’s role as the region’s largest grant and scholarship provider continues to grow under her direction, topping $20 million in grants and scholarship awards in 2021. In March, the foundation approved more than $1.4 million in grants to a variety of organizations focused on causes ranging from maritime, nature, education, health care, and autism to neighborhood improvements, the arts and housing.
DiCroce has 35-plus years of experience in Virginia higher education, having served as president of Tidewater Community College for 14 years and president of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville for nine. She also has taught at the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and Old Dominion University.
She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from ODU and a doctorate in higher education from William & Mary. DiCroce sits on the boards of Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, RVA757 Connects and Virginia Beach Vision.
A 328-acre former James City County farm is set to become the largest speculative industrial project along the Interstate 64 corridor between the Port of Virginia and Richmond.
Hazelwood Farms was purchased for $12 million in April by Houston-based industrial real estate firm Lovett Industrial, which plans to develop a 2.2 million-square-foot business park on the site with Class A industrial facilities for manufacturers, importers, and warehousing and distribution companies. Multiple buildings will be constructed, ranging from 100,000 square feet to 1 million square feet. Twenty acres will be set aside for future commercial and retail development. Currently in the permitting process, the project is slated to begin construction on its first phase in early 2024. The project’s working name is Enterprise Logistics Park.
Rapid growth at the Port of Virginia, along with the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel expansion and the widening of Interstate 64 between Williamsburg and Richmond, attracted Lovett to the property, its first acquisition in Virginia.
“The Hampton Roads market has some of the best fundamentals in the country,” says Ben Swift, the company’s senior associate for the East Region. “That, combined with the billions of dollars being spent to upgrade the port and I-64, makes this property perfectly positioned to … draw upon the demand for industrial in Hampton Roads … [and] in Richmond.”
Ellis Colthorpe, an associate with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which is handling marketing and leasing for the park, says tenants will include businesses already in the region, as well as newcomers. “Most tenants will use the Port of Virginia,” he adds. “The port has $1.4 billion in infrastructure projects, and that’s driving new tenants into the market.”
Additionally, Colthorpe notes, more than 500,000 potential workers live within a 45-minute drive from the park. “This will be a huge employment opportunity for James City County. Job creation and tax revenues are the two biggest hot-button items.”
Situated on Old State Road and a portion of Barnes Road south of I-64, the property had been in the Hazelwood family since 1886. The three Hazelwood siblings who sold the land to Lovett initially wanted the property rezoned to accommodate 75,000 square feet of commercial space, a truck terminal and up to 250 multifamily units. Community members had expressed concern about traffic and noise impacts, however.
A former state secretary of commerce and trade under Gov. George Allen, Stolle brings years of experience in economic development and public policy to his role leading VIPC.
Formerly the Center for Innovative Technology, VIPC is a not-for-profit corporation created in 1985 by the General Assembly as an economic development organization for the technology sector. VIPC provides strategic commercialization and funding support to Virginia-based tech startups.
In December 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that VIPC would receive $173 million in federal funding to expand its seed and early-stage startups investments through VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners division.
Stolle became the organization’s chief executive in September 2020, formerly serving as senior vice president of policy and regional initiatives and as head of the entrepreneurial ecosystems division.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Stolle started the Richmond Technology Council (rvatech), formerly the Greater Richmond Technology Council, which has 400 corporate members. He serves on several boards, including for the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and Verge. He also is chairman of the St. Joseph’s Parish Finance Committee.
FIRST JOB: Navy pilot
MOST VALUED POSSESSION: My German Shepherd — but she thinks I’m her possession.
In addition to succeeding his famous and controversial late father, the evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson, as president and CEO of the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network and host of its flagship weekday news magazine show, “The 700 Club,” Robertson became Regent’s chancellor in July. Pat Robertson was still at the helm of the influential private conservative Christian university he founded in 1977 when he died at age 93 in June.
Gordon Robertson has degrees from Yale University and Washington and Lee University’s School of Law. He practiced for 10 years at Norfolk law firm Vandeventer Black (now Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black). He has said God called him away from law during a mission trip to India. Robertson moved to the Philippines, where he led CBN‘s expansion into Asia and founded the Asian Center for Missions and the Philippines chapter of CBN’s humanitarian nonprofit, Operation Blessing. He took over as CEO of CBN in 2007.
Virginia’s second largest private university, Regent has more than 3,500 full-time students and nearly 6,700 part-time students. Notable alumni include former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Onetime GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is dean of Regent’s government school.
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