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Reporter's Notebook
Notes and thoughts from the travels of Virginia Business
writers and editors
Virginia Business
March 2006 One of the people speaking at the recent awards luncheon
for the 2005 Virginia Small Business Success Story
of the Year was Assistant Charlotte County Administrator
Stephanie Heintzleman. She had nominated Care
Rehab and Orthopaedic Products Inc. of McLean, the Northern
Virginia finalist in the competition.
Why, you might wonder, did someone
from a Southside county nominate a business in Northern
Virginia? The answer is simple. Care Rehab opened a
$3 million assembly
and distribution center in the Charlotte County community of Keysville in 2003.
The move brought investment and jobs to an area that has suffered with the
textile industry’s decline.
Other “nominators” attending the event at the University of Virginia’s
Darden School were BB&T banker Christine Cyphers, who nominated Hampton
Roads finalist David Nygaard Fine Jewelers, and Assistant Washington County
Administrator
Christianne Parker, who nominated Western Virginia finalist Universal
Cos. Inc. The Central Virginia finalist was TECHEAD, an IT staffing firm from
Richmond.
C. Ray
Smith, professor emeritus at the Darden School, gave a brief talk to the
group about entrepreneurship. Smith assisted Virginia Business editors in selecting
the finalists.
Charles
W. “Wick” Moorman has been CEO at Norfolk Southern Corp.
for only a few months but has already landed on the cover of one of the nation’s
leading business magazines. Forbes featured Moorman and his predecessor,
David Goode, in a cover story exploring how the Norfolk-based railroad
company has
transformed itself using cutting-edge technology.
The story says that in 2000 Goode put together a team under Moorman (who
was then chief technology officer) to find ways to tighten schedules and
run trains
faster and more efficiently. The result, Forbes says, is that Norfolk Southern
has become a model for its industry at a time when railroads are making
a major comeback.
Could Virginia have three candidates in the running
for president this fall? Just two weeks after his
inauguration, Gov. Timothy
M. Kaine was
in the national
political spotlight. The Democratic Party picked him to give the party’s
response to President Bush’s State of the Union address. Political
analysts say the Democrats turned to Kaine because of the success of
his values-based
campaign in a heavily Republican state.
Kaine’s sudden emergence as a national political figure recalls the attention
shown Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder after he was elected governor in 1989.
Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor, was immediately
identified as a potential Democratic candidate for the presidency in
1992. Wilder, in
fact, ran a short-lived presidential campaign.
Should Kaine follow the same course,
he would join two of his predecessors, former Gov.
Mark R. Warner and Sen.
George Allen, as possible presidential
contenders.
But his handlers would have to do something about Kaine’s errant
eyebrows, which arch dramatically when he makes a point. Can political
contributions
be used for Botox?
Virginia’s business community had this reaction to last month’s
online polls: (The results reflect voting on Feb. 10.)
Should Virginia devote more money to rail transportation?
Yes: 64 votes,
88 percent
No: 7 votes, 9
percent
Undecided: 1 vote,
1 percent
Would you send your child to a boarding school?
Yes: 15
votes, 71 percent
No: 5 votes, 23
percent
Undecided: 1 vote,
1 percent
A question on whether the new bankruptcy law would penalize entrepreneurs
drew little interest. Only one person responded with a vote of undecided.
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