The Virginia House of Delegates narrowly passed a bill Tuesday that would allow Petersburg residents to vote on a casino referendum this fall. The legislation moves next to the Virginia State Senate, where a similar bill died in committee.
Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie, sponsored HB 1373, which passed 49-44 in the full House vote, with one delegate abstaining. Tuesday is the last day before crossover, when bills passed by each legislative body move to the other chamber for consideration. Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, was chief patron of the Senate bill, which failed in a narrow vote last week in the Senate Finance and Appropriations committee.
Taylor said on the House floor Tuesday that the measure, which would prevent Richmond from holding another casino referendum until Petersburg residents have had a chance to vote, would mean “economic independence” for Petersburg, which has come close to bankruptcy in recent years. She noted that the average annual income in Petersburg is about $26,000, while jobs at a proposed casino would be in the $60,000-per-year range.
“This bill is about raising the per capita income in my city,” she said.
Petersburg City Council members signed a commitment with Baltimore-based commercial real estate company The Cordish Cos. in October 2022 to develop a Live! Casino & Hotel resort, pending passage of state legislation and Petersburg voters’ support of a casino referendum this fall. Cordish officials have promised to spend $1.4 billion to build a casino, hotel and parking garage, as well as a multiuse development on the surrounding 90 acres, producing 1,800 direct jobs. However, Maryland-based Cordish, which has developed casinos across the mid-Atlantic and Florida, said it is not interested in developing a casino if Petersburg and Richmond both received a legislative green light to build casinos.
“We are excited Petersburg residents are one step closer to a better economic future,” Zed Smith, Cordish’s chief operating officer, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are hopeful this progress will continue favorably to allow Petersburg, an economically distressed city whose residents have suffered for years from a lack of investment, an opportunity to hold a local referendum and vote on a $1.4 billion transformative, privately funded development that will benefit the city for generations to come.”
Richmond officials, who have backed a second chance at passing a referendum to allow construction of Urban One Inc.‘s proposed $565 million ONE Casino + Resort in the city’s South Side, oppose the bill. In November 2021, Richmond voters defeated a referendum that would have allowed the casino to be built.
Del. Mark Sickles, D-Springfield, was the only Democrat to support the bill in the House Appropriations committee last week, along with 11 Republicans. He said on the House floor Tuesday that the measure has “been presented as a zero-sum game, and I don’t really like it,” and noted that a study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) said that both Richmond and Petersburg could potentially support casinos.
Sickles also said that Taylor’s bill’s passage in the Senate is “questionable,” given the defeat of Morrissey’s bill, but he said he would support the measure to keep the possibility of a Petersburg referendum alive.
The pandemic put a damper on workplace culture, which was particularly difficult for service-oriented organizations like Vaco, a Tennessee-based national staffing and consulting firm with an office in Richmond.
Recruiters and salespeople are typically more social and outgoing, so adjusting to a remote — and now hybrid — working environment has been a challenge for the firm.
“Trust was put back into the employees’ hands,” says Amy Miller, a managing partner with Vaco Richmond. “We’ve had to get creative with our culture because of people working in that remote or hybrid environment, not traveling as much, and not getting that face time with leadership and other teams.”
What hasn’t changed in the 17 years that Miller has been with the company, though, is Vaco’s willingness to invest in its employees. Today, this includes a focus on wellness, fitness, community service and even special vacation time.
“We’ve always invested in the whole person — professionally, personally and mentally,” Miller says. “Our commitment is to continuously develop, including our communication, our collaboration, as well as encouraging our team to create their own ‘magical moments’ for themselves, for their direct teams, for their clients, for their candidates.”
On the fitness and wellness front, Vaco Richmond sponsors outings such as hot yoga classes, walking challenges and plant workshops. Plus, the company’s office space includes a massage chair for employees. While Vaco operates on a hybrid work schedule, the company remains flexible on working hours and days employees are expected to be in the office. Most employees work remotely but have the option to come into the office.
Nationwide, Vaco also offers employee memberships to Calm, an app that includes guided meditations. “It’s a focus nationwide to avoid burnout and to make sure that we’re all understanding of each other’s mental space,” Miller says.
Community and philanthropic service are also core to Vaco’s workplace culture. The company operates its own employee-funded 501(c)(3) organization, Vaco Cares, which was “born from the overwhelming desire to help someone in their darkest moment,” Miller says. Vaco Cares provides funding to support colleagues, their immediate families, candidates, consultants and clients in times of need such as natural disasters, fires, deaths, unforeseen illnesses, or debilitating accidents.
Vaco also hosts volunteer days with Richmond organizations such as RVATECH, Junior Achievement of Central Virginia Inc., We Heart Harlie & Friends Foundation, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
A lot of companies tout a “work hard, play hard” mentality, but Vaco takes this a step further by offering multiple trip opportunities. Each year, Vaco offers three trips: Engage the Region, Engage the World, and Vatopia. These trips give employees the chance to meet up with other offices in the region, to meet nationally in Las Vegas with more than 800 other Vaco employees, or for top performers to enjoy a luxury vacation incentive, respectively.
“It’s a service company, so we’re all fairly outgoing and social and enjoy being at networking events,” Miller says. “It’s nice to be able to work from home, but it’s also nice to get back in [person] together.”
While the Engage the Region and Engage the World trips are more like work conferences, Vatopia is a true vacation. Employees set goals with leadership, and if they meet them, they are rewarded with the Vatopia trip and can even bring a plus-one. The company also extends its flexibility to goal setting; if an employee has a major life event such as new parenthood, then their work goals are adjusted accordingly, Miller says. This year, qualifying employees will travel to the Bahamas.
“Employees are the foundation of the success of the company,” Miller says. “Leadership at all levels is really committed to nurturing an environment that invests in our employees.”
This is the 13th year that Virginia Business has compiled the Best Places to Work in Virginia list in collaboration with Pennsylvania-based Best Companies Group.
More than 200 companies applied for inclusion in the 2023 Best Places to Work in Virginia cohort. A hundred companies were chosen, divided into three categories: small (15-99 U.S. employees); midsize (100-249); and large (250 or more).
Best Companies Group makes its selections based on surveys conducted with the companies and their employees.
Employee surveys benchmark companies on a list of core values: leadership and planning; corporate culture and communication; role satisfaction; work environment; relationship with supervisor; training and benefits; pay; and overall engagement.
The 2023 Best Places to Work lists can be found below, and click the links to read about individual companies that placed first in their categories.
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a revolution in how workers and businesses think about where, when and how we work. And that change is fully reflected in the survey responses we received from the 100 companies selected for this year’s Virginia Best Places to Work cohort.
Seventy-one of those 100 businesses reported that the pandemic has resulted in major adjustments to their work schedules, ranging from increased telecommuting opportunities to a fully remote workforce. In this issue’s annual Best Places to Work report, freelance writer Sydney Lake examines how some of Virginia’s best employers are negotiating this shifting workplace landscape.
Surveyed about the ways the pandemic transformed their workplaces, 30 companies said they have expanded telecommuting opportunities, including allowing for a mix of employees working in-person, remote and hybrid schedules. Another 21 companies reported that their workforces have gone fully or mostly remote, with 85% or more of their employees working four or more days remotely each week. And 20 businesses have implemented a hybrid work model, allowing employees to work a mixed schedule of remote and in-office workdays.
Most of these businesses reported implementing new conferencing and project management tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Slack to better help staff keep up with one another.
Equally as important to Virginia’s best employers is maintaining work culture in this new environment.
“Our culture is HUGE to us,” said a representative from the Dutch cloud computing/web services company Leaseweb, which has its U.S. headquarters in Manassas and now employs a hybrid/remote workforce. Once a month, the company holds an in-person “Leasewebber Day,” gathering employees for fun team-building activities ranging from going out for happy hour to holding summer barbecues and cornhole tournaments to renting out a movie theater to watch the latest Marvel movie.
Mythics Inc., a Virginia Beach-based federal contractor that allows employees to work remotely or in the office as needed, reported that it has “hosted a variety of virtual and in-office activities and contests such as wellness bingo, employee cookbook, virtual yoga, happy hours and other engaging activities.” It also implemented a “buddy” program “to engage/connect our new hires with current team members to accelerate integration with teams.”
Responding to the 2023 Best Places to Work survey, some of this year’s cohort companies also discussed how implementing remote work has been advantageous in allowing them to hire employees from around the nation, enlarging their applicant pools amid a tight and competitive labor market for many industries.
“We have expanded our hiring practices to include remote candidates for nearly every position except the office administrator in our physical office,” responded Richmond-based marketing agency Workshop Digital, adding that 41% of the company’s employees are now working remotely from outside the region. Due to that shift, the agency is also downsizing its physical office space and reinvesting the savings in its workforce and training opportunities.
Remote work has given employees more freedom to work where and when they want to, while helping companies retain employees who need or want increased flexibility. Some companies, such as Reston-based tech company Resonate, report allowing employees to relocate to other states. Richmond-based RiverFront Investment Group, which has moved to a hybrid work model, responded that “some associates have worked remotely in the mountains, at the river or in other countries near family for weeks at a time, balancing that with time in the office later.”
Overall, Virginia’s best employers report that moving to more flexible work models has been good not only for employee morale but also the bottom line.
“COVID was an opportunity to encourage the kind of working freedoms that transformed our day-to-day operations,” responded Alexandria-based Xsensus LLP, an intellectual property law firm. “Our people were champions during this time, as we grew our business 30% year-over-year since the beginning of COVID. Of course, we needed to hire more administrative staff, but they too are able to work remotely!
“The changes made to our existing workplace policies have been so successful, we do not foresee any reason to change this policy because most people would like to continue working remotely.”
SmartEdge IT LLC, a Herndon-based business software development company, places a high premium on employee health and well-being.
SmartEdge pays 100% of the premium for its health care package and provides $50,000 life insurance policies for all full-time employees, benefits that start on the day a person is hired.
“Health insurance is very expensive these days, but we provide them with free health care,” says Raja Kilaru, president of SmartEdge, which made the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies in 2020 and 2022.
SmartEdge’s clients include financial services firms, health care companies and even retailers such as Walmart. The software developer’s services range from business intelligence, data warehousing and application development to quality assurance. SmartEdge employs 30 people in Virginia.
SmartEdge employees initially receive two weeks of paid time off, as well as 15 company holidays and unlimited sick time. After one year of employment, workers can receive an unlimited number of paid days off. Plus, if overnight travel for work is required, the company provides monetary incentives or extra paid time off to compensate employees for their time.
When the company switched to remote work amid the pandemic, SmartEdge sent employees ergonomic chairs to make telecommuting more comfortable. As of December 2022, SmartEdge workers were still telecommuting, but Kilaru planned to move to a flexible, hybrid model in January. “They can log in at any time — they just need to accomplish the task,” Kilaru says. “We’re not going to micromanage.”
SmartEdge also places an emphasis on wellness. Each year, the company hosts a fitness challenge, encouraging workers to participate in physical fitness as well as meditation and yoga. SmartEdge IT also provides an annual meditation and yoga class for its employees.
“All of our employees are very happy,” Kilaru says. “We treat all of the employees like a family.”
Employees also have the opportunity to take paid time off to volunteer with local organizations, such as Loudoun Hunger Relief. The company also fundraises for
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Additionally, SmartEdge strongly encourages mentorship within the organization and empowers employees to continue their education. Each year, employees have access to up to $5,000 to pursue an educational program of their choosing. It’s often used by workers to earn an MBA or technology certifications. The company also hosts a variety of workshops dedicated to productivity, time management, diversity and financial education.
“We have a lot of long-term employees,” Kilaru says. “We’re training them and we’re retaining them.”
Holding onto employees isn’t a problem at SmartEdge, which has a 95% employee retention rate and salaries ranging from $110,000 to $150,000.
Overall, SmartEdge continues to be a place where employees want to work because they’re viewed as assets to the company, Kilaru says.
“It’s about teamwork,” he adds. “We help each other.”
While there was no way to predict that a global pandemic would disrupt office life as we knew it, one Virginia-based company already had a grip on one trend impacting working professionals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one in five U.S. households adopted a cat or dog, accounting for about 23 million households, according to a survey by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
Charlottesville-based electronics retailer Crutchfield Corp. was already ahead of what’s been called the “puppy boom” of the COVID pandemic. About five years before the onset of COVID, Crutchfield implemented its “pawlicy” allowing dogs onsite at most of its facilities.
For employees headed back to the office who are worried about leaving their new Fido at home, that barrier was already removed. Surrounding its headquarters, Crutchfield has about two miles of woodland trails, which were repaved during the pandemic. But the shining star for employee pet owners is “Woofer Park” dog park, a pun on the name of a part of the car and home audio speakers that Crutchfield specializes in selling. Woofer Park, along with other outdoor spaces, was also freshened up during COVID-19 while employees were working remotely.
“We do seem to have a lot more dogs in the building now than we did,” says Chris Lilley, Crutchfield’s chief human resource officer. “People spend a lot of time on their breaks outside with their dogs, so the dog park’s been really popular.”
Similar to the way many other companies are operating post-pandemic, Crutchfield has employees working hybrid and remote schedules. Crutchfield is taking a more “gentle easing” approach toward reintroducing employees to the office, Lilley says, allowing workers to choose when or whether to come into the office and not forcing workers to do anything they’re not comfortable doing.
No company is truly immune to the new “hybrid workplace conundrum,” as Lilley puts it. Even companies recognized among Virginia’s Best Places to Work have been grappling with how to cultivate and maintain their corporate cultures in a remote or hybrid work environment.
“The workforce has changed over the past two to three years. The expectation now is that work is remote or virtual, so when you tell someone that they have to work onsite, they’re not interested,” says Jason Fair, CEO of Richmond-based Genesis Consulting Partners LLC. “That creates a recruiting challenge in finding the right talent to deliver the high-quality services that we deliver.”
McLean-based federal contractorHarmonia holds a variety of remote events to build rapport with new hires working from distant states, says Katryn Stewart, vice president of human resources and administration. Photo by Don Petersen
‘Stressbusters’
While a cliché, many best places to work compare their workforce to a family. And similar to the ways that families struggled to stay connected during COVID-19, these organizations also had a tough time maintaining the cultures they’d built up over the years.
While “culture” is an overused word in the corporate world, it’s really about maintaining the personality and character of the company, no matter the work environment, says Tom Tingle, president of Williamsburg-based architecture firm GuernseyTingle. “If you can’t maintain the culture, then it’s just a place to work,” he says. The culture of the 39-year-old firm has developed over time, but it’s a reflection of the people who work there. During the past three years, GuernseyTingle has redefined its work-from-home policy several times, morphing from a 100% remote environment during the height of COVID-19 to a hybrid policy. Today, employees work in the office Monday through Thursday, and have the option to work remotely on Fridays.
“It’s allowed us to get back to having more collaboration and, frankly, more creativity,” Tingle says. “You have more organic discussions around the office over projects and it’s difficult to have that happen [remotely].”
One thing that didn’t stop during COVID-19 was GuernseyTingle’s “stressbusters,” employee get-togethers to blow off steam for a couple of hours.
“When COVID hit and we weren’t able to do that, we really struggled with connecting with folks,” says Kristin Baum, the company’s vice president of human resources. “In the virtual world, it’s just not the same when you’re not seeing everybody every day.”
Stressbusters have included going out for dinner or happy hours and playing games such as pool, darts or simulated golf. But when workers couldn’t get together in person, employees and their families visited an outdoor “drive-through” station at the office to pick up food, hopped on a video call to eat dinner together, played Mad Libs and met each other’s pets from the comfort of their own respective homes.
‘Trial and error’
McLean-based federal IT contracting firm Harmonia Holdings Group LLC wasn’t as worried about maintaining corporate culture as it was concerned with recruiting and acclimating new employees during the pandemic, says Katryn Stewart, Harmonia’s vice president of human resources and administration.
With an array of new hires from as far away as Washington state, Maine and Texas, Harmonia remains primarily remote, so it’s been focused on creating connections with people who can’t physically meet in person.
“I’ll be honest, some of it has been trial and error,” Stewart says. “We’ve always been a very tight-knit organization. When we moved to a remote organization during COVID, we already had a very strong foundation of connection and collaboration, so we really just wanted to keep that going.”
To acquaint employees with the company’s personality, Harmonia has tried out different remote events such as virtual dance competitions. It also implemented monthly all-staff video coffee chats.
But what’s been most successful so far in helping employees feel connected was Harmonia’s “Bring Yourself to Work Day,” which the company first hosted in mid-2022. All employees who were within driving distance of the office were invited to spend a workday at Harmonia’s McLean headquarters.
“This doesn’t sound that exciting up front,” Stewart says, “but keep in mind these are employees who have worked remotely for the last 2 1/2 years.”
Harmonia leadership decked out the office with decorations and massage tables. Employees snacked on rolled ice cream, boba tea and other treats. They also had dibs on any company swag they wanted, including T-shirts, desk lights, pens, notepads and backpacks. More than 150 of the 230 employees living in the area showed up for Harmonia’s first “bring yourself to work” day event, and the company has more of the events planned for 2023.
“Yeah, they were expected to work — it wasn’t a party,” Stewart says. “But it was an opportunity to see each other, to connect, to talk and see how fun it was to be a part of a team face-to-face.”
Flexibility and understanding
Felix
The bottom line for workplace success now is flexibility, say representatives from Virginia’s Best Places to Work. While it may have been sparked by the pandemic, it has shifted to become a necessity.
McLean-based financial advisory firm Cassaday & Co. Inc. has long prided itself on being a family-friendly company, and that continues to be a top priority in the post-pandemic era.
At the wealth management firm, work times can be dependent upon stock market hours, but there are also roles that can be done outside of traditional 9-5 work hours, says Allison Felix, Cassaday’s managing partner and chief operating officer.
Much of the company shifted to telework and hybrid schedules amid the pandemic and that hasn’t changed much; employees can telecommute up to three days a week.
“We have a lot of people who like coming in [to the office] more than that, but for those who still desire that level of flexibility, that still exists today,” Felix says.
Cassaday lets employees take out interest-free loans to purchase tech hardware and also lets workers roll over their paid days off, which largely weren’t used as much during the pandemic when people took fewer vacations. Those benefits are particularly attractive for the firm’s younger, single hires, Felix says.
Like Harmonia, Cassaday has held some in-office events to build camaraderie. During the FIFA World Cup in December 2022, Cassaday employees watched World Cup games at the office and chowed down on red-white-and-blue-themed foods.
“It was a great opportunity to return to something that felt like pre-COVID normal and still … ensuring that our staff understand that we’re still looking at them as the whole person,” she says.
No matter the path a company chose to take during the pandemic, there’s no doubt that the nature of work is in flux and will continue to change.
“When we’re seeing folks forcing folks back into offices and onsite full time or part time,” Lilley says, “it seems to be a hammer approach to a problem that requires much more delicate tools.”
The last couple years have been a trying time for many businesses, but probably not for the same reasons as Patriot Group International Inc.
When the U.S. Armed Forces withdrew the last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a 20-year war, the Warrenton-based federal contractor lost nearly 20% of its revenue and had to let go more than 75 employees practically overnight, says Greg Craddock, CEO of Patriot Group, which provides mission support security and risk management services to federal intelligence and defense clients as well as private sector clients. This often includes high-risk work overseas.
The pullout from the war happened quickly, resulting in more than 100,000 people leaving the country in just a few days. Even President Joe Biden called the withdrawal “messy.”
“Unfortunately, with the way things transpired, we lost a lot of valued team members just simply because the work disappeared,” Craddock says. “That’s something that we obviously don’t like doing — making those phone calls and letting people know that they have to look for another way to support their family.”
While suddenly losing a significant revenue stream forced Patriot Group to examine how to streamline its business and remain competitive, that was secondary to taking care of personnel, Craddock says. This meant that company leadership needed to be clear and direct in its communication with workers.
“Within our industry, one of the keys to success or failure is good or bad communication,” he adds. “There’s some uncomfortable conversations that went down but being forthright and honest and upfront with the personnel was just the key to success.”
As a result of the 2021 Afghanistan pullout and the subsequent hit to Patriot Group’s business, 2022 was a challenging year for the company. A key part of showing commitment to its employees was maintaining or even improving upon worker benefits and opportunities, Craddock says.
This includes allowing new hires to immediately enroll in the company’s health care plan and start contributing to their retirement plans. Patriot Group provides matching 401(k) accounts, matching 100% of the first 3% of an employee’s contribution, and 50% on the next 2%. Flexible work hours can also be used to accommodate family events. Personnel can also get tuition reimbursement for advanced or postgraduate degrees as well as certifications and business education workshops.
Patriot Group also fosters a culture of mentorship and support. The company prioritizes promoting current employees to higher-ranking positions.
“Our primary goal is to promote within when opportunities present themselves,” Craddock says. “One of the key components to that is making sure that our junior employees get the opportunity to not only perform without someone looking over their shoulder and develop their own leadership style, but also we’re there to help them learn more about effective leadership traits and best practices.”
The resilience Patriot Group has shown following an unexpected business challenge looks like it’s going to pay off. Today, the company employs 228 people in the U.S., about 70 of whom are in Virginia. Since 2020, its U.S. workforce has grown by about 80 people, including 30 in Virginia. PGI also participates in the state’s Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program, through which companies commit to hiring military veterans.
“2022 … [was] a challenge in terms of our overall business success, but we … [saw] real positive growth indicators for the back half of the year,” Craddock says, “and we think 2023 could be potentially one of our best ever.”
With an 7-8 no vote Thursday evening, the Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee killed state Sen. Joe Morrissey‘s measure to bring a casino referendum to Petersburg‘s ballots this fall. A similar bill in the House of Delegates, however, is still alive.
A few days after receiving support from the Senate gaming subcommittee and the General Laws and Technology Committee, which sent the bill to Senate Finance with an 11-4 vote Wednesday, eight senators — Republicans and Democrats — voted ‘no’ on a motion to report the bill for a Senate floor vote. Seven others voted to send the bill on for a full Senate vote.
As the matter stands, Petersburg could still have a referendum for a $1.4 billion casino development this fall, or Richmond voters could vote a second time on a proposed casino.
Although the measure took about five minutes in the busy finance committee agenda, supporters and opponents of a Petersburg casino came out in force to testify at the gaming subcommittee meeting last week. Morrissey’s bill would have added Petersburg to the list of cities eligible to host a casino in the state, and it effectively would have prevented Richmond from holding a second casino referendum vote this fall, following a 2021 defeat.
Del. Kim Taylor’s bill, which also adds Petersburg to the list of five eligible cities and would not allow Richmond to hold a referendum, was reported to the House Appropriations committee by a General Laws subcommittee this week in a 5-2 vote. On Friday, the House Appropriations committee voted 12-9 to send the bill to a full vote. One Democrat, Del. Mark Sickles, joined Republicans in voting yes on the motion.
According to the state Department of Planning and Budget, the proposed legislation would not have an impact on state spending, but additional Virginia Lottery and Petersburg staffing and operational spending would be necessary.
Most opponents to the bills are city of Richmond officials, who have backed a second chance at passing a referendum to allow construction of Urban One Inc.‘s proposed $565 million ONE Casino + Resort in the city’s South Side.
Boosters of the bills are mainly Petersburg officials; Petersburg City Council signed a commitment with Baltimore-based commercial real estate company The Cordish Cos. in October 2022 to develop a Live! Casino & Hotel resort, pending passage of Morrissey’s and Taylor’s bills and Petersburg voters’ support of a casino referendum this fall. Cordish officials have promised to spend $1.4 billion to build a casino, hotel and parking garage, as well as a multiuse development on the surrounding 90 acres, producing 1,800 direct jobs. The Maryland-based company, which has developed casinos across the mid-Atlantic and Florida, said it is not interested in developing a casino if Petersburg and Richmond both got the green light to build casinos.
“We will continue to work with local leaders and members of the General Assembly to bring a transformative urban revitalization project to Petersburg that will generate desperately needed new jobs for Petersburg, along with substantial additional tax revenue for the city and commonwealth,” Zed Smith, Cordish’s chief operating officer, said in a statement Thursday night.
When the state legalized commercial casinos in 2020, it limited the options for casinos to one facility apiece in five economically disadvantaged cities — Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond. Morrissey and other proponents of a Petersburg casino said that the city — which has suffered serious financial setbacks in recent decades — deserved a chance to bring in a casino before giving Richmond a second bite at the apple.
“Petersburg was much more of a natural fit,” Morrissey said in a November 2022 interview with Virginia Business. “The casino legislation was to help struggling cities in the commonwealth, not counties or cities that were going gangbusters. You had to work to construct language that allowed Richmond to fit into one of the five host cities.”
Morrissey and Taylor’s staffs did not respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.
Richmond-based Phlow Corp. has promoted Dan Hackman from chief business officer to president, the pharmaceutical manufacturing company announced Thursday.
Hackman joined Phlow in 2020. He previously worked with Kaleo Inc. as general manager of its Auvi-Q product — an injectable pen developed for emergency allergy treatment — and served as its vice president of patient access and affordability strategy from 2017 to 2020, after working as the company’s chief commercial officer from 2015 to 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“I’m excited to begin this new role at Phlow and look forward to working with our best-in-class teams to secure our nation’s essential medicine supply chain and serve our commercial customers,” he said in a statement.
Hackman has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Illinois State University and a law degree from Indiana University. His background includes executive roles at other health-related companies, including Sorin Group (now LivaNova), where from 2009 to 2015 he served as senior vice president of U.S. cardiac rhythm management and then senior vice president of strategic growth initiatives. He has also served in a variety of leadership positions at Boston Scientific Corp. as well as its subsidiary Guidant Corp.
Phlow on Thursday also announced the addition of Melinda Hancock, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Sentara Healthcare, to its board of directors, as well as the formation of a Phlow business advisory board.
Guy Villax, former CEO and current nonexecutive board member, Hovione
Joseph Warchol, chief financial officer for North America, Curium Pharma
In May 2020, Phlow received a $354 million, four-year federal contract from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to create an American supply chain for generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients that are now made mostly in China and India that are needed to treat coronavirus.
In Petersburg, Phlow is partnering with nonprofit generic drug-maker Civica Rx and California-based AMPAC Fine Chemicals to produce COVID drugs as part of a federal initiative to create the domestic supply chain for critical pharmaceuticals and ingredients.
CNU Chief of Staff Adelia P. Thompson has been serving as interim president since former President Paul S. Trible Jr.’s retirement at the end of the 2021-22 academic year, announced in fall 2021. Trible, who was CNU’s president for 26 years, now serves as the university’s chancellor, a post he said he would hold for the 2022-23 academic year during his retirement announcement. Trible oversaw more than $1 billion in capital construction at CNU, including more than 40 construction projects, and the campus grew from 100 acres to 260 acres.
Kelly, who will retire this year from the military after 36 years, became the Coast Guard Academy’s superintendent in 2019 and has been responsible for the education, development and commissioning of Coast Guard officers. A 1987 graduate of the academy, he has a master’s degree in instructional systems design and a certificate in human resource management from Florida State University.
“Christopher Newport values scholarship, leadership, compassion, service, community — these same core values have guided me throughout my life and are closely aligned with the academy I currently have the privilege of leading,” Kelly said in a statement.
He was previously an assistant commandant for human resources in Washington, D.C. In that role, Kelly was responsible for carrying out the Coast Guard’s diversity and inclusion strategic plan, which included implementing the service’s first Affinity Group Council and overseeing its first study of women’s retention issues in more than 25 years.
Kelly has served as the commanding officer of the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, the director of the Coast Guard’s Leadership Development Center and the school chief for Officer Candidate School. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Florida State University.
Christopher Newport University’s former president, Paul Trible, with students in 2019. Photo courtesy CNU
Including two command tours on board USCGC Seneca and USCGC Monomoy, Kelly has more than 10 years of service at sea. As executive officer in USCGC Spencer, he led the crew for deployment with the Navy’s Sixth Fleet in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He also has chaired the Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees and been president of the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance Board and the Coast Guard Nonpay Compensation Board. His major awards include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Coast Guard Commendation Medal, the Coast Guard Achievement Medal and the permanent Cutterman’s pin.
The CNU Board of Visitors unanimously appointed Kelly, according to the school’s announcement. He and his wife, Angie Kelly, moved 15 times during his Coast Guard service, and they spent three years in Newport News and six in Northern Virginia. They have two sons and a grandson.
“[Kelly’s] life of public service embodies the principles of leadership, honor and service that define the Christopher Newport experience, and I am confident that CNU’s best days lie ahead,” Trible said in a statement.
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Cookie
Duration
Description
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11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
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