Chesterfield County has hired J.C. Poma as its first executive director of sports, visitation and entertainment, with a focus on growing sports tourism, the county announced Friday.
Currently the vice president of community relations for regional marketing organization Richmond Region Tourism, Poma will start his new position with Chesterfield on May 1.
“While the county has experienced steady growth in its sports tourism portfolio over the past decade, it has the potential to reach far greater heights,” Poma said in a statement. “I’m excited to be part of that endeavor and can’t wait to get started.”
Poma began working with Richmond Region Tourism in 2016 as sports development manager. In 2019, he was promoted to director of sports relations and took on his current role in 2021.
“We are grateful for J.C.’s leadership and passion over the last seven years at Richmond Region Tourism and look forward to working closely with him in his new role,” Katherine O’Donnell, executive vice president of Richmond Region Tourism, said in a statement. “I look forward to a continued bright future for sports tourism and regional collaboration with J.C.’s leadership in Chesterfield County.”
Before joining Richmond Region Tourism, Poma was community outreach manager for The Doorways, a nonprofit that provides lodging in downtown Richmond for hospital patients and their loved ones in partnership with several Richmond-area hospitals.
Poma has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He is an advisory board member for the U.S. Sports Congress and serves on the Sportable Paralympic Sports Club Board of Directors.
In fiscal year 2022, Chesterfield County hosted 63 sports-related events that had 253,111 attendees and generated $34.4 million in direct economic impact and $1.28 million in direct local tax revenue, according to a news release.
In March 2022, neighboring Henrico County named Dennis Bickmeier, then the Richmond Raceway President, as the head of its newly created sports and entertainment authority.
Mary Baldwin University’s next president will be Jeffrey P. Stein, vice president for strategic initiatives and partnerships at Elon University in North Carolina, the Staunton private university announced on Friday.
Also an assistant professor of English at Elon, Stein will become MBU’s 10th president on July 1, succeeding MBU President Pamela R. Fox, who announced her retirement in August 2022.
“I am honored and humbled to be chosen as Mary Baldwin University’s 10th president and thrilled to be joining this dynamic community, which for 181 years has made courageous decisions to change lives through inclusive, experiential and student-centered education,” Stein said in a statement.
Named to his current role at Elon in 2019, Stein led the creation and implementation of Elon’s 10-year strategic plan and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also worked with Elon’s advancement team, president and donors to raise more than $4 million in endowment funding and annual gifts to support the university’s Jewish life and Jewish studies programs.
In 2010, Stein joined Elon’s senior staff and served as chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees for two university presidents. As a student affairs dean from 2002 to 2010, he led an initiative to design a $150 million residential plan across campus.
“Jeff Stein’s experiences across academia demonstrate leadership in and out of the classroom. His mastery of strategic planning lifts all campus stakeholders, and his ability to lead in challenging times speaks to a critical moment in higher education,” MBU Board of Trustees Chair and alumna Gabrielle G. “Gabby” McCree said in a statement.
Stein holds a doctorate degree in higher education management from the University of Georgia, a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Colorado State University, a master’s degree in English from the University of Northern Colorado and a bachelor’s degree in English from Beliot College in Wisconsin.
Stein serves as board chair of the United Way of Alamance County in North Carolina and serves on the Downtown Elon Advisory Board and the Alamance County Economic Development Foundation’s board.
MBU formed a 15-member committee for its presidential search, partnering with Washington, D.C.-based executive search firm Academic Search.
Bridges will succeed Roger Giesinger, who has led the nonprofit, Norfolk-based trade association for the past 28 years. Giesinger, who announced his retirement last year, will stay on as president emeritus for a brief transition period.
Bridges comes to HRSA from CMA-CGM America, where he served as vice president of labor relations. Before that, he worked for the Pacific Maritime Association, where he was area managing director for Southern California.
“We are grateful to Roger for his 28 years leading negotiations and labor relations with the International Longshoremen’s Association, and his many contributions which have improved the modernization, productivity, safety and overall competitiveness of our port.” HRSA board Chairman Jim Michalski said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Jeremy. Our industry and our workforce are changing, and we are confident he is the best choice for the future of the labor relations in our port. Jeremy possesses the right experience, skills and characteristics to strategically and effectively work with our ILA partners to make the Port of Virginia the most productive and safest place to work the ships and cargo of our port customers.”
Bridges earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from James Madison University and holds certifications in labor negotiation, arbitration, information technology and project management from the International Association of Maritime and Port Executives (IAMPE).
The Billund, Denmark-based toy company known for its brightly colored plastic toy bricks and construction sets plans to hire 1,761 people to work at its plant in Chesterfield’s Meadowville Technology Park over the next 10 years, with production, including molding plastic toys, expected to begin in the second half of 2025.
“We are not just building a factory, but we are building a culture of diverse, inclusive and playful workplaces for more than 1,700, or to be exact, 1,761,” said Lego Chief Operating Officer Carsten Rasmussen.
Lego is initially hiring 500 people to package toys in a temporary facility in Chesterfield’s Walthall Interchange Industrial Park and plans to begin those operations in the first half of 2024. So far, the company has hired about 20 people, Rasmussen said. Lego’s Virginia careers website shows several open positions, including construction project manager, director of human resources, facility director, materials planner and senior procurement manager.
“This is an iconic company,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said during the groundbreaking ceremony. “…Together [we] are committed to invest [in] and grow … [a] workforce that is truly best in class.”
Lego plans to select a general contractor for the facility in the next few months, Rasmussen said, and the company has contracted with George Nice & Sons Inc. to conduct groundwork currently occurring at the site.
When complete, the Lego facility will have 13 buildings comprising 1.7 million square feet, including office spaces, molding, processing and packing buildings and a high bay warehouse. The property spans 340 acres.
A Lego model in the Chesterfield facility’s visitor center shows the complex’s planned layout. Photo by Rick DeBerry
Lego is eligible for incentives approved by the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Commission. During the ceremony, Youngkin signed Virginia HB 2238 and SB 1134, establishing the Precision Plastic Manufacturing Grant Fund. The bill provides up to $56 million in grants between July 1, 2027, and July 1, 2035, “to a qualified company that engages in the manufacture and distribution of precision plastic products in an eligible county and that between June 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2035, is expected to make a capital investment of at least $1 billion and create at least 1,761 new full-time jobs related to or supportive of its business.”
Thursday’s event was celebratory, but Virginia’s economic development officials have acknowledged that Lego’s plant is a one-of-a-kind deal in the commonwealth, while neighboring states have won many more high-dollar industrial projects since 2015. Youngkin has blamed a lack of shovel-ready industrial sites and focused on allocating more state funds toward site preparation in hopes of winning more megaprojects.
Lego has touted its commitment to the Richmond community. On Thursday, the company announced it will donate more than $1 million to charities that support local children from disadvantaged backgrounds with learning-through-play programs. In 2022, Lego donated $300,000 to the Children’s Museum of Richmond and the Science Museum of Virginia, but the company and its foundation won’t announce recipients of the remaining $700,000 until this summer.
“Children are our role models because they have boundless creativity and natural curiosity about the world and they’re a constant source of inspiration,” said Skip Kodak, Lego’s regional president of the Americas.
Lego has also emphasized its commitment to sustainability. By 2032, Lego Group aims to reduce its global carbon emissions by 37% of its 2019 output. The Chesterfield facility will be carbon-neutral, with ground and rooftop solar panels and a 35- to 40-megawatt solar plant onsite. The toymaker is also aiming for a Gold LEED certification for the facility once complete.
The Chesterfield factory is Lego’s first U.S. manufacturing facility and its second in North America, the first being in Monterrey, Mexico. The Danish company plans to open another facility in Vietnam by 2024 and is expanding its facilities in Mexico, Hungary and China.
Lego established its American subsidiary, Lego Systems Inc., in 1973. Although its Americas headquarters have been in Enfield, Connecticut, since 1975, the company is moving its U.S. headquarters to Boston in 2026. The toymaker employs more than 3,000 people in the U.S. and has more than 100 stores, including three in Virginia — in Arlington, McLean and Woodbridge. Worldwide, the company has more than 27,000 employees.
Arlington County-based market strategy and research firm Fors Marsh has acquired Florida-based marketing firm Brunet-García, the company announced April 5.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fors Marsh employs 420 researchers, advisers and communicators and serves federal clients such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security.
Jacksonville-based B|G is a minority-owned agency that specializes in social impact programs for government agencies, nonprofits, foundations and brands, according to a news release announcing the acquisition.
“We are excited to welcome the talented Brunet-García team to Fors Marsh,” Fors Marsh CEO Ben Garthwaite said in a statement. “Two firms with rich, 20-year histories joining forces, B|G and Fors Marsh are aligned on values and share a common mission of driving meaningful social impact and change through powerful campaigns, especially around key health issues like immunization, substance use disorder and chronic diseases. B|G will augment our creative and outreach capabilities and provide deep expertise in multicultural marketing and communications. Fors Marsh’s research-driven experience, combined with Brunet-García’s creative talent, creates an unmatched portfolio of services to help a wider range of federal and state organizations and, in turn, continue our joint mission of improving Americans’ lives.”
AT&T Virginia President Vince Apruzzese Jr. will add the role of president of external affairs for Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to his duties, the company announced Wednesday.
Apruzzese has served as AT&T‘s Virginia president since 2010. In his expanded role, Apruzzese, who’s based in Richmond, will lead AT&T’s legislative, public policy and philanthropic initiatives in the three additional jurisdictions and work with elected and appointed officials on public policy issues, and with business, community and civic leaders to support important local initiatives.
He replaces Denis Dunn, who retired in April.
Apruzzeese has been with the telecommunications giant for more than three decades, first starting in accounts payable, then working in corporate security and working his way up to regulatory and external affairs.
“Vince has a strong record of success working in external and legislative affairs roles over many years in Virginia and Illinois,” John Emra, president of AT&T Atlantic Region, said in a statement. “The region he and his team covers is an important one for the company, and I know he will build upon a strong foundation and network to make an immediate impact for our company, and the customers and communities we serve.”
Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder has agreed to sell the Ashburn-based NFL team for a record-breaking $6 billion, according to several news reports Thursday. The buyers are a group of investors that includes NBA legend Magic Johnson and is led by two Maryland billionaires, Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris and Danaher Corp. co-founder Mitchell Rales.
Sportico, a sports business website, broke the news Thursday afternoon, and The New York Times released a story about half an hour later reporting the purchase agreement, a record-setting amount for any professional sports franchise. In late March, ESPN reported two $6 billion offers for the Commanders, including Harris’ offer and a second bid by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.
The team’s reported buyers are a group led by Harris, who is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and also owns the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and Rales of Potomac, Maryland.
In recent days, The Washington Post and others reported that Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, who had previously indicated interest in the team, had decided not to make an offer.
Snyder, the team’s owner since 1999, and the team’s head office have come under scrutiny by the NFL and Congress for alleged sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment. His 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. At the time, there seemed to be little appetite among team owners to force the Snyders to sell. According to NFL bylaws, it would take the agreement of 24 team owners to oust another owner.
In November 2022, Dan and Tanya Snyder hired Bank of America Securities to consider potential sales, the Ashburn-based NFL team announced. Any sale would require approval of three-fourths of the 31 team owners.
According to The New York Times, the Harris group must submit its proposal to the NFL’s finance committee, followed by the entire group of owners. That could take place in the next several weeks; the owners are set to meet May 22-23 in Minneapolis.
Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management and a Bethesda, Maryland, native, and Rales, a resident of Potomac, Maryland, who is a co-founder of Danaher Corp., are the major funders of the deal, according to reports. The same group, which includes former L.A. Laker Johnson as a limited partner, made a failed bid to buy the Denver Broncos last year. That team went to Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.65 billion, setting a sales record for an NFL sports team.
Apostolopoulos, the other Commanders bidder, founded Six Ventures Inc., a private equity fund, and is managing partner of the Toronto-based real estate firm Triple Group of Cos. He was previously interested in purchasing the Charlotte Hornets team, ESPN reported.
Of particular interest to Virginians may be the prospect of a future stadium in the commonwealth. Although the General Assembly backed off a generous incentive package to lure the Commanders’ next stadium to Virginia while Snyder and his team were being investigated by Congress and the NFL, a new owner may change the equation. The team has a contract to continue playing at Landover, Maryland’s FedEx Field until the end of the 2026 season, but the team has been open about wanting to build a new stadium. Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed $500,000 in state funding to study ways to encourage the team to build in Northern Virginia, funding that could be included in the state’s 2024 budget.
In December 2022, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a report finding that “sexual harassment, bullying and other toxic conduct” took place in the franchise’s operations, and that Dan Snyder attempted to intimidate witnesses in the congressional investigation. The NFL also launched a second probe of the team in February 2022, led by Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Earlier this week, the L.A. Galaxy soccer team announced it had hired the Commanders’ chief creative and digital officer, Will Misselbrook, as its chief creative and content officer. He was tapped in May 2021 to lead the team’s rebrand after it dropped the name Redskins in favor of the Washington Football Team and later the Commanders.
A Middleburg developer plans to build at least 30 data centers on a 641-acre plot next to the Surry Nuclear Power Station in Surry County, with the possibility of a hydrogen and nuclear-powered green energy production facility in the future, the county announced Wednesday.
John Andrews, CEO of Middleburg-based Green Energy Partners LLC of Virginia, is a longtime Northern Virginia developer who built the Stonewall Energy Park in Loudoun County, including the Panda Stonewall Power Project, a natural gas-fueled 778-megawatt power station that uses wastewater from Leesburg to run the plant’s cooling tanks. Andrews also built Stonewall Secure, a business park near the Leesburg Executive Airport, as well as Fairfax County’s Spring Park Technology Center.
GEP is under contract to purchase the 641-acre property where the Surry Green Energy Center is set to be built, said Renee Chapline, a consultant with Surry County Economic Development.
According to Bill Puckett, Green Energy Partners’ vice president of strategic development, the company plans to build at least 30 data centers occupying three to five acres each, with construction starting in the next 18 months. The data centers would create revenue for the company to build a hydrogen-production facility on 10 to 20 acres and four to six small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) “on the order of 35 acres” — a system that would create a renewable energy source in the next 10 to 15 years to run the data centers if approved by federal and state officials. The data centers would run on conventional energy sources in the meantime, Puckett said.
If all goes as planned, the Surry facility would serve as a backup energy source for Loudoun County data centers, where 70% of the world’s data traffic passes.
Andrews is privately funding the data centers, but the company is currently interviewing prospective customers, and tech investors are “banging on our door,” Puckett says. GEP is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and Surry County, and the company is also having conversations with SMR vendors, data center builders and hydrogen power experts. The company expects to create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Surry area, although some may come in 10 to 15 years, if all parts of the project move forward.
SMRs have come up in Virginia’s energy sector before; in 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin called for the country’s first small modular reactor to be built in Southwest Virginia within 10 years as part of the state’s strategy to meet Virginia Clean Economy Act goal of 100% carbon-free power sources by 2050. A bill to conduct an SMR pilot program failed this year in the Virginia General Assembly, but nuclear energy is still a hot topic among state energy stakeholders. Youngkin anticipates that it would take about 10 years to build a functional SMR in Southwest Virginia, although Puckett says that depending on the model, an SMR could be up and running in five years in Surry. Although the only working commercial SMR in the world is in Russia, many countries are testing models.
The data center part of the project is fairly straightforward, and it’s a major deal for Surry County, Chapline said. GEP did not seek state tax incentives, she noted, although the governor‘s office and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership have been briefed on GEP’s plans. She expects groundbreaking on the data center park to take place in about a year.
Puckett said Wednesday that ultimately the Surry Green Energy Center would use SMRs to heat water to 800 degrees, splitting the water into oxygen and hydrogen with the use of an electrolyzer that turns it into carbon-free hydrogen fuel. If built, the energy center would be the first of its kind in the United States. Surry was “ideal” for the development because it has plenty of available land and water, as well as fiber optics, gas lines, electric grid access and proximity to the Port of Virginia, Puckett said.
“Our objective is to create a model for the world,” Puckett said.
Chesterfield County-based payment and invoice automation company Paymerang LLC has acquired Australian-based artificial intelligence data extraction and analysis platform Sypht and the assets of KwikTag, an invoice automation company, Paymerang announced Tuesday.
Paymerang acquired both from Tempe, Arizona-based tech firm enChoice Inc. Terms of the deals were not disclosed and the acquisitions were completed April 3.
KwikTag offers a cloud-based automation solution to clients across multiple industries and creates a fully-integrated Microsoft Dynamics document manager and workflow platform for accounting teams. Sypht developed an AI-powered data extraction platform. Sypht and KwikTag are software as a service-based products. KwikTag customers will receive immediate access to Paymerang’s payment automation software.
The acquisitions adds a proprietary AI platform and other products to Paymerang’s offerings, as well as giving the company an international presence in more than 25 companies, according to Paymerang.
Vienna-based private equity firm Aldrich Capital Partners invested $26 million in Paymerang in 2018 and another $10 million in 2021. Since 2018, Paymerang’s revenue has grown 40% annually and it has expanded its operations, new product development, sales and marketing.
“I’m excited to welcome the KwikTag and Sypht teams to the Paymerang family,” Paymerang CEO Nasser Chanda said in a statement. “Not only do we share the same values and passion for our customers, but our solutions and industry verticals are highly complementary.”
“Monica brings a commitment to fulfilling our mission of improving the lives and communities we serve across the state,” Kurt C. Small, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s east region, said in a statement. “She has an in-depth knowledge of the health care industry and recognizes the importance of supporting and enhancing the whole health of a person. Monica is a proven leader who understands the specific needs of our members, employer customers and provider partners here in Virginia.”
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Schmude held several executive positions over the past 13 years at Cigna, including leading the mid-Atlantic market, which includes Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and as president of Cigna’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and Ohio market. She’s spent nearly 30 years in the health insurance industry and replaces Jeff Ricketts, who retired as Anthem’s Virginia president in September 2022.
Outside of work, Schmude is a board member for the Choral Arts Society of Washington and the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as a founding member of the Champions for Children network at the Lourie Center for Children’s Social & Emotional Wellness in Rockville, Maryland.
“I’m honored to be asked to lead Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Virginia, a place I call home and know so well,” Schmude said. “We have a talented, dedicated team in Virginia focused on innovation and collaboration in order to bring greater affordability and better health outcomes for the people and businesses we serve. I look forward to working with the team to continue and further those efforts.”
Anthem’s Virginia service area includes the whole state with the exception of Fairfax city, Vienna and the area east of state Route 123.
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