Gary Robertson

John Brocato, chief financial officer for Charlottesville-based Better Living Inc., helped the building supply company alter its operating procedures for pandemic safety as demand exploded. Photo by Caroline Martin

Preparing for the worst

Amid pandemic, CFOs positioned businesses for recovery

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Read about the 2021 Virginia CFO Award winners. John Brocato’s coveted tickets to the Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament suddenly became void in March 2020 after the ACC canceled the tournament as the COVID-19 pandemic began turning the world on its head. And as the chief financial officer of a small building supply company…

William & Mary Senior Lecturer Carey Bagdassarian teaches outdoors in a socially distanced classroom. Photo by Jim Agnew/William & Mary

Course corrections

William & Mary adjusts for budget gaps, shifting demographics

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Can an old college learn new tricks? William & Mary, the second-oldest institution of higher education in the country by virtue of its establishment in February 1693, is proving that it can. It has had little choice. The pandemic pushed the faculty into a steep learning curve to master online teaching, with 2,000 courses moving…

Amazon.com Inc. is building a five-story, 3.8 million-square-foot robotic fulfillment center in Suffolk. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Making it rain

Increased e-commerce fuels wave of distribution centers

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For Hanover County Economic Development Director Linwood Thomas, things couldn’t get much better. “It’s really been a perfect storm,” Thomas says. That storm — the good type — is a deluge of distribution centers and warehouses that have opened recently or are currently in the pipeline for the county of about 108,000 residents, located about…

Named president of Radford in 2016, Brian Hemphill is leaving in June to become Old Dominion University’s ninth president. Photo courtesy Radford University

A growing legacy

Exiting Radford president bolstered finances, enrollment

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Since his selection as president of Radford University five years ago, Brian Hemphill has fulfilled the mission he set when he was hired: to increase fundraising and open channels to boost enrollment.  During Hemphill’s tenure, he has seen the university reach record enrollment numbers and grow its endowment by $20 million. But all things must…

“It’s been a year like no other,” says Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony J. Romanello. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown

Moving forward

Tough year for some sectors, but region sees progress

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In a difficult year haunted by the coronavirus pandemic, the Central Virginia region persevered — and in some cases made economic progress. Henrico County led all other localities with a blockbuster endorsement of a $2.3 billion project, GreenCity, that would promote environmental sustainability and bring a 17,000-seat arena to the area.  The 204-acre property off…

If approved, the GreenCity project in western Henrico County would include a 17,000-seat arena and 2.2 million square feet of office space. Rendering courtesy GreenCity LLC

Seeing green

Navy Hill developers look to Henrico for newest project

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You can almost see the dollar signs flashing as John Vithoulkas talks about the revenue that he hopes will flow to Henrico County from the $2.3 billion GreenCity development, anchored by a 17,000-seat, $250 million arena. “Once it’s running and out of the ground, fully built, it will be producing revenues greater than our top…

Guizhi “Julian” Zhu, an assistant professor at the VCU School of Pharmacy, is developing a fingernail-sized vaccine patch.

VCU thinks small for COVID-19 innovations

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The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has upended life across the globe, but it also has spurred innovation and invention. At Virginia Commonwealth University, two researchers have been working on projects that, if successful, might have far-reaching applications for preventing and detecting COVID-19. A vaccine patch the size of a fingernail has the attention of…

In April, Don Aungst became CFO for Averett University. He's spent his time helping the school adjust to the upheaval the pandemic has created for higher education.

Essential workers

With the pandemic’s disruption, CFOs have taken on more duties

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The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted business models. It has forced employees to seek new office sites in their kitchens, bedrooms and basements. It has ushered in hybrid educational models involving in-person and virtual learning, and imperiled funding for colleges and universities. And nobody really knows what’s coming next or when. Meanwhile, who’s minding the store?…

A retired commercial real estate broker, Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw says that the region’s rapid growth in recent decades has driven a hot real estate market. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

This burg has grown

Fredericksburg region retains small-town feel amid population boom

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Three-term incumbent Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw recalls when her city moved at a slower pace, as did surrounding Spotsylvania and Stafford counties. All that has changed, profoundly. Fredericksburg’s population has jumped by more than 50% during the past 20 years, from 19,279 in 2000 to an estimated 29,036 in 2019, according to the U.S.…

With students back on campus, coronavirus cases will “almost certainly explode,” says Udhanth Mallasani, interim president of the VCU Student Government Association. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

Testing the waters

VCU goes back to school during the pandemic

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At colleges across Virginia and the nation, this will be a fall semester like no other. The coronavirus is turning campuses into petri dishes for experimentation. One of the state’s largest public colleges with an enrollment of about 30,000 students in the heart of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University is also pivoting to confront the unprecedented…