Virginia Business Magazine: Agents of Change, Pt. 1

Editor’s Note: In looking back over the past 20 years, Virginia Business tried to select 20 individuals (or business partners) who have had a transforming effect on their industry or their regional economy. We looked for visionaries who built their companies into industry leaders or whose creativity led to innovative startups. The field was limited to Virginians involved in business, not politics or education. This list, however, is not intended to be the last word. We invite you to make your own nominations, which will be posted to our Web site.

Frank Batten Sr., Norfolk
Chairman of the executive committee,
Landmark Communications Inc.
Frank Batten Sr. was just 27 when he was tapped as publisher of The Virginian-Pilot by his uncle, Samuel L. Slover, in 1954. He had watched his uncle build the Pilot’s reputation in Hampton Roads and was eager to continue his legacy.

Under Batten’s leadership, the Pilot’s parent company, Landmark Communications, went on to acquire cable franchises in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., and Beckley, W.Va., and newspapers in Greensboro, N.C., and Roanoke.

In the company’s first national venture, Batten oversaw the creation of The Weather Channel in 1982, which expanded to Europe and Latin America in 1996. Two years later, Batten stepped down as chairman of Landmark Communications, so his son could assume the role, but he remains chairman of the company’s executive committee.

Outside of his work at Landmark, Batten has been a major contributor to Old Dominion University (which named its engineering and technology school after him) and the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
He was ODU’s first rector and has served on the boards of the College of William & Mary, Hollins University and The Darden School Foundation.

Gloria Bohan, Fairfax
Founder, Omega World Travel
When Gloria Bohan opened Omega World Travel in Fredericksburg in 1972, she was hoping to supplement her husband’s income while he established himself in the real estate business. Now Omega World Travel is the fourth-largest minority- or female-owned business in the United States, according to DiversityBusiness.com.

PEOPLE TO WATCH IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS

Ten businesspeople who could have a transforming effect on their industry or Virginia’s economy.

• Ashley Chen, president and CEO, ActioNet, Fairfax
• Rick Claus, president, NanoSonic Inc., Blacksburg
• Angela Drummond, president and CEO, SiloSmashers, Vienna
• Mary Ann Elliott, CEO and chairman, Arrowhead Global Solutions, Falls Church
• Sheila C. Johnson, CEO, Salamander Hospitality, Middleburg
• Kent Murphy, founder, chairman and CEO, Luna Innovations, Blacksburg
• Tinh duc Phan, chairman, Asian American Business Assistance Center, Ashland
• Denise Robinson, co-founder and president, Dataline Inc., Norfolk
• Terry H. Robinson, president, THR Enterprises, Norfolk
• Michel Zajur, president, Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Richmond

Bohan quickly became a travel-industry trendsetter. She was one of the first to employ computer reservation systems and to use technology to market, book and track traveler information. Perhaps more important, she led the way in providing travelers with round-the-clock reservations and emergency service. By the mid-1980s, Bohan expanded her corporate business by opening travel service desks inside companies she served.

Now Omega World Travel is the third largest travel management company in the country, with 1,100 employees and annual sales of $1.25 billion. Bohan keeps the company out front with innovative services — such as Cruise.com and TourDeals.com. In 2001, she created TravTech, a travel technology company that has gone on to develop new travel-industry technology, like FareCapture, a real-time fare auditing tool, and FlightCapture, the industry’s first fully-integrated flight data tracker providing immediate access to arrival and departure information.

J. Robert Bray, Norfolk
Executive director, Port of Virginia
During Bobby Bray’s tenure as executive director at the Port of Virginia, it has grown into one of the busiest ports on the East Coast, second only to New York. As a result, the Hampton Roads port is a major driver of the state’s economy.

Bray has helped steer the Port for nearly 40 years. He joined the Port Authority as corporate counsel in 1967 and became executive director in 1978. In 1983, the separately owned terminals of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News merged under the Port Authority’s control to create more efficiency.

In recent years, the Port Authority has invested more than $300 million in new cranes and equipment to handle cargo. The Port got its big break in 2003 when a dockworkers strike on the West Coast caused Chinese cargo to be diverted to the East Coast. Shippers were so pleased with the service they got in Hampton Roads that they didn’t switch back when the strike ended. Boosted significantly by trade with China, the flow of goods through the Port has sparked the construction of dozens of distribution centers. These centers have helped revive the economies of a number of Virginia counties that had been hurt by the decline in traditional industries such as tobacco and textiles.

Thomas E. Capps, Richmond
Chairman and former
CEO, Dominion Resources Inc.
When Tom Capps took the helm of Dominion Resources in 1990, he had a clear vision of where energy markets were headed. During his 15-year tenure at Dominion, he changed the company from a provider of electricity in Virginia and part of North Carolina into a diversified energy giant.

But the transition was not without controversy. The State Corporation Commission had to intervene in the mid-1990s during a dispute between Capps and the president of Virginia Power, Dominion’s main subsidiary.
Today, Dominion provides natural gas and electricity to 5 million customers in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Capps began the company’s transition by selling Dominion’s natural gas distribution system. Then he set out to develop the company’s natural gas reserves, first buying three natural gas companies in 1995. In 2000, the company merged with Pittsburgh-based Consolidated Natural Gas in a $9 billion deal. It transformed Dominion into one of the country’s largest natural gas and electrical utilities.

Since then, the company has acquired other natural gas companies, a liquefied natural gas terminal in Maryland and nuclear power plants in Connecticut and Wisconsin. Under Capps, Dominion led the way in advocating electric deregulation in Virginia, which would allow electricity providers to compete. So far, though, no major competitors to Dominion have emerged.

Stephen M. Case, McLean
Co-founder of America Online
As a founder of America Online, Steve Case brought Internet technology to the masses. At the same time, he gilded Northern Virginia’s reputation as a world leader in global communications.

AOL began as a bulletin-board service for home computer users. Under Case’s leadership, the company became the nation’s largest dial-up Internet service.

For a time, AOL was the general public’s on-ramp for the Information Highway. The company went public in 1992 and, by 1996, had revenue of more than $1 billion. Blitzing the market with free offers and unlimited service, AOL’s subscriber base grew quickly, overtaking rivals such as CompuServe.

But AOL eventually began to lose ground to competitors who provided faster, more reliable access using broadband and DSL. Case decided he needed to offer broadband service to his subscribers as well as downloadable music and movies on demand. He engineered a $182 billion merger with conglomerate Time Warner, a combination that promised to become a multimedia powerhouse. Many shareholders, however, eventually soured on the deal, believing that AOL’s continuing problems held down the stock price.

Case stepped down as chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003 and resigned from the company’s board last fall. He has turned his eye — and his portfolio — to the hospitality industry. He is the principal investor in Maui Land and Pineapple. He also is chairman and majority owner of Exclusive Resorts LLC. Revolution, his $500 million venture capital company, is expected to back startups in health and wellness and resort vacations.

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