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Education 2025: DORÉ, DAVID

When Doré became the 10th chancellor of the Virginia Community College System in 2023, he started his tenure by traveling 3,600 miles in 36 days on a listening tour across the state.

Doré oversees 23 with 40 campuses and more than 232,000 students. The former president of Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, replaced Glenn DuBois, who was VCCS’ chancellor for more than two decades. In March, the VCCS board voted to discontinue policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across its colleges, following an executive order by President Donald Trump.

One of Doré’s goals is to see all Virginia high school students graduate with a community college credential under their belts. In a 2024 op-ed, Doré wrote every $1 spent on community college results in $5.70 in lifetime earnings for a VCCS student.

Doré earned his doctorate in education at Pepperdine University and master’s degrees from Georgetown, Boston College and Santa Clara University.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I was a Jesuit seminarian.

NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Visited Barcelona for the first time this summer!

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Energy 2025: BROWN, CARLOS M.

Brown’s title at Dominion grows longer and longer.

After joining the company in 2007 as senior counsel, Brown steadily climbed the ranks, holding business, operational and legal roles.

In 2024, Brown became president of Dominion Services and executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of Dominion Energy. In June, Brown assumed oversight of the company’s Project Construction group, which includes major generation and gas construction projects.

In a statement following Brown’s 2024 promotion, Robert M. Blue, chair, president and CEO of Dominion Energy, said, “Carlos has a depth and breadth of experience that will serve him well as he leads Dominion Energy’s law, corporate governance, environmental, IT, supply chain, corporate facilities, and corporate safety and security teams.”

As an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, Brown studied American government and law and served as president of the student body. While earning his law degree at U.Va., Brown was president of the Black Law Students Association.

Brown chairs the board of trustees for the Virginia Historical Society, which owns and operates the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: CALKINS, MATT

A top economics graduate at Dartmouth and a world champion board gamer, Calkins co-founded cloud computing and enterprise software firm in his basement in 1999. It grew to become the most successful software IPO of 2017.

In 2024, Appian reaped $68 million in cloud subscription revenue, up 21% compared with 2023. The company’s total 2024 revenue was $617 million, an annual increase of 13%, achieved after the company laid off 150 of its 2,243 workers to boost profits.

Calkins worked at software company MicroStrategy before forming Appian. He has served on the board of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, the Northern Virginia Council and sits on the Virginia Public Access Project’s leadership council.
Calkins has said he sees opportunity for Appian to pick up new business due to its close work with the Department of Government Efficiency on federal streamlining and the Trump administration’s scrutiny of larger contractors.

In March, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition from Appian seeking to reinstate a record $2.04 billion verdict in a 2022 corporate espionage case against rival Pegasystems that was previously overturned.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: MANGO, STEPHANIE

Mango took the helm of CGI Federal, the U.S. arm of Montreal-based IT and professional service consultancy CGI, in 2021. She joined CGI in 2004 when it purchased her former employer, American Management Systems. She was promoted to senior vice president in 2015.

In September 2024, the company finalized its purchase of Fairfax County IT consulting firm Aeyon. A month later, the company announced it won a spot on a $2 billion, 10-year U.S. Department of the Interior contract for cloud services and solutions. In May, CGI was picked by the Federal Administration to lead the modernization of its Notice to Airmen system, a tool used to deliver essential information to aircrew.

Mango has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia. WashingtonExec named her one of its 2024 Top Execs to Watch, and she has been included on Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of top government contracting executives four times.

Mango was elected to serve a three-year term as secretary of the Professional Services Council’s board starting in January. She also chairs the American Council for and Industry Advisory Council and serves on the board for TiE-DC.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: PARKS, DELBERT

As site executive at Virginia, Micron’s semiconductor manufacturing facility for computer memory chips, Parks oversees more than 1,230 employees for one of Virginia’s largest exporters.

A federally subsidized expansion, including $257 million in federal funds announced in December 2024, is expected to double the plant’s workforce, as Micron plans to move its existing DRAM manufacturing from Taiwan to Virginia. In December 2024, Micron announced a $2.17 billion investment in its Manassas facility, adding 340 employees.

The Idaho-based manufacturer doubled down on its investments in June, saying it plans to spend about $150 billion to expand manufacturing in Idaho, New York and Virginia, with another $50 billion going toward research and development.

In February, the Manassas City Council extended a tax incentive for Micron from 2030 to 2035, saving Micron about an additional $50 million in local taxes.

Parks earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and mathematics from Stephen F. Austin State University. He serves on the boards of Norfolk State University and the George Mason University Foundation.

Micron reported fiscal 2024 revenue of $25.11 billion, up from $15.54 billion in 2023.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: HENEGHAN, JOHN

The leader of ASGN’s federal consulting subsidiary since 2022, Heneghan was an English teacher before turning to tech. He previously served as ECS’ chief operating officer and held executive roles at Stanley Associates and CGI Federal.

In fiscal 2024, ASGN earned $4.1 billion in revenue, down from $4.45 billion from the previous year. In addition to receiving a spot on a $20 billion U.S. Department of Treasury blanket purchase agreement for cybersecurity enhancements in March, ECS was awarded a spot on a potential $1.1 billion National Institutes of Health contract in 2024.

In October 2024, ECS received a $528 million task order from the U.S. Department of Homeland’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). However, the General Services Administration, under the Trump administration, sent a letter in May to parent company ASGN, along with 18 other government contractors, to provide input and pricing information on their contracts.

ECS also created and maintains the FBI’s CODIS DNA index system. In 2025, Heneghan received his fourth Wash100 Award recognizing top government contracting leaders.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: NOVAKOVIC, PHEBE N.

Novakovic has led General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, since 2013. During her tenure, General Dynamics, with Newport News Shipbuilding as a subcontractor, won the Navy’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract, worth up to $24.2 billion, to build nuclear submarines.

The Fortune Global 500 company employs over 100,000 people and reported $47.7 billion in 2024 revenue, up 12.9% from 2023.

Ranked No. 36 on Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in business list in 2025, Novakovic is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

General Dynamics’s Boat subsidiary has received three contracts totaling about $3.8 billion for long-lead time material and planning for Virginia-class submarine construction as of summer 2025. In April, Electric Boat received a contract modification worth up to $17.2 billion for construction of two fiscal 2024 Virginia-class submarines that includes investments in shipyard productivity and workforce support.

A corporate director for JPMorgan Chase, Novakovic serves on several boards, including for Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. She chairs the board of the Association of the United States Army.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: ORTBERG, ROBERT K. ‘KELLY’  

In August 2024, Ortberg succeeded Dave Calhoun as the Fortune Global 500 aerospace and defense giant’s chief executive.

Ortberg is the retired president and CEO of Collins Aerospace, previously Rockwell Collins and now absorbed into Arlington-based defense contractor RTX. He serves on the Aerospace Industries Association’s executive committee.

‘s commercial jet sector’s recent troubles continued in June when a Boeing 787 Air India jet crashed, killing 260 people. A preliminary report appeared to rule out mechanical or design error. In August, 3,200 machinists who build fighter jets in St. Louis, Missouri, went on strike.

In July, Boeing and Alaska Airlines settled with passengers who sued for $1 billion following a midair wall-panel blowout on a 2024 flight. In May, the U.S. Justice Department and Boeing reached a deal for the company to avoid criminal prosecution over fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019; Boeing will pay and invest more than $1.1 billion, including $445 million to crash victims’ families.

In March, two Boeing Starliner astronauts returned to Earth on a SpaceX spacecraft after being stranded on the International Space Station for 286 days.

Boeing posted 2024 revenue of $66.5 billion, down from $77.79 billion in 2023, but the commercial airplane unit reported 81% in revenue growth in the second quarter this year. Ortberg said he expects positive cash flow by the fourth quarter.

2025 Virginia 500: Government | Politics | Lobbying

Education 2025: RAO, MICHAEL

After a bumpy year for Rao and VCU in 2024 — first an ongoing dispute over VCU Health paying $73 million to exit a redevelopment project, followed in the spring by a violent clash between VCU police and pro-Palestinian protesters — the Richmond-based school had some good news.

The school announced plans to convert the Siegel Center into Richmond’s largest indoor concert venue to generate revenue for student-athlete compensation. In 2024, VCU also surpassed $500 million in sponsored research funding for health, sustainability and equity initiatives. In 2025, though, the school reported losing about $39.6 million in federal grants amid massive spending cuts by the new Trump administration. In 2024, VCU became the first Virginia university to offer a minor in artificial intelligence.

VCU has more than 28,000 students across more than 220 degree and certificate programs. Rao became its president in 2009, and his contract has been extended through 2030. He formerly was president of Mission College in California, chancellor of Montana State University-Northern and president of Central Michigan University.

TRAITS I ADMIRE: Empathy, sincerity, commitment to others

FAVORITE FASHION ACCESSORY: Flip-flops

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