Sever, a longtime Hershey employee, was named plant manager of the candymaker’s Stuarts Draft manufacturing facility in 2022. He had previously been site operations leader at the facility, which produces nut-based candies like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Almond Joy. The plant, which opened in 1982, is the second largest of Hershey’s seven manufacturing sites.

Sever managed the plant during a failed attempt by workers at unionization in 2022.

Hershey named a new CEO in August: Kirk Tanner, who was previously CEO of Wendy’s. In 2024, Hershey reported about $11 billion in net sales, slightly up from the previous year.

Sever’s 20-year career with the Fortune 500 company has taken him to China and included time as a plant manager in Hershey’s Lancaster, Pennsylvania, facility. In 2018, Sever became vice president of U.S. operations for educational travel company WorldStrides and started a small-batch confection company, Wild Blue Chocolate, with his wife, Jessie. He then held management roles at food and beverage companies Danone and Kerry’s locations in Virginia before coming back to Hershey.

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

Lidl, a German discount retail grocery chain, entered the U.S. market in 2017. But it struggled to compete with its chief rival, Aldi, and Lidl has changed its U.S. CEO three times since 2018. In 2023, Rampoldt took the reins as the first American to lead Lidl’s U.S. division and its expansion.

As of July, the company operates more than 185 stores in nine states and Washington, D.C. — up from about 170 a year ago.

Rampoldt’s roots in the retail and grocery industry run deep: His first job was as a bagger at his local Kroger at age 15. After earning an MBA from Yale, he spent two decades advising leaders of U.S. and European grocery companies as a consultant at Oliver Wyman, KPMG and AlixPartners.

Lidl followed the appointment of Rampoldt by hiring four new executives and conducting layoffs in 2024. In stores, Lidl has relaunched its fresh meat and produce divisions.

In 2024, Rampoldt joined the board of directors of the Food Industry Association for a three-year term.

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

In the late 1990s, Qreitem founded Capital Restaurant Group, the company behind Paisano’s Pizza, based in Chantilly. He opened his first Paisano’s location in the Shops at Fair Lakes 25 years ago and the brand became a franchise model in 2009.

The company now has more than 40 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and serves pizzas, pasta, wings, salads, subs, calzones, desserts and more, as well as being part of a joint venture with Seasons Pizza, a 32-store chain in the Northeast U.S. In 2024, Paisano’s sold nine franchise agreements in Northern Virginia, and this year, the company moved its flagship pizza shop to a larger site at East Market at Fairfax.

In 2024, Qreitem became a member of the statewide Virginia Growth and Opportunity Board, aka GO Virginia, a group that promotes regional economic development and workforce development across the commonwealth. He’s also served on several civic organizations’ boards, including Joe Gibbs’ Youth for Tomorrow Foundation and Visit Fairfax.

Qreitem also earned the title of honorary commander at Andrews Air Force Base in 2023 for his dedication to leadership and service to his community.

FAVORITE TEAM: Paisano’s is proud to be the official pizza of the Washington Commanders.

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

Pohanka’s family has been selling cars since Frank Pohanka opened a Washington, D.C., dealership in 1919. Today, headed by Frank’s grandson Geoffrey, the company has more than 20 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Texas, and is one of the largest Virginia-based auto dealerships. It had revenue of roughly $2 billion as of 2024 and more than 1,400 employees in 2023.

Geoffrey’s children now work in the business — marking the dealership’s fourth generation. Automotive News ranked Pohanka Automotive Group at No. 34 on its list of the nation’s top 150 dealerships in 2025, up two spots from the previous year.

Pohanka was the 2023 chair of the board of directors of National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), ending his term in 2024. During his term, Pohanka said the Biden White House was moving too fast to encourage Americans to purchase electric vehicles and voiced concerns about Chinese electric car manufacturers.

Pohanka sits on the board of Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank. He also serves on the board of directors of NADA, representing the D.C. metro area’s new car dealerships.

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

Nash began at CarMax in 1997 as an auction manager, working his way up to president and CEO in 2016. Founded in 1993 in Richmond as a subsidiary of electronics retailer Circuit City, Fortune 500 company CarMax is the country’s largest retailer of used cars, employing almost 30,000 people, including 3,300 in Virginia.

It reported $26.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024, and Nash became an eBay board member in September 2024.

This year, CarMax has focused on expanding its stock of newer used vehicles to meet consumer demand for modern features at lower prices amid rising tariff concerns on new car imports. The company is also leaning into AI, a move Nash calls “generative engine optimization,” or GEO. In Richmond, the company is the naming sponsor of CarMax Park, the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ forthcoming baseball stadium, and it is a sponsor of the Richmond Ivy Soccer Club.

A 1991 graduate of James Madison University, Nash started out working in payroll and accounting at Circuit City.

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

Carter Machinery has deep roots in Virginia, tracing back to 1928, when Robert Hill Carter founded Virginia Tractor in Richmond. The company was the state’s first Caterpillar dealership, and it is still going today as an independent dealer with more than 30 locations. It has more than 2,300 employees in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

Parker is the eldest son of the dealership’s former owner and CEO, Jim Parker, whom he succeeded as CEO in 2018. In 2020, the company purchased Baltimore-based Alban Tractor, expanding the business into Maryland, Delaware and Washington. In June, the company announced it had entered a multiyear partnership with the Washington Commanders, becoming the team’s official equipment partner. It also sponsored a Ducati bike competing in MotoAmerica Superbikes’ competition at the Virginia International Raceway in August.

Carter Machinery runs an apprenticeship program for technicians that gives participants 400 hours of instruction and 2,000 hours of on-the- job training and mentoring, which started in 2022.

Parker holds an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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

As a young student in Michigan, Murrell’s academic struggles prompted a warning from a nun at his Catholic school: He would end up flipping burgers.

It took a few years, during which he earned an economics degree from the University of Michigan, worked in life insurance, got married twice and had five sons. But eventually the nun’s premonition came true, and Murrell, wife Janie and their sons opened a carryout burger joint in Arlington in 1986. Murrell used funds meant for his sons’ college tuition to open the first burger stand.

By 2001, the family owned five restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area, and the following year they began marketing Five Guys franchise opportunities.

Today, there are more than 1,700 Five Guys locations across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with 1,500 in development. In July, the London-based Five Guys joint venture closed on a $250 million refinancing deal that’s expected to help it further expand in western Europe.

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

Murphy got his start in the plumbing industry working summers at his father’s business, Midwest Pipe and Supply, which was purchased by Ferguson in 1999.

A plumbing and heating products distributor with about 35,000 employees, Ferguson reported $29.6 billion in net sales in 2024. The company made its Fortune 500 debut this year at No. 146. Last year, Ferguson’s British holding company merged with its U.S. subsidiary, following a corporate reorganization.

Ferguson has become known as a “serial acquirer” in recent years, having completed more than 50 deals in the past five years. In 2023, the company acquired plumbing distributor Bruce Supply; waterworks distributor The Kennedy Cos.; and HVAC equipment, parts and supplies distributor S. G. Torrice. In 2024, it acquired Yorkwest Plumbing Supply and plumbing and HVAC distributor Grove Supply. In the third quarter of this year alone, it completed three acquisitions.

Murphy sits on Ferguson’s board and the board of Pool Corp., a wholesale distributor of swimming pool equipment, parts and supplies.

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