Followups

Virginia Business
December 2005

Betsy Duke has joined TowneBank in Hampton Roads as a senior executive vice president and COO. The appointment follows Duke’s year as the first chairwoman of the American Bankers Association, the country’s largest bank trade association. Duke’s tenure was the subject of a profile in the September issue. At that time, she was an executive vice president at Wachovia Bank in Virginia Beach. In her new job, Duke will lead the bank’s administrative management group and have oversight responsibility for corporate finance, technology, general operations, risk management and regulatory matters.

Micron Technology announced in early November the completion of the initial phase of an upgrade of its fabrication facilities in Manassas, from 200-millimeter to a 300-millimeter process technology. The $1.2 billion upgrade will create 860 jobs. Micron was featured in the November issue in a group of stories examining the effect of state taxes on manufacturing.

FLYi Inc., the Dulles-based parent of low-fare airline Independence Air, has filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Meanwhile, JetBlue has announced plans to begin serving Richmond next spring. Both airlines were featured in February’s issue about efforts to improve service to Virginia’s airports.

Freddie Mac is reducing its profit for the first half of 2005. The $220 million drop— from $1.6 billion to $1.4 billion — is due to faulty accounting software, which the company says overstated the amount of interest earned on some mortgage-backed securities Freddic Mac bought for investment purposes. The error follows efforts by the mortgage finance giant to strengthen internal controls following a multi-billion accounting scandal in 2003. The company was the subject of a profile in the September issue.