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$77.8M apartments break ground outside C-ville

Charlottesville-based GW Partners, a vertically integrated construction and development firm, and Austin, Texas-based Virtus Real Estate Capital, have broken ground on a new, $77.8 million community at the entrance to , a 224-acre mixed-use community near in Albemarle County.

The Ridge at North Pointe is located across from the ‘s North Fork Park, about 20 minutes north of downtown and 100 miles from Washington, D.C. The 279-unit community is scheduled to deliver in the second quarter of 2024.

“Charlottesville’s strong regional economy, high quality of life and the presence of the University of Virginia are consistently generating strong demand for housing in the metro,” Robert Gordon, a principal at GW Real Estate Partners, said in a statement. “With limited new apartment supply expected, The Ridge at North Pointe is poised to perform well. We look forward to offering best-in-class housing for residents in a beautiful setting with convenience to the area’s major employment centers.” The Ridge at North Pointe will consist of seven three-story walk-up buildings situated around a central clubhouse and pool deck. One-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans will average 988 square feet and feature keyless entry, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and other amenities including private patios or balconies. Surface parking for 502 cars, including 14 electronic vehicle charging stations, is also included.

North Pointe’s broader community will consist of single-family, duplex/quad and apartment housing, along with , restaurants, office and medical office space, and a hotel to be built in phases.

The project team for The Ridge at North Pointe includes Alexandria-based Heffner Architects PC and Fairfax-based Collins Engineers Inc. GW Builders, a wholly owned subsidiary of GW Real Estate Partners, is the general contractor.

The project is GW Real Estate Partners’ second ground-up multifamily development in Virginia. The firm broke ground on the 265-unit Montage at Marquis in Williamsburg late last year. That project is scheduled to deliver in the first quarter of 2024.

A regional economic driver, Rivanna Station is a subinstallation of Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County. Three of the top military intelligence gathering agencies — the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA) — have a presence there.

Virginia MOCA moving to Virginia Wesleyan campus

The Virginia of Contemporary Art is moving from ‘s ViBe District to ‘s campus, with the aid of a $25 million gift, the museum and university said Tuesday in announcing the partnership.

The gift, from Jane Batten, Joan Brock and David and Susan Goode, will fund construction of the museum’s new space, Virginia Wesleyan President Scott Miller told Virginia Business. The museum, which will be about 30,000 to 35,000 square feet, is being designed by Tymoff + Moss Architects of Norfolk and -based Hourigan will serve as the contractor, Miller said. The museum could open as soon as 2025.

“This partnership will anchor us in our mission to present locally relevant, nationally resonant art that is exceptional,” President and CEO Gary Ryan said in a statement. “While Virginia MOCA remains an independent museum, our collaboration with VWU will allow us to do even more of what we do best: create groundbreaking exhibitions and engage the community in thought-provoking artistic experiences. Our mission remains the same, but we are now bolstered by our partnership with VWU and its amazing educational resources.”

Virginia Wesleyan students and instructors have exhibited at the museum in the past and MOCA has provided students with internships and work opportunities. As part of the move, which has been in the works for several months, the private university is also planning to launch a Master of degree in arts management, Miller said, and other programs in arts and history could develop.

The current museum, which includes 38,500 square feet with 6,300 square feet of exhibition space, will remain open during construction of its replacement.

Virginia Wesleyan sits on the Norfolk side of the Virginia Beach border, just off Interstate 64, an entry point into the city that sees more than 31,000 cars daily, Miller said, adding that the museum’s new location will help make arts more accessible to the entire region. “The relocation to our campus actually puts it in the epicenter of the Hampton Roads community,” he said.

Batten, Brock and the Goodes have been major benefactors to the arts, educational and civic communities in Virginia and at Virginia Wesleyan, where the Jane P. Batten Student Center, the Batten Honors College, the Susan S. Goode School of Arts and Humanities, the Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center and the Joan P. Brock School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences bear their names.

Miller said the museum, which will be constructed adjacent to the university’s arts center, will continue to have an independent board of directors.

Richmond casino returning to Nov. ballots

It wasn’t exactly a surprise, but the Virginia Lottery and the Circuit Court have approved Richmond’s do-over to appear on ballots this fall.

“I am excited to see the Virginia Lottery and the Richmond Circuit Court approve the referendum for a Richmond destination resort and entertainment venue that will provide 1,300 good-paying jobs and an estimated $30 million in annual revenue to tackle our community’s greatest needs,” Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement Tuesday. “Richmond is experiencing record development and growth, and, with the addition of a destination resort, we will change the economic trajectory of South Side for years to come.”

In June, Richmond City Council voted to select RVA Entertainment Holdings LLC — a joint venture between and — as the city’s preferred casino operator for the proposed $562.5 million ONE Casino + Resort that will be built in South Richmond near Interstate 95 if the referendum passes in November.

Council members also voted to execute a host community agreement between the city and RVA Entertainment Holdings, as well as a community support agreement between the city, developer RVA Entertainment Holdings and Richmond VA Management LLC (the entity that would manage the casino). The latter agreement would fulfill a negotiated payout of $25.5 million to the city from the developer if the referendum passes this year, as well as a $1 million bonus payment from the developer to the city upon closing of the resort casino’s financing.

After the council’s actions, the ball was in the court of the Lottery, which oversees the state’s commercial casino administrative processes, and the city’s circuit court, which placed the referendum on the ballot by order Tuesday.

After the General Assembly voted in 2019 to allow casinos in five economically challenged cities statewide, voters in Bristol, , Norfolk and Portsmouth approved casinos in their localities in 2020 referendums. Now, casinos are operating in Bristol, Danville and Portsmouth, with another in development in Norfolk.

However, Richmond voters rejected the proposed ONE Casino + Resort in November 2021 by a 1,200- margin.

Casino boosters — including Stoney and most of the Richmond City Council — have said that the casino should get a second chance to win over city voters, and a loophole in state law didn’t bar a second referendum after the first failed. State Sen. Joe Morrissey tried to close that loophole during the General Assembly session this year in an attempt to get a referendum on Petersburg’s ballots and prevent a second vote in Richmond. He was unsuccessful and now is a lame duck, having lost his Democratic primary in June to keep his Senate seat.

Opponents of the mulligan referendum said that voters made their feelings clear two years ago. One City Council member, Katherine Jordan, has voted against the referendum consistently over the past two years.

“We are ready to elevate our 20-year-plus relationship with Richmonders by presenting opportunities for real economic impact,” Alfred Liggins, CEO of Urban One, said in a statement. “We are proud of the service we continue to provide through various community and business partnerships and are talking to local leaders and citizens about the kinds of entertainment options, jobs, and community benefits they want to see included in this project. While this initiative will create 1,300 well-paying jobs and generate $30 million in annual revenue for the city, we are most excited about the investment it allows us to continue to make in the citizens of this great city.”

Most of the particulars of the proposed casino are the same as they were two years ago, although Churchill Downs is now involved after having purchased Peninsula Pacific Entertainment LLC (P2E) for $2.75 billion last fall. P2E was part of the 2021 proposal for the ONE Casino + Resort with Silver Spring, Maryland-based Urban One, a media company that operates 55 radio stations and the TV One cable network. The parent company of Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, Churchill Downs also owns the Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent County and six Rosie’s Emporiums in Virginia, as well as several casinos nationwide.

According to Richmond Director Leonard Sledge, the ONE Casino + Resort, which would include a 250-room hotel and radio, TV and film production studios and soundstages, would be built on a 97-acre site on the city’s South Side on property owned by Altria Group Inc. off Interstate 95, just as proposed in the 2021 referendum. The city anticipates 1,300 jobs would be directly created by the casino, which would generate $30 million in projected annual local tax revenue, Sledge says.

One difference in this year’s casino push is the absence of the word “casino” in proponents’ recent statements, which are focused more on the project’s entertainment options, community involvement and economic impact, as opposed to .

Churchill Downs and Urban One’s statement Tuesday said they plan to unveil a new design for the resort in coming weeks.

Plans revealed for second Buc-ee’s Va. location

Buc-ee’s appears to be planning its second Virginia location, this time along Interstate 81 in near .

According to a post on the county’s Facebook page, , the Texas-sized center chain, has applied for a special use permit for review and approval of a proposed sign plan. The Texas-based retailer is planning a 74,000-square-foot store with 120 fueling positions and 24 electric vehicle charging stations, with a projected opening in 2025.

New Kent County’s department revealed Buc-ee’s plans for a center along I-64 when it posted to its Facebook page in march that the chain filed for a conditional use permit for signage. Buc-ee’s New Kent LLC purchased 27.686 acres located at Exit 211 off Interstate 64 from Kent Farms Holdings Company, LLC for $6.5 million. Completion of that was announced in June. Once complete, it could be among the company’s largest locations.

The Buc-ee’s chain has opened more than 25 locations throughout the South in the past two decades. The Rockingham and New Kent locations are among four the company says it has planned in the state.

Atlantic Union to acquire American National Bank

Updated 4:15 p.m. July 25

-based ‘s parent company announced Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire American National Bankshares Inc., which is headquartered in and is the holding company of Co. The combined bank will have total assets of $23.7 billion as of June 30, according to the statement.

Atlantic Union Bankshares Inc. and American National expect to complete the in the first quarter of 2024, and both ‘ boards of directors have approved the deal. Two members of American National’s board — Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Howell Agee and Virginia Furniture Market President Joel R. Shepherd — will join Atlantic Union’s board.

Jeff Haley, American National’s chairman, president and CEO, will “assist in the integration of the two companies and advise on the combined bank’s regional community model” in the bank’s locations in Southern and Southwest Virginia, as well as represent the merged bank in two Danville-based charitable trusts, the announcement said.

The combined bank will have total deposits of $19.1 billion and gross loans of $17.3 billion.

In a Tuesday afternoon news conference, John C. Asbury, president and CEO of Atlantic Union, said he expects the systems conversion to take place in May 2024, if the deal closes early next year as expected.

Over the next few months, Atlantic Union will assess the staffing and branches it will take on as part of the American National purchase, Asbury said, but that he wasn’t prepared yet to say how many American National employees’ jobs will be cut as a result.

He noted there is some overlap of the two banks’ branch locations in the Roanoke and Rocky Mount areas in which they are located so close to each other, “it makes no sense to have two branches operating. There will be some degree of [staffing] impact,” Asbury said, but with those “pretty limited” examples of overlapping branches, “we certainly are not interested in limiting convenience” and closing more branches. He also said that there are no plans to close American National’s Danville headquarters, where Haley expects to maintain an , although those staff numbers will be part of Atlantic Union’s assessment.

Haley noted that the merger comes at a time when smaller community banks are merging with other banks. “There’s been a massive digital transformation in the industry,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I believe that the model of what we do as a $3 billion community bank has changed. The foot traffic is down considerably since COVID. It has been a massive change in how people use banking services.”

Asbury added that he believes the pandemic accelerated digital banking, such as photographing checks and depositing funds digitally, or conducting Zoom appointments with branch staffers. “This industry isn’t going away, but there are going to be fewer of us.”

American National, which was founded in 1909, has 26 branches in Virginia and North Carolina and is Virginia’s ninth largest bank. It had $3.1 billion in assets as of June 30. Atlantic Union is the largest community bank headquartered in Virginia, with 109 branches, $20.6 billion in assets and $15.7 billion in deposits as of June 30. (McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. is the largest bank headquartered in Virginia, with $38.37 billion in 2022 revenue and $467.8 billion in total assets.)

Under the agreement, each outstanding share of American National common stock will be converted into the right to receive 1.35 shares of Atlantic Union common stock, which would place the value of the transaction at $416.8 million, or $39.23 per share, based on Atlantic Union’s 10-day weighted average closing stock price ending Monday.

“American National is a high-quality community bank with an exceptional 114-year history, a strong core deposit base and outstanding asset quality,” Asbury said in a statement earlier Tuesday. “This is a company and leadership team we have long admired and know well, and the relationship between our two banks spans decades. We expect that our combined footprint will bring additional convenience to our customers and position us as an even stronger competitor against the large national, super-regional and smaller community banks. Increasing our presence in Roanoke and entering Southside Virginia will further build out our Virginia , and the transaction will also allow us to gain meaningful entry into North Carolina’s attractive Piedmont Triad region and Raleigh. With a more diversified deposit base, expected synergies and enhanced growth market opportunities, we believe the combined franchise will be able to generate a higher level of financial performance for our shareholders.”

Piper Sandler & Co. is acting as financial adviser to Atlantic Union, and Covington & Burling LLP is acting as its legal adviser in the transaction. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. is acting as financial adviser to American National, and Williams Mullen is acting as its legal adviser in the transaction.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Atlantic Union as the largest bank headquartered in Virginia. Atlantic Union is the largest of Virginia’s community banks, but the largest bank headquartered in Virginia is McLean-based Fortune 500 bank Capital One Financial Corp.

Nanotech company to invest $2.9M in C-ville expansion

Laser Thermal, a company spun out of the , will spend $2.9 million and add 28 jobs at its manufacturing, and development facility in , Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.

The company provides testing services to companies wanting to understand thermal properties at the device level, such as companies seeking to learn more about the properties of materials used in its , explained  Laser Thermal’s CEO and co-founder, John Gaskins.

In October 2022, Laser Thermal began selling a tool it manufactures to measure heat flow in devices. The company also has two additional tools in development, one to measure thermal properties at nanoscales invisible to the naked eye, and the other to measure bulk properties of materials, Gaskins says.

“Laser Thermal’s decision to expand its capacity in Charlottesville highlights the generated from our world-class universities like the University of Virginia and the innovation and talent they produce,” Youngkin said in a statement. “The company’s success also showcases Virginia’s ongoing sector growth and we look forward to a continued partnership.”

Founded in 2021, Laser Thermal currently has 14 full-time employees, Gaskins said. The expansion adds an additional 5,200 square feet to the company’s existing 2,700 square feet in the city’s Ix Business Park.

“As a native Virginian, there was no other place I wanted to start a company due to proximity to major shipping hubs and international airports, the ability to maintain collaborative ties with the University of Virginia, and access to bright young talent from the first-class higher network that exists here,” Gaskins said in a statement. “Many of our employees are originally from Virginia, or are happily transplanted, and love working at a high-tech company located in such a beautiful, friendly, and innovative state.”

The announcement comes less than a week after Youngkin, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and university and industry officials gathered in Falls Church for the public launch of the Virginia Alliance for Semiconductor Technology. The launch included a private summit with the goal of bringing together academia and business to develop ideas for encouraging the semiconductor industry to grow in Virginia.

Gaskins said he sees his company as “another piece of the semiconductor ecosystem, providing thermal measurements to companies and universities that really haven’t been available on the commercial scale up to this point.” Gaskins said the company is currently working on an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research contract, with others in the pipeline.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Charlottesville to secure the project for Virginia and will support Laser Thermal’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consulting and funding to companies adding jobs to support employee recruitment and training activities.

CFA Institute sells Charlottesville HQ for $21.9M

The headquarters of CFA Institute sold for $21.9 million, announced Tuesday.

The 150,000-square-foot , at 915 E. High St., is the former , which opened in 1904, according to Cvillepedia. CFA Institute, a nonprofit association of investment professionals, will back 47,000 square feet for its ongoing operations. The location has been the institute’s home since 2014, after a renovation that included sustainability features.

has been awarded the leasing by the buyer, Lo-Hi LLC, and the building will remain . It is the only building near downtown with parking. Lo-Hi will also be opening Lo-Hi , which will provide private executive office space for companies with up to 10 employees.

John Pritzlaff and Jenny Stoner of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled the and lease negotiations on behalf of the buyer and will handle the office space leasing going forward.

Magic Johnson won’t rule out renaming Commanders

Could the get a new name?

NBA legend Magic Johnson, one of the -based NFL team’s new co-owners, wouldn’t rule out the possibility during an interview Friday morning with Craig Melvin on NBC’s “Today” show.

“Everything is on the table, right? Especially after the last year,” the former Los Angeles Lakers star point guard said. “We will see [where] we are with the name. But I can’t say that right now.” Later in the interview, he added, “The name of the team will come up eventually.”

Asked about whether the team, which has its headquarters in and plays home games at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, could relocate to Washington, D.C., Johnson declined to answer, saying, “We’re going to spend this year understanding what we have in place.”

Amid controversy with past team owner Dan Snyder, Virginia’s General Assembly tabled a 2022 incentive bill aimed at helping the Commanders build a new stadium and headquarters in Woodbridge. Virginia lawmakers are said to be open to working with the team’s new owners to bring the Commanders stadium to the commonwealth after the team’s FedEx Field runs out in 2027.

Johnson is a partner in a team of investors led by Maryland billionaire Josh Harris that purchased the Commanders for a record $6.05 billion from Snyder, after NFL owners unanimously approved the deal Thursday. Harris is now managing partner and majority owner of the Commanders, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils through his company Harris Blitzer & Entertainment LLC (HBSE).

During the “Today” interview, Johnson also commented on how the new management would differ from Snyder, who received a $60 million fine from the Thursday following a league investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, a toxic workplace culture and deliberate underreporting of revenue.

“First of all,” Johnson said, “you have to let the employees know that you respect them and that it will be a safe place to work, and we want you to have a winning attitude too. … If we respect them, they will respect us and go to the wall for us.”

NFL owners approve $6.05B sale of Washington Commanders

Dan Snyder‘s controversial 24-year tenure as the embattled owner of the -based has come to an end with the record $6.05 billion of the team — and a $60 million fine from the .

In a special meeting Thursday, all 32 NFL team owners unanimously approved the team’s sale to a partnership led by Maryland billionaire and Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris for the highest price ever paid for any North American . Simultaneously, the league imposed the hefty fine on Snyder, the team’s owner since 1999, over a sexual harassment allegation by an employee and for underreporting revenue.

The sale, which may be finalized as soon as Friday, required the approval of the NFL’s committee and three-fourths of the league’s team owners. NFL owners were expected to on the sale during their May meeting in Minnesota but delayed the decision until the special meeting Thursday due to the deal’s complexity. (According to ESPN, in order to meet NFL guidelines for the sale, Harris had to restructure his offer to reduce his debt in the deal to no more than $1.1 billion, while upping his personal equity to at least 30% of the purchase price.)

Harris, who is also managing partner and majority owner of the NBA’s 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, co-founded private equity company Apollo Global Management. He and a partnership including NBA legend Magic Johnson and billionaire Danaher Corp. co-founder Mitchell Rales reached an agreement with Snyder in May for the sale of the Commanders.

Late Thursday afternoon, the team posted a message from “future Commanders Managing Partner Josh Harris” on its Twitter account: “Today my partners and I were entrusted by the NFL with the stewardship of a great franchise. As a lifelong Washington fan who grew up here, I know that the Commanders are more than just a sports team. This is an institution, passed down from generation to generation.

“From day one, it is our top priority to deliver you a championship caliber team, and we will strive every day to ensure that we are a franchise that you can be proud of. To Commanders fans everywhere, our promise is simple: We will do the work, create the culture and make the investment needed to deliver for this team and for Washington.”

Dan Snyder purchased the Washington Commanders in 1999.

Leading up to the sale, Snyder and the team’s head have been under scrutiny for years by the NFL, Congress and national media amid widespread reports of alleged sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment. As the sale’s approval was announced Thursday, the NFL released the results of an investigation into Snyder and the Commanders by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who sustained a report of sexual harassment of a female employee by Snyder as well as allegations that the team deliberately underreported the franchise’s NFL revenues. The NFL imposed the $60 million fine as a resolution to the matters.

“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL. We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Thursday.

Goodell also congratulated Harris and “his impressive group of partners,” saying, “Josh will be a great addition to the NFL. He has a remarkable record in business, sports, and in his communities. The diverse group that Josh has put together is outstanding for its business acumen and strong Washington ties and we welcome them to the NFL as well.”

Thursday afternoon following the sale’s approval, Magic Johnson tweeted, “This is truly the biggest achievement in my business career and a historic moment for the entire Black community. Talk about God’s perfect timing. This was the right organization for me to be a part of given it’s global appeal, history of winning, and the diverse fanbase and DMV community. I have a special relationship with the DMV. Many people don’t know I’ve done business in the Washington, DC area for many years. I was one of the owners of the Washington Hilton, I built multiple Starbucks franchises and Magic Johnson Theaters, and empowerment centers with the Magic Johnson Foundation. I also have my company SodexoMAGIC headquartered here. The DMV community has embraced and supported me, and I am honored and ecstatic to be a co-owner of the Commanders franchise!”

Harris and Rales’s investment group made a failed bid to buy the Denver Broncos last year. The Broncos instead went to Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.65 billion, setting what was then a sales record for an NFL sports team. Harris also previously held an ownership stake of less than 5% in the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Snyder’s tenure in charge of Washington team began in 1999 when he purchased it from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, who first purchased a stake in the team in 1961 and became its majority owner in 1974. During Cooke’s ownership, the team won three Super Bowls in 1982, 1987 and 1991 under Head Coach Joe Gibbs.

A lifelong entrepreneur from Maryland, Snyder co-founded a wallboard advertising company in 1989 with his sister, Michele Snyder, that became Snyder Communications LP. In 2000, Snyder sold the business, which employed 12,000 people, for more than $2 billion.

When Snyder first purchased the Ashburn-based team, it was known as the Washington Redskins, a name criticized for decades as racist and derogatory against Native Americans. The name and logo were retired in 2020 amid a summer of national racial protests and following pressure from corporate sponsors. The team changed its name to the temporary generic moniker of the Washington Football Team before settling on the Commanders.

Snyder’s wife, Tanya, took over as co-CEO of the team in 2021, after the NFL’s $10 million fine of the team for an “improper” and “highly unprofessional” workplace culture. A few months earlier, in March 2021, the Snyders bought out the team’s minority co-owners to become its sole owners. Reports at the time placed the team’s value at $3.5 billion.

After buying the most expensive house in Virginia for $48 million in October 2021, the Snyders apparently moved to England by late 2022, according to public documents Dan Snyder filed to start a business in the United Kingdom.

By November 2022, with controversies, investigations and negative press mounting, Dan and Tanya Snyder hired Bank of America Securities to consider potential sales of the team. And in April, the Snyders reached a tentative agreement to sell to Harris’ group, the same month that the Commanders settled a lawsuit with the Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office over the team’s practices in handling season ticket deposit funds from fans.

 

 

Microsoft Federal sees leadership change

Microsoft Corp.’s federal arm has new leadership, after its former president, Rick Wagner, left the company to pursue “new opportunities.”

Wagner had run Federal, now based in Rosslyn, since 2020. Candice Ling announced in a LinkedIn post this week that she had accepted his former job. Microsoft’s federal team works with the civilian and defense sectors on a variety of projects, and is part of the team on the Pentagon’s $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Contract to build out cloud capabilities for the Department of Defense.

“Rick Wagner, president, Microsoft Federal, has decided to leave the company to pursue new opportunities,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Virginia Business in an email Wednesday, adding that his departure was announced last week. “We are deeply grateful for his leadership and contributions to the company and wish him all the best in the future.”

Ling served as the federal sector’s civilian vice president since October 2021 and previously spent 19 years with Canadian consulting firm CGI Inc., most recently as a senior vice president in Fairfax. She joined Microsoft as a government industry leader in Asia in 2018.

Ling wrote in her LinkedIn post that she wants “to champion a public-private centered strategy, fostering co-innovation and accelerating time-to-mission. We are also dedicated to and laser-focused on accelerating AI adoption in support of your mission.” She went on to say she is “committed to fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and inclusivity while supporting each and every one of you to achieve your goals.”

Breaking Defense, a defense industry trade publication, reported that Wagner’s departure marks the third senior-level Microsoft with ties to the industry to leave in the last year. Toni Townes-Whitley, who stepped down as Microsoft’s president of U.S. regulated industries in September 2022, will become the new CEO of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in October, succeeding Nazzic S. Keene.

In her LinkedIn post, Ling also announced that Heidi Kobylski will take over her previous role. Kobylski has spent more than 13 years at Microsoft, including as general manager of the federal civilian unit.