Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Economic Development 2025: HAYMORE, TODD P.

Since 2018, Haymore has led the global consultancy within Hunton Andrews Kurth, the second largest Virginia-based law firm. He previously served as Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade under Gov. Terry McAuliffe and secretary of agriculture and forestry for Gov. Bob McDonnell.

A Danville native, Haymore is a former executive for tobacco companies Universal Leaf Tobacco and Dimon (now Pyxus International). He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Richmond and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he served as rector from 2023 to 2025.

Haymore is chair of GO Virginia’s Region 4 Council, which spans from Hanover County to Emporia. He also serves on the executive committees for the boards of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and RVA757 Connects.

BOOK I’D RECOMMEND: “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I’m a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band and the Grateful Dead and travel extensively to see DMB and Dead & Company, the latest incarnation of the Dead, perform live.

Return to the full list of Economic Development recipients.

Banking | Finance 2025: JOHNSON, JERMAINE

Johnson leads operations in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area for Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, one of the nation’s 10 largest banks, with assets of about $554.7 billion.

In May, Johnson, who joined PNC in 2005 as a vice president, joined in a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the Fortune 500 bank joining the Greater Washington market. Prior to joining PNC, Johnson worked in portfolio management and underwriting at GE Capital and served as a vice president for Bank of America.

Johnson recently joined the board of the National Children’s Museum. He also sits on the board of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. In June, he attended a roundtable for the trade organization with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, focused on the Capital Region’s economic future. “The discussion,” Johnson later wrote on LinkedIn, “was productive in raising opportunities for the region to address the federal government spending declines with several ideas, including Greater Washington becoming a stronger university research center.”

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: WASSON, JOHN

Since joining ICF International in 1987, Wasson has risen to become the global consulting and technology services provider’s chairman and CEO. During the past two decades, ICF has doubled in size every five years on average. It reported fiscal 2024 revenue of $2 billion, up 6% from the previous year.

Wasson, an alumnus of University of California, Davis and MIT, previously served as ICF’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

In January, ICF acquired New York-based tech and advisory services company Applied  Group from Ameresco, reportedly for $30 million.

Wasson has said he expects up to a 10% decline in business this year as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government spending. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company has had about $375 million in contracts cancelled, including funding for ICF’s U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces reports on global warming.

Wasson is on the executive committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and is part of the Dean’s Executive Committee at UC Davis’ engineering college.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: SMITH, CAREY A. 

A seven-time winner of Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award recognizing leading government contracting executives, Smith joined Fortune 1000 contractor Parsons in 2016 and quickly rose through its ranks.

Smith helped take Parsons public in 2019 and led its acquisition and integration of many companies, including its $89 million acquisition of Chesapeake Technology International in July, $36 million all-cash purchase of TRS Group in February and its $200 million purchase of BlackSignal Technologies, completed in 2024.

Before Parsons, Smith held executive posts at Honeywell and Lockheed Martin. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University and a master’s in electrical engineering from Syracuse. She serves on Edison International’s board.

Parsons, which has more than 19,000 employees globally, posted $6.8 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue, a 24% annual increase. But the contractor cut its outlook for fiscal 2025 after the State Department, with which Parsons has a confidential contract, announced a massive reorganization.
In 2024, Parsons was named “Contractor of the Year” in the greater than $300 million category at the 22nd Annual Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards.

 

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Energy 2025: BLUE, ROBERT M. ‘BOB’

Blue oversees Fortune 500 utility Dominion, which has 14,700 employees and provides regulated electricity service to 3.6 million customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and regulated service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina.

Blue began his career with Dominion as managing director of state affairs and corporate policy in 2005. After holding a succession of executive roles, Blue was named the utility’s president and CEO in 2020 and became board chair the following year.

Dominion officials said earlier in 2025 that the company’s $10.9 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm off Virginia Beach is on track to begin powering 660,000 homes in 2026, despite vociferous opposition to from President Donald Trump.

Prior to Dominion, Blue was an attorney and served as counselor and director of policy under Gov. Mark Warner.

Blue has an MBA from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Yale University, where he was editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review. He chairs the Institute board and sits on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Greater Washington Partnership.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Energy 2025: SABEL, MIKE

Sabel, a billionaire former investment banker, co-founded Venture Global in 2013 with lawyer Robert Pender, exporting U.S.-produced liquefied .

In January the company went public, and shares opened nearly 4% below its $25 IPO price, earning a valuation of $58.2 billion, and its stock fell to a low of $7 in April, although it has risen somewhat. Meanwhile, the company has been in arbitration with customers BP and Shell over its gas sales during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which saw prices soar.

Venture Global is set to build its third natural gas export facility in Louisiana, expected to make the company the largest exporter of domestic LNG. During the Biden administration, the plant’s fate was in limbo, but the Trump presidency has lent the company’s plans more stability.

A D.C. resident, Sabel was among a delegation of oil and natural gas executives who visited President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2024. Trump told the group they should donate $1 billion to his industry-friendly presidential campaign because he would undo environmental regulations, unfreeze LNG exports and auction off more Gulf of Mexico leases, The Washington Post reported. Venture Global contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: BRADY, CHRIS

Brady has led General Dynamics Missions Systems, a business unit of the Reston-based Fortune 100 and contractor General Dynamics, since 2019, after serving as vice president of engineering. He oversees more than 12,000 workers across more than 75 facilities worldwide.

GDMS manufactures and integrates intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, communications systems and platform systems and sensors for military, government and commercial customers.

In December 2024, the U.S. Navy awarded the business unit a contract valued up to $808 million to produce MK 54 Lightweight Torpedo kits. In September 2024, the Space Development Agency awarded a GDMS and Iridium team a nearly $492 million contract modification for satellite ground systems, bringing the total contract value up to nearly $888 million.

Brady has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona; a master’s in engineering-economic systems from Stanford and an MBA from Arizona State. He was named to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of top government contracting executives for the sixth consecutive year in 2025.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: TOWNES-WHITLEY, TONI

In 2023, Townes-Whitley took the reins of federal contractor SAIC, becoming one of only two Black women who currently lead Fortune 500 companies as CEOs.

SAIC, which has about 24,000 employees, reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $7.48 billion, an increase from $7.44 billion from fiscal 2023.

In June, SAIC received a $928 million U.S. Air Force contract to help provide warfighting prototypes for rapid acquisition. Reston-based Fortune 500 contractor CACI International sued SAIC in July 2024, alleging breach of a subcontracting agreement. A jury trial is set for late September.

Townes-Whitley ranks No. 82 on Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Business list for 2025. A Princeton University alumna, Townes-Whitley volunteered for the Peace Corps after college. Before SAIC, she served as president of Microsoft’s U.S.-regulated industries, president of CGI Federal and held management roles at Unisys. She joined SAIC as its CEO-elect in 2023.

Townes-Whitley serves on the boards of Nasdaq, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: WILKINSON, KARI

In January, Wilkinson took over leadership of Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of HII and the state’s largest industrial employer, with more than 26,000 workers. She succeeds Jennifer Boykin, who retired.

Wilkinson spent three decades at HII’s Mississippi-based Ingalls Shipbuilding, becoming its president in 2021. She oversaw 11,000 workers who design, build and maintain amphibious ships, destroyers and cutters for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. She has a bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Temple University.

The nation’s only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, NNS is building two Ford-class carriers, the future Enterprise and Doris Miller, in drydock simultaneously. It is also working with General Dynamics Boat to build 12 nuclear powered Columbia-class submarines, a program currently estimated to cost $132 billion.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Health Care 2025: PESICKA, EDWARD A.

Pesicka became CEO of Fortune 500 logistics and supply company Owens & Minor in 2019. In 2023, he announced a five-year strategic plan for the company to increase profits and reduce costs. Owens & Minor reported $10.7 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue, up from $10.3 billion in 2023. The company has been engaged in a potential sale of its Products & Services segment, Pesicka said in February and May.

Owens & Minor moved its headquarters to Henrico after selling its Mechanicsville building in spring 2024.

The company sued Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in November 2024, claiming the Henrico insurer mismanaged funds for Owens & Minor’s employee health insurance plan and allegedly violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

In June, Owens & Minor and Rotech Healthcare Holdings agreed to terminate the Fortune 500 company’s $1.36 billion acquisition of the Florida home-based care business, previously expected to close in 2025’s first half. The Henrico company paid an $80 million termination fee in cash.

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

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.