In February, the Swiss equipment manufacturer appointed Imakoji as Liebherr USA’s second managing director, jointly sharing executive responsibilities with Kai Friedrich, who has served as its Newport News-based managing director since 2021.

Imakoji oversees strategic planning and the execution of growth strategies for corporate, finance and administrative functions. Liebherr USA provides sales and service on behalf of 10 product segments: earthmoving, material handling technology, mining, mobile and crawler cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology, maritime cranes, deep foundation machines components and refrigerators and freezers.

In 2024, Liebherr Mining Equipment announced a $72.3 million expansion of a facility at the border of Hampton and Newport News, where it has had a presence since 1970, and the addition of 175 jobs, adding to its 550 current workers.

Beginning his career as an intern with Austria’s Liebherr-Werk Nenzing, Imakoji has worked for more than 17 years with the Liebherr Group, including positions in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Most recently, he was managing director of finance and administration at Liebherr-Electronics and Drives in Germany.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Imakoji spent his youth in Salzburg, Austria.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

In 2019, Steitz was named president and CEO of surface protection films and aluminum extrusions manufacturer Tredegar, a 1989 spinoff of Richmond fuel additives company Ethyl.

Steitz had served on Tredegar’s board of directors since 2017 while also serving as CEO of additives supplier Addivant, which merged with SI Group in 2018. He was also a director of specialty-grade phosphate producer Innophos Holdings from 2008 until 2020, when it was acquired, and he was chief operating officer of Albemarle Corp., one of NewMarket’s subsidiaries, for five years.

In November 2024, Tredegar completed the sale of its flexible packaging films business to Oben Group and expected to realize after-tax, cash-free and debt-free proceeds of $85 million.

Tredegar’s net sales in the first quarter of 2025 increased 17% over the same quarter in 2024. The company has about 1,500 employees in the United States and Asia.

Steitz holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Robinson took over in 2024 as the head of Framatome, the Lynchburg-based North American subsidiary of the French nuclear equipment, services and fuel producer.

During more than three decades of experience in the nuclear industry, Robinson has held a series of executive positions. Previously, he was senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of Structural Integrity Associates, a North Carolina company providing engineering services for the energy and process industries. Before that, he had been an executive for BWX Technologies in Lynchburg and worked for about 25 years for Framatome and its predecessor, Areva.

In July, Framatome unveiled part of a $50 million expansion of its operations in Lynchburg, which includes expanding the company’s current footprint to accommodate more than 500 new employees and adding a dedicated nuclear training center to support the next generation of small and advanced reactor technologies.

Framatome has 2,480 employees in North America, with more than 1,500 of those working in Virginia.

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Be assertive, but be patient with your career trajectory. The path to leadership is typically not linear.

WHAT I DO FOR FUN: Biking, swimming, golf, water skiing, snow skiing and pickleball

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Fairbanks became Trex’s president and CEO after the retirement of James Cline in 2020. Previously, he had been the publicly traded composite decking and railing manufacturer’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Trex products are sold through more than 6,700 retail outlets across six continents. Over the next five years, Trex hopes to double its market share of the $3.3 billion railing market, moving from 6% to 12%.

As of year-end 2024, the company had 1,838 employees and reported $1.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 5% from the previous year. One of the largest recyclers of PE plastic film in North America, Trex upcycles more than 320 million pounds of recycled plastic waste annually in its manufacturing process.

Before joining Trex, Fairbanks held several senior finance roles at Ford Motor. He received a degree in accounting from the University of Dayton and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Fairbanks sits on the Frederick County Economic Development Authority’s board and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Representing the third generation of the Luck family at the helm, Charlie Luck IV became president of the 102-year-old crushed stone company in 1995 and additionally CEO in 1999.

While studying at Virginia Military Institute, he officially joined the family business as a summer trainee. After graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1983, Luck was a NASCAR driver before coming home in 1987 to be part of a Luck training program.

Luck’s son, Richard, was named company president in November 2024, carrying on the family legacy.

Employing approximately 1,020 people, Luck Cos. is best known for providing construction aggregates and decorative stone but also has interests in environmental performance products and commercial real estate. The company’s footprint extends across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

In September 2024, the Goochland County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Luck Stone’s expansion of its Rockville quarry operations to include 70 acres bordering Henrico County, despite objections from residents of both counties.

In 2015, Luck launched the InnerWill Leadership Institute, which trains executives in “values-based leadership,” a philosophy launched at Luck Cos.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

In September 2024, Minkkinen succeeded Koen Knippenberg, who managed the plant for more than two years before being promoted to senior vice president of group truck operations for Volvo’s North America branch.

A native of Sweden whose father and grandfather worked for Volvo, Minkkinen joined the company in 2004 as a trainee after receiving a degree in engineering at Lund University in Sweden. During that time, he spent several months working at Volvo’s Hagerstown, Maryland, powertrain facility. He returned to Maryland in 2006 as an industrial engineer and later became an engineering manager at the plant.

In 2010, Minkkinen returned to Sweden to fill a similar role, and after a term as vice president of the Hagerstown plant, he moved to the New River Valley plant. In 2022, Minkkinen hosted President Joe Biden at the Hagerstown plant for National Manufacturing Day.

The Dublin facility experienced two waves of layoffs in the first half of 2025, totaling between 430 and 530 employees, Volvo said, due to reduced demand.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

In 2022, Werge became president and CEO of Cadence, a contract manufacturer of medical and drug delivery devices founded in 1985. He previously held leadership positions at Nypro (now Jabil Healthcare), where he led its consumer and electronics business for the Americas region and oversaw operations in India. He also was vice president and general manager of Phillips-Medisize’s global commercial division.

Cadence employs about 800 people nationwide and in Costa Rica at eight facilities, and is a subsidiary of New York-based private equity firm Kohlberg & Co.

In September 2024, Cadence announced plans to expand its current cleanroom operations in Staunton to 5,000 square feet, and earlier this year, it revealed a brand refresh.

A native of Connecticut, Werge earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Smith, the third generation of his family to lead the precast concrete company, became CEO in 2018 and board chairman in 2022. His grandfather, David G. Smith, founded the company in 1960 as Smith-Cattleguard, a nod to the company’s concrete cattleguard innovation.

The publicly traded company now has manufacturing facilities in North and South Carolina. Its subsidiaries include Concrete Safety Systems, which rents concrete highway barriers, and Easi-Set Worldwide, which licenses Smith-Midland products.

In 2024, Smith-Midland opened a $2 million addition to its Reidsville, North Carolina, plant that doubled the size of the facility’s production capacity.

Smith-Midland reported revenue of $78.5 million for 2024, a 32% increase over the previous year. Smith attributed the gains to increased infrastructure spending, and in the first half of 2025, the company’s revenue numbers have increased further, with $22.7 million reported in the second quarter, up 35% from the second quarter of 2024.

A member of Bridgewater College’s board of trustees, Smith is a past board chairman of National Precast Concrete Association.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.