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Out and About: March 2026

1. L to R: North Carolina-based Kymanox President Evan Edwards, Chief Innovation Officer Paul Cherukuri and U.Va. School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Jennifer West attended the CvilleBioHub Device & Tech Expo Feb. 3 in Charlottesville. (Photo by The Smiths Photography; Photo courtesy CvilleBioHub)

2. Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard “Shep” Miller III, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace President Eirik Lie, U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman and other officials participated in the Jan. 16 groundbreaking in James City County for Kongsberg’s first U.S. missile factory. (Photo courtesy Kongsberg)

3. L to R: Executive Director Khalid Jones; The Cordish Cos. Chief Operating Officer Zed Smith; Cordish Gaming Group President Rob Norton; Mayor Sam Parham; Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia General Manager Penny Parayo; and Cordish Cos. Principal Joe Theismann celebrated at ‘s Jan. 22 grand opening in Petersburg. (Photo courtesy The Cordish Cos.)

4. L to R: Vice Mayor S.Z. “Debbie” Ritter; Meta Energy Strategy Manager Chris Rees; Meta Community Development Technical Lead Manager Kelley McCall; Chesapeake Mayor Rick West; NFI Cal Cartage executive Jessica Cordero; ‘s Courtney Young; Port of Virginia interim CEO Sarah McCoy; and NFI’s Alexa Branco attended the deployment of 10 heavy duty electric trucks and electric chargers Jan. 22 in Chesapeake. (Photo courtesy Dominion Energy)

5. Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi and House Speaker Don Scott reacted as Virginia delivered her first address to the General Assembly Jan. 19. (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: THOMAS A. BELL

Formerly chairman and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America, Bell became CEO of , aerospace and information technology firm in 2023.

Leidos has landed some huge wins under Bell’s leadership, including a Transportation Security Administration contract awarded in December 2024 valued up to $2.6 billion.

That’s been tempered with losses, though, including a $2.4 billion Department of Homeland Security Agile Cybersecurity Technical Solutions contract canceled in May 2025, among other contracts cut by the Trump administration. The company laid off more than 100 people based in Virginia last year, and in January, Leidos informed the state it would be laying off 93 more workers in Ashburn by March.

Leidos reported $16.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024 and employs 47,000 people worldwide. In May 2025, Leidos acquired Chantilly-based AI tech company Kudu Dynamics for $300 million.

Bell earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology. He serves on the Aerospace Industries Association’s executive committee.

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Top Five: March 2026

1 | ICE eyes massive Hanover warehouse for processing facility

received a letter from Homeland Security confirming its intent to buy a 552,576-square-foot warehouse as a processing facility for detainees, though the owner later backed out of the sale amid vocal opposition from the public and county supervisors. (Jan. 23)

2 | Couple donates $20 million for Virginia Tech medical scholarships

Jim Smith, a senior facilities developer, and his wife, Augustine, endowed in-state scholarships for students at the Carilion School of Medicine. (Feb. 9)

3 | Fortune 500 retailer CarMax lays off 230 employees, many in Virginia

About 113 of the announced layoffs by the used-vehicles retailer were in the area. Affected employees were paid through at least Jan. 31 and received severance, according to . (Jan. 14)

4 | Spanberger appoints 27 university board members, including Northam

On her first day in office, wasted no time in naming 27 new members, including former Gov. Ralph Northam, to the boards of George Mason University, and the . (Jan. 20)

5 | Bill seeks to overhaul VMI governance board 

A Virginia Beach delegate introduced legislation that would have dissolved the board of visitors at Virginia Military Institute and transfered governance of the Lexington school to Virginia State University. The bill was later revised in committee to retain VMI’s board. (Jan. 29)

2026 Va. Leadership on the move: John Greene

Greene became corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Fortune Global 500 aerospace and company Northrop Grumman in January. Most recently, Greene served for six years as CFO of Discover Financial Services, prior to its acquisition by Capital One. Before that, he was CFO of global pharmaceutical company Bioverativ.

2026 Va. Leadership on the move: Noah Klemm

Federal contractor and data science services provider Redhorse promoted Klemm from president to CEO in September 2025. He joined the company in 2022 as chief delivery officer and was promoted to president at the end of 2024, following the retirement of former CEO John Zangardi. Before Redhorse, Klemm spent more than two decades at Novetta, which was acquired by Accenture Federal Services in 2021.

Data centers, manufacturing drive growth in Central Virginia

Summary:
  • Google announced a $3 billion data center investment in in 2025.
  • AstraZeneca committed $4.5 billion to a manufacturing facility in Albemarle County.
  • Eli Lilly & Co. revealed a $5 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in .

While 2025 delivered fewer high-dollar investments for the commonwealth than in years past, according to Virginia Partnership data, localities across Central Virginia spent much of the year making their past development deals a reality.

The 101 growth announcements from basic industry companies that primarily operate outside the commonwealth represent a sharp drop from the 150 logged by VEDP in 2024 and in years past. Central Virginia, though, saw 22 announcements in 2025, up from 17 in 2024. And while Chesterfield, Goochland and Henrico counties implemented new rules governing data center growth, Google continued to invest heavily in the region, as did EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure — announcing a planned $17 billion data center campus in Louisa County in June 2025 — and CleanArc , which announced in November 2025 plans for a $3 billion data center campus in Caroline County.

In spite of national uncertainty over tariffs, inflation and interest rates, “the region is really hot,” said Anthony Romanello, the former executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority who left the role at the end of 2025. “You’ve got billions and billions of dollars in underway all across the region, industrial data centers, pharmaceuticals. … To use the cliche, the Richmond region is beginning to punch above its weight. I think it’s going to be really cool to see where we are in another 10 years.”

Richmond

The city made two major announcements in the last calendar year. One, a $54 million investment by British pharmaceutical company Haleon, will modernize a longstanding research and development facility that was last upgraded with a 2019 investment, before Haleon’s demerger from GlaxoSmithKline in 2022. The other announcement, a new headquarters for Nightingale Ice Cream, was withdrawn just months later.

Director of Economic Development Angie Rodgers admits that while the slower year “does color how I think we need to move in the future,” she remains positive about Richmond’s potential. Regardless, Richmond is buzzing with activity, and several major projects approach completion, such as the minimum $117 million Park, the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball stadium set to open in April that forms the centerpiece of the city’s 67-acre Diamond District redevelopment, and CoStar’s $460 million downtown campus opening this spring.

Chesterfield County

Two Big Tech companies renewed their commitments to Chesterfield County in 2025: Amazon.com and Google.
“We hit the jackpot” with Google, says Garrett Hart, director of Chesterfield Economic Development, which estimates that Google is investing $3 billion on data centers in the county. Work is underway at a 300-plus-acre Bermuda Hundred Road site near Meadowville Technology Park, and Google has also purchased properties at two of the county’s booming mixed-use developments: 880 acres at Upper Magnolia Green and 350 acres at Watkins Centre South. Near Google’s data center, Amazon is building a $51 million distribution center slated to bring 500 jobs.

Longtime county residents also announced big plans, such as Georgia-based Dover Food , which is planning a
$25 million expansion of its manufacturing campus in South Chesterfield that will generate over 300 jobs.

“We take a lot of pride in the fact that we have some existing companies that have been here 40, 50 years that are expanding and continue to double down here. They continue to add jobs and capital investment,” Hart says.

In addition to its 2025 announcements, many recent projects are nearing completion, such as the 42-acre Springline at District 60 mixed-use development near the Chippenham Parkway and Midlothian Turnpike intersection and the $2 billion Chirisa Technology Parks data center campus, dubbed Digital Drive, a 104-acre site on track to start producing power for data centers in the next few years.

“We’ve had such a strong five or six years now,” says Chesterfield EDA Deputy Director Matt McLaren. “This year really feels like the year where we’re building a lot of the things that we’ve announced, and some of them are starting to come online. So it’s really about getting over the finish line.”

For Romanello, the past year showed that “diversity of our economy remains paramount,” and much of the county’s activity in 2025 bears this out.

While the last fiscal year saw investments totaling over $8 billion, the calendar year closed out with three announcements: a $15 million headquarters expansion of locally based Red River Foods, a $28 million investment by the Swiss power production company ABB to expand its manufacturing and a $50 million expansion of Irish power system manufacturer Eaton’s county footprint.

Many existing sites are also undergoing metamorphoses, such as the $450 million Kinsale Center redevelopment project at the former Anthem campus on Staples Mill Road and the mixed-use Midtown64 project to be built where the Genworth Financial headquarters once stood at West Broad Street and Interstate 64. Each project is estimated to cost over $500 million. Phase one of the Kinsale project ended in November, and construction on Midtown64 started in December.

The county also regained control of the former Best Products headquarters site at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Parham Road after plans for the $2.3 billion arena-anchored GreenCity development fell through.

Albemarle County

The pharmaceutical industry made another huge move near Charlottesville, with AstraZeneca investing $4.5 billion to build a manufacturing facility on 82 acres at Albemarle County’s Rivanna Futures site. The construction of two buildings, one opening in 2028 and the other in 2029, is a transformational project, says Albemarle Director of Economic Development Emily Kilroy, and is expected to create 600 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs.

In Petersburg, Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground in March 2025 on the $1.4 billion Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia, expected to create 1,400 jobs and to open in 2027. Meanwhile, a temporary casino opened Jan. 22 on the 100-acre site off I-95 at Exit 48B.

Goochland County

Blockbuster deals in 2025 pushed Goochland County to over $430 million of active investment, its highest amount ever, according to Sara Worley, deputy county administrator for economic and community development.

The first major splash came in May 2025 as “Project Rocky” was revealed to be a 3.1 million-square-foot Amazon robotics fulfillment center. Not only is the project estimated to create over 1,000 jobs, it will also modernize the infrastructure around Interstate 64 and Ashland Road. In September 2025, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. announced a $5 billion manufacturing plant that will join Capital One Financial, CarMax and other major employers in the West Creek Business Park. (See Page 18.)
“These companies, I think, had the foresight to see that the [Richmond region and Goochland County are] up and coming and that we have the workforce to support them now and then into the future,” Worley says.

 

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: LAWRENCE ‘LARRY’ DI RITA

Di Rita has led the greater D.C. market for since 2019. He’s also the bank’s head of global public policy.

Bank of America posted $30.5 billion in net income in 2025, up from $27 billion in 2024, and had $3.41 trillion in total assets at the end of 2025, a nearly $150 billion increase from a year earlier.

Di Rita joined the bank as an external affairs executive in 2006 after previously making a name for himself in the U.S. Navy and the federal government.

A United States Naval Academy graduate, Di Rita holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. From 1980 until 1993, he served in the Navy, with his final active-duty assignment as a politico-military planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Di Rita later was deputy director of foreign policy and studies at The Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank.

He also served as chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and was special assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

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2026 Virginia Power 50 List: ROBERT M. ‘BOB’ BLUE

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

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

At the end of 2025, Dominion’s $11.5 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm off Virginia Beach was one of five offshore wind projects paused by the Trump administration for 90 days. Dominion filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of the Interior and received a temporary injunction in January, allowing construction to proceed while the lawsuit continues. The project is set to begin powering 660,000 homes in late 2026.

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

Blue sits on the boards of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Federal Reserve Bank of and the Greater Washington Partnership.

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Law, accounting sectors adapt to AI, regulatory changes

Summary:
  • Virginia attorneys are increasingly using AI for research, drafting, billing, and reducing burnout.
  • New 2025 Virginia limits regardless of salary, affecting employee classifications.
  • Virginia’s CPA licensing no longer requires 150 credit hours; bachelor’s degree plus work experience suffices.

Change is accelerating across Virginia’s law and sectors, as , evolving regulations and workforce pressures reshape how professional services firms operate.

Anecdotally, Virginia attorneys are increasingly incorporating AI into their daily work, finding it a useful tool to increase efficiency and potentially a way to reassess the billable hour model, reducing the cost of services for clients and expanding access to legal services among those who were once priced out. Firms are using AI to assist with tasks ranging from research and document drafting to billing and transcribing client conversations. Some believe AI may help reduce burnout.

“Now, you can spend more time being strategic,” says Justin Ritter, founder of Ritter Law in Charlottesville. “Ultimately, I’m trying to create a high-quality work product faster and cheaper, and these tools allow me to do that and in ways I never really thought were possible.”

However, adoption of AI is uneven, with many lawyers reluctant to fully embrace the technology. In 2025, some attorneys received disciplinary referrals for using generative AI to write briefs, which then were exposed as inaccurate. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley called on the federal judiciary last fall to formally regulate federal judges’ use of AI in court orders.

Punishment aside, some attorneys don’t have time or money to see how they could use AI tools to speed up work, and larger firms can be thwarted by internal bureaucracy. Most also continue to grapple with how to protect client data and use AI tools ethically.

“We’re trying to balance innovation with responsibility,” says Beth Burgin Waller, chair of Woods Rogers’ cybersecurity and data privacy practice and an AI expert.

Meanwhile, Virginia lawyers also are experiencing major regulatory changes. In 2025, the passed legislation that narrowed who could be subject to noncompete agreements. Under earlier law, employees who made less than $76,081 a year in 2025 were exempt from such agreements, which prevent working for a competitor business immediately after leaving a firm.

But as of July 1, 2025, salary level no longer governs noncompete agreements in Virginia, leading to a reconsideration of how employers classify their employees under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Experts say Virginia’s new law continues a broader push for limiting noncompete agreements, and that it’s likely that employers will instead use more targeted tools such as non-solicitation and confidentiality provisions.

However, Williamsburg attorney Brian G. Muse says noncompetes will still have a place for high-level executives, particularly in connection with the sale of a business.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s accounting profession is grappling with a persistent and is responding with a significant change to its requirements for becoming a . Starting this year, prospective CPAs no longer need 150 college credit hours to become licensed. Instead, people with bachelor’s degrees can become a CPA after working in the field for two years and passing the certification exam.

Employers and educators hope this adjustment will increase the number of college students entering accounting, encouraging those who had previously been deterred by the cost and time required for additional coursework. With financial barriers reduced, they hope the change will expand the accounting talent pool.

Employees from the Glen Allen firm noted last fall that they had already seen an uptick in the number of students interested in accounting and believe the change may draw more young people to the profession.

“We have seen more entry-level students looking for jobs than we have in the past several years,” Keiter human resources director Mandy Nevius told Virginia Business last year.

 

2026 Virginia Power 50 List: MICHAEL C. CREEDON JR.

At the end of 2024, Creedon became permanent CEO of , having become the retailer’s interim head after Rick Dreiling stepped down, citing health problems. Creedon joined the discount retailer as chief operating officer in 2022, after over six years with Advance Auto Parts.

Recent years have challenged the chain, which operated more than 16,000 stores in 48 states and five Canadian provinces in November 2024. As of January, it operated only 9,200 stores in North America, having sold its Family Dollar stores in July 2025 for $1 billion to two New York investment and management firms.

Dollar Tree anticipated full-year fiscal 2025 net sales of $19.35 billion to $19.45 billion during its third quarter earnings report.

An alumnus of Middlebury College, Creedon serves on the boards of trustees for the Chrysler Museum of Art and Norfolk Academy.

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