Virginia Economic Review: First Quarter 2023

VIRGINIA A TO Z

The property that became the Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County was developed around the largest hot springs in Virginia in the 18th century. Many prominent Americans traveled to the resort to visit the soothing springs, which reopened in 2022 after a rehabilitation.

Virginia A to Z

Construction on the Governor’s Palace in Colonial Williamsburg began in 1706. The original building burned down in 1781 and was rebuilt in the 20th century based on archaeological excavations, original plans, and contemporary engravings.

A Surprising, Enlightening Look Into What Makes Virginia Special

WHAT DOES COUNTRY MUSIC have in common with the presidency of the United States? It’s the same thing NASCAR has in common with the works of Edgar Allan Poe — none of those phenomena would exist in the form they do today without the influence of Virginia.

In this issue of Virginia Economic Review, we detail some of the people, places, works, concepts, and developments that represent Virginia and its influence on America’s governance, economy, culture, and norms. Some of these entries are already deeply associated with the Commonwealth — it’s called the “Mother of Presidents” for a reason, and if you don’t know how to complete the prompt “Virginia is for…,” we don’t know what to tell you — but others, like Poe’s time in Richmond and at the University of Virginia, may come as more of a surprise. (Did you know that Virginia’s contributions to the Hollywood canon include Danny Tanner from “Full House,” Tami Taylor from “Friday Night Lights,” Flounder from “Animal House,” and Ted Lasso himself?)

Also inside is a conversation with Jonathan Zur, president and CEO

of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, a nonprofit organization that works with schools, businesses, and communities to promote inclusion. He goes in depth on ethnic, religious, cultural, gender, and other forms of diversity that help make Virginia’s workforce and business community great.

Our Virginia highlights range from historical figures and concepts to some of the ideas and advancements that make the Commonwealth an ideal place to do business — from diversity to unmanned innovation to the foundation of the internet. We hope you enjoy this peek into just a few (well, 26) of the things that make Virginia such a wonderful, interesting, quirky place to live and work.

Best regards,

Jason El Koubi President and CEO, Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Selected Virginia Wins

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon, Inc. company, will invest $35 billion by 2040 to establish multiple data centers across Virginia. Numerous Virginia localities are under consideration, and specific facilities will be decided at a later date. This planned investment will create at least 1,000 total new jobs in the Commonwealth. The investment will be the largest economic development capital investment in Virginia history.

The new data center campuses will combine expandable capacity to position AWS for long-term growth in Virginia. Amazon is among the largest privatesector employers in the Commonwealth. The company established its first AWS data centers and operations facilities in Virginia in 2006 and announced its landmark HQ2 at National Landing in Northern Virginia in 2018. Amazon has previously invested $35 billion in Virginia.

VEDP worked with the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Project Approval Commission to secure the project to expand data center investment to new locations across Virginia. Pending approval by the Virginia General Assembly, the Commonwealth is developing a new Mega Data Center Incentive Program, which the company will be eligible to receive. The new program includes an up to 15-year extension of Data Center Sales and Use tax exemptions on qualifying equipment and enabling software. In addition (and also subject to approval by the General Assembly), AWS will be eligible to receive an MEI custom performance grant of up to $140 million for site and infrastructure improvements, workforce development, and other project-related costs.

ROGER WEHNER Director of Economic Development, Amazon Web Services

Virginia is a world leader in innovation and cloud computing, thanks to its investment in a robust, highly skilled workforce and emphasis on long-term public and private partnerships.

Selected Virginia Wins

Multiple Localities

Amazon Web Services

Jobs: 1,000 New Jobs

CapEx: $35B

Central Virginia

PS-Fertility, Inc.

Jobs: 31 New Jobs

CapEx: $1.4M

Locality: Albemarle County

Greater Richmond

ISO Group

Jobs: 30 New Jobs

CapEx: $570K

Locality: Chesterfield County

Hampton Roads

M S International, Inc.

Jobs: 80 New Jobs

CapEx: $61.6M

Locality: City of Suffolk

PRINCO LLC

Jobs: 284 New Jobs

CapEx: $18.1M

Locality: City of Norfolk

Yellow Dog Software

Jobs: 20 New Jobs

CapEx: $150K

Locality: City of Norfolk

Lynchburg Region

Virginia MetalFab

Jobs: 130 New Jobs

CapEx: $9M

Locality: Appomattox County

New River Valley

Hollingsworth & Vose

Jobs: 25 New Jobs

CapEx: $40.2M

Locality: Floyd County

SWVA Biochar

Jobs: 15 New Jobs

CapEx: $2.6M

Locality: Floyd County

Northern Virginia

Amentum Services, Inc.

Jobs: 157 New Jobs

CapEx: $495K

Locality: Fairfax County

Armored Fresh

Jobs: 27 New Jobs

CapEx: $125K

Locality: Fairfax County

E-Z Treat

Jobs: 16 New Jobs

CapEx: $3.5M

Locality: Fauquier County

Granules India Ltd.

Jobs: 57 New Jobs

CapEx: $12.5M

Locality: Prince William County

SmartRoof

Jobs: 400 New Jobs

CapEx: $350K

Locality: Fairfax County

Technomics, Inc.

Jobs: 150 New Jobs

CapEx: $1.7M

Locality: Arlington County

Southern Virginia

Apex Mills

Jobs: 44 New Jobs

CapEx: $3.1M

Locality: Patrick County

Engineered

BioPharmaceuticals, Inc.

Jobs: 34 New Jobs

CapEx: $6.1M

Locality: City of Danville

Skip Barber Racing School

Jobs: 24 New Jobs

CapEx: $8.9M

Locality: Halifax County

Central Virginia Easte

Greater Richmond

Hampton Roads

Virginia’s Gateway Region

Lynchburg Region

Middle Peninsula

Northern Neck

Northern Virginia

Shenandoah Valley

Southern Virginia

South Centr al Virg inia

Northern Shenandoah Valley

Greater Fredericksburg

Washington, D.C.

VIRGINIA A TO Z

Virginia has made an impact on American history and culture in countless ways — some expected, some not. We’ve put together an alphabetical compendium of the various industries, products, and even concepts that wouldn’t be the same without the Commonwealth’s contributions. Read on to learn more about the sometimes-surprising ways Virginia has helped make America’s economy and culture what they are today.

Appalachian Trail

Virginia is home to more than 500 miles of the iconic Appalachian Trail — more than a quarter of its entire length. Day hikers who make the 4-mile out-and-back trek to McAfee Knob in Roanoke County are rewarded with some of the most stunning views on the entire trail.

Beaches

The 3-mile Virginia Beach boardwalk, lined with hotels, restaurants, shops, and attractions, is the first beach visitors think of in the Commonwealth — and it lives up to the hype, offering beautiful beaches with all the amenities you’d expect from a metro area of nearly 2 million people. Virginia Beach even boasts its own secluded getaway in the Sandbridge community, nicknamed “the Outer Banks of Virginia,” along with numerous other beaches away from the main resort area. But the Chesapeake Bay and its offshoots make up the vast majority of Virginia’s more than 7,000 miles of shoreline, providing a beach experience that’s often more private and more adventurous. The Chesapeake Bay side of Virginia’s Eastern Shore boasts wave-free recreation for families centered on Cape Charles and other small communities, while its Atlantic Ocean side, dominated by the federally protected Assateague Island National Seashore, offers wide ocean beaches in a more undeveloped setting.

Paul DiPasquale’s “King Neptune” statue stands guard at the entrance to Neptune Park on the 3-mile Virginia Beach boardwalk.

The town of Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore is home to a public beach on the Chesapeake Bay. The beach offers relatively wave-free recreation opportunities for families and other visitors.

Rudee Inlet near the south end of the Virginia Beach oceanfront is a popular spot for surfing, fishing, boating, and other water sports.

Country Music A

The city of Bristol on the Virginia-Tennessee border was the site of the “Big Bang of Country Music” — the 1927 Bristol Sessions, which captured legendary recordings from genre pioneers like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail showcases those sessions and other sites where country music developed in its early days, including the Carter Family Fold in Scott County, which hosts a weekly concert series.

DIVERSITY DIVERSITY

DIVERSITY DIVERSITY DIVERSITY

A Conversation With Jonathan Zur

Jonathan Zur is president and CEO of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC), a nonprofit organization based in the Richmond area that works with schools, businesses, and communities to promote inclusion. VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Zur about VCIC’s mission, its activities, and the importance of pairing diversity with inclusion.

Jason El Koubi: Can you tell us about the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and its history and mission today?

Jonathan Zur: I draw a lot of inspiration from our organization’s long history back to 1935, when we were initially part of a national movement that was being led to address religious bigotry of the 1920s and ’30s. The story sounds like a bad joke — it is not. We were founded when a rabbi, priest, and minister got together. They went around the country to speak out against a rise in antisemitism and anti-Catholicism at the time. In many communities, it was the first time people had the chance to meet someone from a different denomination or religious background to ask questions and dispel stereotypes.

These religious leaders were invited to speak in Lynchburg, and nearly 1,000 people came out to hear them. It’s pretty remarkable to think about a gathering of

that size at that time around those issues. Those who attended were so inspired, they said, “We need an organization doing this type of work in Virginia.”

They affiliated with the National Conference of Christians and Jews, or NCCJ, and formed a Virginia office. Over time, NCCJ’s work broadened to address issues more expansively, thinking about interfaith work, as well as to address issues of race and class, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration. We relaunched as the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities in the early 2000s to become an independent organization in Virginia and to reflect the broader mission and work that had really captured our organization’s focus.

Today, my colleagues and I have the honor of working with schools, businesses, and community groups to help them achieve success through inclusion. We’re facilitating workshops, forums, and dialogues. What

we think about in terms of our work is moving people from a process of awareness to action. We help people to understand concepts, to build empathy, to build motivation, to explore what types of skills they might utilize to make their spheres of influence more inclusive.

El Koubi: I’d love to hear about what’s exciting to you in this, and what the challenges are as you pursue this work.

Zur: I think what’s really exciting is the opportunity to work with a broad range of stakeholders. We’re in all corners of the Commonwealth. Sometimes that means working with folks who are very receptive and sometimes that means working with folks who are not as open to these concepts. We’re very intentional about being an organization that reaches as many people as possible.

We’ve also begun to do some work to help elevate the conversation and the tenor we’re seeing in some circles nationally, where we have concern around the state of dialogue, for example. Our organization recently developed and published a guide to constructive and inclusive dialogue to help people think about what it means to interact with folks who might have a different perspective, background, or worldview, and to be in community with those folks.

The other thing that has been meaningful has been a shift from one-time interactions with certain groups to long-term relationships. We’ve seen a real yearning with our partners around Virginia to go deeper than a one-time, check-off-thebox-type training.

El Koubi: How are we doing on this front as an American society in terms of advancing dialogue and diversity of ideas and including different voices?

Zur: We have a mixed grade. Some meaningful opportunities have emerged in recent years to go deeper than we had in the past. That, in some ways, is a sign of concern that we’re seeing some fraying of

our social connectedness. I think that has been exacerbated by social media, where folks are able to live in echo chambers where they see things that affirm their worldview and potentially negate, ignore, or demonize other identities or perspectives. We don’t see great modeling from our national leaders in terms of what it means to connect well across lines of difference. So, I think there are some real concerns about the state of our civil society. At the same time, we’ve seen acknowledgment that previously had not existed of different groups, identities, and experiences, and there’s an opportunity that comes from that.

In some ways it feels like we’re in that moment as a society where some folks are saying, “We’ve been calling for change for a long time. It may feel messy right now, but it’s long overdue,” and we have others who say, “I was very comfortable the way things were.” I think part of our role at VCIC is to hold space for all those perspectives and ensure that we’re able to help folks learn along their journey to more inclusive and successful outcomes.

El Koubi: Why are diversity and inclusion important to business? What do businesses gain when they try to cultivate an organization that embraces diverse backgrounds and viewpoints?

Zur: A lot of research shows that diverse, inclusive teams produce better outcomes. There are a lot of reasons why that might be, and there are also reasons why institutions don’t benefit from diversity if they don’t have a culture that supports and leverages differences. It’s important to recognize that diversity and inclusion are different things. Diversity reflects the presence of difference. Inclusion reflects accepting, respecting, and valuing diversity.

To simply have diversity — to plop different people into a space and say, “Have at it” — does not necessarily result in positive outcomes for institutions. The work of achieving diversity is important and insufficient. So, that’s where inclusion comes in — thinking

about how businesses can foster an environment where folks feel like their full selves, where they can contribute, where they look out for their colleagues, where they’re able to share innovative ideas and not feel like they’re going to be shut down. When we have those types of environments cultivated through professional development, inclusive policies, mentoring and training, and culture-building within organizations, that’s when we really benefit from the presence of difference.

El Koubi: What’s the role of leaders in fostering that kind of change in culture?

Zur: The challenge for leaders, I think, is that oftentimes organizations are set up to be most comfortable for the leader. In my organization, the processes we have in place are processes that are most comfortable for me. I have to start to think from a perspective of, “How is this process landing for someone else? How might somebody from a different background or perspective experience this communication?” Ultimately, it may not feel comfortable for me to make that shift, even though doing so is an opportunity to engage more people in caring about the success of our institution.

Leaders are critical to being models for openness to new ideas, for setting the tone and saying, “It’s not just about

what I want. I want to think about and understand how our full team is experiencing this or what new ideas folks have.” Then, ultimately, leaders are responsible for enforcement when there are behaviors that may not align with stated values around inclusion.

El Koubi: How important is it to get buy-in from businesses and corporate partners in this work? When you think about the totality of your mission and what it would take to achieve it, how do you think about business in that context?

Zur: Businesses are a place where people often will interact with the most difference within their adult lives. We also sometimes see that in schools, depending on how our neighborhoods are set up. But if you think about an adult in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in many cases their neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of racial or religious difference. If they’re a member of a civic group or faith community, or are involved, if they have children, in their children’s lives, oftentimes they’re seeing folks who are like them. But when they enter a workplace, particularly a diverse workplace, they’re interacting with folks who are different from them. Businesses become a critical landing ground for Virginians to be able to build the skills to work across lines of difference and figure out how to engage with one another successfully.

This is about how we can be at our best. A workplace that has an inclusive environment is more innovative and more collaborative. There’s a higher level of retention and there’s higher commitment. When businesses can articulate the case for diversity and inclusion in an effective, coherent way, I think all of us hear that in a way that advances our shared priorities in Virginia. Businesses are critical partners in understanding and advancing a commitment to inclusion.

For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts

Visitors to the Poe Museum can enjoy lunch at Poe’s Pub, located within a short walk from the museum.

Edgar Allan Poe

The master of the macabre attended the University of Virginia (UVA) for a time but was forced to withdraw due to mounting gambling debts. UVA has preserved his former room to the time period of his attendance, and a pane of glass from his room, now on display at the university’s Rotunda, bears what’s believed to be an unpublished Poe verse:

O thou timid one, let not thy Form rest in slumber within these Unhallowed walls, For herein lies

The ghost of an awful crime.

Poe was born in Boston and died in Baltimore, but he spent his formative years in Richmond, which is now home to the Poe Museum. The Poe Museum’s memorial garden was constructed from bricks from the offices of the Southern Literary Messenger, the literary journal where Poe worked as editor during his time in Richmond.

TOP LEFT: At 12,700 acres, Carvins Cove Natural Reserve in Roanoke County is the second-largest municipal park in the country. Its warmweather outdoor amenities include more than 60 miles of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails.

TOP RIGHT: While the hiking trails at Claytor Lake State Park in Pulaski County are open year-round, summer is the best time to enjoy the lake via kayak, paddleboard, or other watercraft.

BOTTOM LEFT: The leaves in the higherelevation western portions of Virginia, like the Tuscarora Trail in Frederick County, start to turn shades of fiery red, yellow, and orange in October. Later in the fall, the colors come to lower elevations, where red maples and golden hickories and oaks contrast with green pines.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Wintergreen Resort in Nelson County is one of several skiing/snowboarding hotspots in Virginia, along with the Bryce and Massanutten resorts in Rockingham County and the Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County.

Seasons

Virginia puts on her prettiest colors to greet the seasons. In the fall, the colors of the leaves are lemon yellow, pumpkin gold, watermelon red, rusty oak, vermillion maple, burnt orange, and dusty green, and no two trees are the same.

EARL HAMNER JR. Creator, “The Waltons”

Good Governance

Virginia’s state government is known for its stability and friendliness to business operations. Virginia’s corporate tax rate has held steady at 6% since 1972, and the Commonwealth has held an AAA bond rating since 1938 — longer than any other state.

Headquarters

Twenty-one of the companies listed in the 2022 Fortune 500 are headquartered in Virginia, the seventh-largest group in the country. Virginia’s corporate headquarters represent a diversified ecosystem over a broad range of industries, from technology to defense to food and beverage processing. Iconic American brands including Boeing, Capital One Financial Corporation, CarMax, Hilton, Mars, and PBS choose to operate from Virginia, along with the U.S. headquarters of major international companies including Lidl, Nestlé, Volkswagen, and STIHL.

When we thought about relocating our headquarters, it was really about finding the right location that gave us access to the right talent and the right kind of infrastructure we needed to succeed for the next 100 years, and that turned out to be Virginia.

STEVE PRESLEY CEO, Nestlé Zone North America

CarMax, Goochland County

Internet

Forget, for a moment, about the many technology companies that choose to call Virginia home. That’s not the main testament to Virginia’s importance to the online world. The Internet is just here, and we mean that literally and physically — the Commonwealth is the largest data center market in the world, home to 35% of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide, with a particularly dense cluster in Loudoun County known as “Data Center Alley.” Other parts of Virginia are claiming their own share of that data, with the Interstate 64 corridor capitalizing on the presence of the MAREA, BRUSA, and Dunant subsea cables that land in Virginia Beach and terminate in Richmond, giving the area some of the fastest data transmission speeds in the world. Companies that have located facilities in what’s being called the Richmond Network Access Point include Bank of America and tech giant Meta.

Jobs

Established businesses and startups alike can find the talent they need in Virginia. In addition to the state’s strong business climate (G is for Good Governance), companies can source talent from the “best workforce in the nation” according to CNBC in 2022. Nearly 40% of Virginia’s population has a bachelor’s degree or higher, making the Commonwealth the sixth-most educated state in the country (and the most educated in the South). Virginia’s premier talent base represents a world-class labor pool ready to meet business needs in all key employee profiles. The upshot of that talent: an astonishing $34 billion in new capital investment in the Commonwealth in fiscal 2022, creating more than 17,000 direct jobs.

WillowTree, Albemarle County

MELD Manufacturing, Montgomery County

WestRock Company, Henrico County

FUJIFILM Wako Chemicals U.S.A., Chesterfield County

ID.me,

Kayaks (at Kiptopeke)

Kiptopeke State Park in Northampton County is home to the “concrete fleet” of nine World War II-era concrete ships, strategically moored in the Chesapeake Bay to protect the park’s pier and beach — and provide an intriguing exploration spot only accessible by watercraft. Virginia’s water sports hotspots for more advanced paddlers include the fall line near downtown Richmond — billed as the only urban Class III-IV rapids in the country — and the Class V+ Bottom Creek Gorge in Montgomery County.

Lovers

A Conversation With Rita McClenny

Rita McClenny is president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), the agency tasked with expanding domestic and international inbound travel and motion picture production in the Commonwealth.

Virginia Economic Review: VTC is charged with overseeing one of the most iconic brands in travel in the United States, “Virginia Is for Lovers.” Could you share how that phrase has evolved in Virginia?

Rita McClenny: When the slogan debuted in 1969, they were looking for something different and groundbreaking, and “Virginia Is for Lovers” came to life. We say that anything that you love in a vacation, you can find it in Virginia.

Whether it’s outdoors, whether it’s the coast or the cliff, whether it’s music, sports, film — anything that you can imagine that you would do on a vacation, we have it right here in Virginia.

VER: When you travel the country and the world promoting tourism and travel to Virginia, what are the perceptions of the Commonwealth that you most often encounter?

McClenny: There’s just so much history. If people know us for one thing, it’s certainly that they know Virginia for history.

VER: What are some of the most common destinations in Virginia and some that are up and coming?

McClenny: People know the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Shenandoah Valley, but Canadians come by the hundreds of thousands to bike on our trails. We are a

goal destination for mountain biking and investments are being made in our trail systems.

VER: What are your personal favorite places to visit in the Commonwealth?

McClenny: I love our four seasons, whether it’s snow or going to the beach or the mountains or fishing. I will say that my favorite place in Virginia is whatever I can see from the back of a horse. That’s my favorite.

Mountains

Virginia’s eight mountain ranges include five peaks of more than 5,000 feet, with Mount Rogers in Grayson and Smyth counties topping the list at 5,729 feet above sea level. Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park in Madison County, shown here, tops out at just over 3,000 feet, but draws crowds of hikers who enjoy the astounding views from its exposed-rock summit.

National Monuments

Proportionally, the town of Bedford suffered the most severe losses on D-Day of any American community, with 23 soldiers from a town of 3,200 dying in the Normandy campaign. Their sacrifice led Congress to select Bedford County for the National D-Day Memorial, shown here, which draws 60,000 visitors a year.

Other national monuments and memorials in Virginia honor subjects as diverse as Reconstruction-era Black leader Booker T. Washington, the soldiers who raised the American flag at Iwo Jima, and the country’s first president, George Washington.

Offshore Wind

Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project off the coast of Virginia Beach is expected to include 180 14-megawatt wind turbines, more than 800 feet tall with 350-foot blades, capable of supplying power for up to 660,000 homes. CVOW is the first electric utilityowned offshore wind project in the United States. Dominion’s partner for Phase II of the project, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, is leasing more than 80 acres at The Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal to build blades for the turbines. This allows the company to make use of the deep water channels in the Hampton Roads region that are necessary to accommodate the large ships required to transport the blades.

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project

Presidents

Virginia is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents — more than any other state, including the first president, George Washington. His bust, shown here, is one of 43 that were made for Presidents Park, a now-closed tourist attraction in Williamsburg. The busts now sit on a private farm in James City County that is open for private tours.

George Washington

James Madison

Thomas Jefferson

Woodrow Wilson

James Monroe

John Tyler

William Henry Harrison

Zachary Taylor

#1 #4 #9 #12

#3 #5 #10 #28

Queen Elizabeth I

Virginia gets its name from Queen Elizabeth I of England, the “Virgin Queen” who provided support for Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1584 expedition to North America. The Commonwealth shares its name with Virginia Dare, the first child to be born to English parents in the New World.

VIRginia International Raceway in Halifax County hosts events from numerous auto racing series on its five track configurations. Its NASCAR Bend got its name from a 1966 TransAm race where NASCAR legends Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Wendell Scott had difficulties with the curve.

Martinsville Speedway is the only track that has hosted NASCAR Cup Series races every year since the division was created in 1949. It is the shortest track on the Cup Series circuit at just over half a mile.

Racing

Virginia boasts two tracks currently in use on NASCAR’s Cup Series — Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway — and is just across the border from Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway. But Virginia’s contributions to the racing world go far beyond those facilities. Like many early American racers, Virginia’s earliest racing star, Curtis Turner, cut his teeth driving bootleg liquor in his native Floyd County. Since then, Virginians like Jeff and Ward Burton of South Boston, Denny Hamlin of Chesterfield County, and Ricky Rudd of Chesapeake have thrilled race fans on the NASCAR circuit, while countless others continue to chase their big break at Dominion Raceway, South Boston Speedway, and Virginia’s many smaller tracks. For those who like their adrenaline in smaller, more concentrated doses, Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie County has hosted top-tier drag races since 1994.

Space

Virginia has been home to NASA since before NASA even existed. In 1917, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA’s predecessor organization, broke ground on what would become the Langley Research Center in the city of Hampton. Today, Langley is known for its pivotal role in the space race, immortalized in the book and movie “Hidden Figures,” and Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore is home to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) and the private company Rocket Lab.

Virginia Economic Review: Can you give us a quick overview of space assets in Virginia — the facilities and capabilities?

Maj. Gen. Ted Mercer, CEO and Executive Director, Virginia Space: Every person who comes to MARS to tour our facilities leaves saying to themselves, “Wow, we did not know that Virginia, the Commonwealth, had this kind of capability.”

We have basically three launchpads. Launchpad A is designed to handle liquid fuel rockets. Pad B is a solid rocket pad for launching solid rockets like the Minotaur I, the Minotaur IV, and the Minotaur V. We launch many Department of Defense and national security missions off of pad B. Pad C is a venture-class launchpad that will be used to launch the Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the United States.

We have a MARS Command building, a secure office building. We have our secure operational facilities inside this building for our confidential kind of work, also located up at Wallops. We have a Space Board Control Center. We have a MARS payload processing facility designed to accommodate and attract both classified and unclassified security missions. It’s designed to house classified and unclassified payloads simultaneously, but yet segregated for security and clearance requirements. It’s a state-of-the-art facility capable of processing multiple payloads at the same time.

We are one of only five launch spaceports in the United States that are licensed by the FAA for vertical launch to orbit. One of the interesting things to note is that unlike horizontal launch, vertical launch provides the ability to get large payloads to space on a single rocket. Most horizontal space lift operations can put up anywhere from 1,000 to about a 1,100-pound payload. We routinely launch payloads in excess of 18,000 pounds.

Every single aircraft you’ve ever flown on, every single aircraft you’ve ever seen fly over your head, was developed with Langley technology in it. Every breakthrough we’ve had in terms of aircraft design came through our wind tunnels.

DAVID YOUNG

Deputy Director, NASA Langley Research Center

Where are some of the world’s most valuable secrets kept? At the Pentagon, a massive office complex (the world’s largest at more than 6.6 million square feet) in Arlington County that serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Unfortunately, given the high-value intelligence passing through the Pentagon’s offices and networks, there’s not a whole lot of public detail about what goes on inside — and the less said about the DoD’s Northern Virginia neighbors at the Central Intelligence Agency (headquartered in Fairfax County), the better. As the saying goes, we could tell you, but then [REDACTED].

Unmanned Systems

HUSH Aerospace in Virginia Beach is just one of Virginia’s many companies innovating in the field of unmanned transportation. Virginia’s unmanned history dates to 1924, when Lt. John Ballentine and electrical engineer Carlo Mirick completed the first unmanned, radio-controlled flight in history at what is now Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in King George County.

Today, the Commonwealth continues to push the unmanned industry forward, with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership at Virginia Tech one of just seven FAA-designated unmanned aerial system test centers in the United States.

Veterans

Virginia is home to more than 30 military installations and more than 721,000 veterans, known for their stability, confidentiality, and high-stakes operational knowledge. Only California, five times larger, has more service members separating from the military each year. The Hampton Roads area alone is home to more than 80,000 active-duty military covering the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps, like this Marine supporting Navy units during a combat exercise near Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.

Wine (and Whiskey)

Wine and spirits production dates back to Virginia’s earliest days and its most famous residents of the time — George Washington distilled whiskey at his Mount Vernon estate, while Thomas Jefferson attempted to cultivate wine grapes at the Albemarle County plot that now houses Jefferson Vineyards. Virginia is home to more than 350 wineries and dozens of wine trails that showcase the Commonwealth’s favorable growing conditions and bucolic countryside. The Commonwealth is in the top 10 states for both number of wineries and gallons produced, according to Wines Vines Analytics, while the craft beer and spirits industries also continue to blossom in Virginia.

Iron Heart Winery, Pulaski County

Our unparalleled beauty, terroir, and history make Virginia unlike any other region in the world.

JEAN CASE Owner, Early Mountain Vineyards

George Washington’s Distillery at Mount Vernon, a reconstruction of the former president’s original distillery, produces small-batch spirits and is open to visitors from April through October.

Barboursville Vineyards traces its history back to former Virginia Governor James Barbour, a friend and contemporary of Thomas Jefferson. Gianni Zonin, heir to an Italian family wine enterprise, acquired the property in 1976 and turned it into one of Virginia’s first successful vineyards. Barboursville wine was served to Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Virginia in 2007.

EXports (and Imports)

Norfolk International Terminals and the other facilities operated by the Virginia Port Authority are the backbone of the Commonwealth’s more than $35 billion in annual exports, which support more than 250,000 Virginia jobs and more than $2 billion per year in state and local tax revenue. VEDP supports Virginia companies’ export efforts through its International Trade programs, which leverage the organization’s expertise to help companies launch export programs and grow international sales faster and more effectively.

Virginia Economic Review: What sets The Port of Virginia apart from its peers on the East Coast, and how have some of the recent infrastructure and modernization investments affected its value proposition?

Stephen Edwards, CEO and Executive Director, The Port of Virginia: A large part of the U.S. population is east of the Mississippi River. The ports on the East Coast have this opportunity to grow market share because a significant amount of business comes through California ports and is railed across to the Ohio Valley, the Midwest, and partly to the East Coast.

If we can provide excellent service, we can attract cargo to come through the Eastern Seaboard to get to the market where the population lives. The investments made here have improved the value proposition and made us so much more capable than we were only four or five years ago.

Increasingly, ports have to be viewed as supply chain enablers. In today’s world, that’s where we can differentiate ourselves as a provider, by really providing that modern capability and service excellence that importers and exporters look for.

VER: Is there anything else our readers should know about The Port of Virginia?

Edwards: If I were talking to a site selector or a CEO who’s looking at where to do business, what I would say is that The Port of Virginia is the most exciting port on the East Coast. What drew me here was the ability to say, “Look, you’ve got the capability to oversee the entire gateway.” But it’s also doing so with the most modern facility on the East Coast.

I would hope that site selector or that CEO would look at Virginia and say there’s a high degree of confidence in these port operations — and not only in that they will work, or that they do work, but a high degree of confidence that we’ve built resiliency and decarbonization into this process. We know how to stay ahead of the demand curve so they can take their business, bring it to Virginia, and say, “We’ve got the confidence to do business in the Commonwealth as a whole because we know we can bank on the port.”

Yogaville

Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, best known for giving the opening address at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, brought the Integral Yoga system, which synthesizes six branches of classical yoga, to the West. The Satchidananda Ashram, Integral Yoga’s global headquarters, is located in Buckingham County. The facility’s Light of Truth Universal Shrine houses 12 altars representing different global religions.

AARTHUR ASHE

Tennis player (3-time Grand Slam champion); Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

From: Richmond

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

Settler, “Father of Texas”

Born in: Wythe County

JAMES AVERY

Actor, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”

From: Suffolk

Attended: Virginia State University

Zeitgeist

Virginia has been indispensable since the beginning of its existence. In addition to the eight U.S. presidents listed on page 40, the Commonwealth was home to numerous Founding Fathers who helped shape the direction of the country and many civil rights leaders who believed it was capable of more. In music, Virginians not only helped launch the genre of country music (C is for Country Music) but shaped the path of jazz (Ella Fitzgerald), rock and roll (Gene Vincent), and hip-hop (Timbaland). Other notable Virginians in the arts include acclaimed writers from Faulkner to Grisham and Hollywood stars as iconic as Warren Beatty and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In sports, Virginians broke barriers both racial (Arthur Ashe, who grew up in segregated Richmond and became the first Black man to win Wimbledon) and professional (Moses Malone, the first basketball player to turn pro directly from high school). Read on to learn about Virginia’s contributions to these fields and more.

FRANK BEAMER

Football coach, Virginia Tech; College Football Hall of Fame inductee

From: Carroll County

Attended: Virginia Tech

WARREN BEATTY

Actor, “Heaven Can Wait,” “Reds,” “Dick Tracy”; 7-time Academy Award winner

Born in: Richmond

TONY BENNETT

Men’s basketball coach, University of Virginia (2019 NCAA champion) Works at: University of Virginia

CONNIE BRITTON

Actress, “Friday Night Lights,” “Nashville”

From: Lynchburg

CHRIS BROWN

DAVID CHANG

Michelin star-winning chef, Momofuku

From: Arlington County

ROY CLARK

Host, “Hee Haw”; singer, “Yesterday, When I Was Young”; Country Music Hall of Fame inductee

From: Lunenburg County

WILLIAM CLARK

Leader, Lewis and Clark Expedition; Governor, Missouri Territory

From: Caroline County

HENRY CLAY

Representative/Senator from Kentucky; U.S. Secretary of State

From: Hanover County

CLARENCE CLEMONS

BPEARL BAILEY

Actress/singer, Tony and Emmy Award winner; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

From: Newport News

RONDE BARBER

Football player, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Super Bowl XXVII champion); Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

From: Roanoke

Attended: University of Virginia

TIKI BARBER

Football player, New York Giants; correspondent, “Today” and “Football Night in America”

From: Roanoke

Attended: University of Virginia

DAVE BAUTISTA

Professional wrestler, World Wrestling Entertainment; actor, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Endgame”

From: Arlington County

Singer, “Run It!,” “Kiss Kiss” From: Essex County

SANDRA BULLOCK

Actress, “Speed,” “The Blind Side”; Academy Award winner From: Arlington County

CMARY CHAPIN CARPENTER

Singer, “Shut Up and Kiss Me”; 5-time Grammy Award winner

Lived in: Alexandria, Charlottesville

NEKO CASE

Singer, The New Pornographers

Born in: Alexandria

STEVE CASE

CEO, America Online Lived in: Fairfax County

Saxophonist, Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

From: Chesapeake

PATSY CLINE

Singer, “I Fall to Pieces,” “She’s Got You”

From: Winchester

JOSEPH COTTEN

Actor, “Citizen Kane,” “Shadow of a Doubt,” “The Third Man”

From: Petersburg

KATIE COURIC

Host/anchor, “Today,” “CBS Evening News”; Television Hall of Fame inductee

From: Arlington County

Attended: University of Virginia

DD’ANGELO

Singer, “Lady,” “Untitled (How Does it Feel)”; 2-time Grammy Award winner; born Michael Archer

From: Richmond

JIMMY DEAN

Singer; “Big Bad John”; founder, Jimmy Dean Foods

Lived in: Henrico County

GABBY DOUGLAS

Gymnast, 2012 Olympic all-around champion

From: Virginia Beach

CHARLES BROWNE FLEET

Inventor, ChapStick

From: King and Queen County

Lived in: Lynchburg

STEPHEN FURST

Actor, “Animal House,” “St. Elsewhere”

From: Norfolk

Attended: Virginia Commonwealth University

MARK HAMILL

Actor, “Star Wars,” “Batman: The Animated Series”

From: Fairfax County

JENNY HAN

Author, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”

From: Richmond

EMMYLOU HARRIS

Singer, “We Believe in Happy Endings”; 14-time Grammy Award winner; Country Music Hall of Fame inductee

From: Prince William County

EMISSY “MISDEMEANOR” ELLIOTT

Rapper, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” “Work It”; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee

From: Portsmouth

PERRY ELLIS

Fashion designer

From: Portsmouth

Attended: College of William & Mary

FWILLIAM FAULKNER

Author, “The Sound and the Fury,” “As I Lay Dying” Worked at: University of Virginia

ELLA FITZGERALD

Singer, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall”; 14-time Grammy Award winner; nicknamed “First Lady of Song”; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

From: Newport News

ROBERTA FLACK

Singer, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song”

From: Arlington County

GVINCE GILLIGAN

Creator, “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”

From: Chesterfield County

NIKKI GIOVANNI

Writer and poet; winner, Langston Hughes Medal, NAACP Image Award; one of Oprah Winfrey’s “Living Legends”

Worked at: Virginia Tech

LAUREN GRAHAM

Actress, “Gilmore Girls,” “Parenthood” From: Fairfax County

JOHN GRISHAM

Author, “The Firm,” “A Time to Kill” Lives in: Albemarle County

DAVE GROHL

Singer/guitarist, Foo Fighters; drummer, Nirvana; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with both bands

From: Fairfax County

HCHARLES HALEY

Football player, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys; first player to win five Super Bowls; Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

From: Campbell County

Attended: James Madison University

PATRICK HENRY

Founding Father; first post-colonial governor of Virginia; delivered famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech

From: Hanover County

GRANT HILL

Men’s basketball player, Duke University, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee

From: Fairfax County

OLIVER HILL

Civil rights attorney; helped end “Separate but equal” doctrine in the United States

From: Richmond

BRUCE HORNSBY

Singer, “The Way it Is”; pianist, Grateful Dead

From: Williamsburg

SAM HOUSTON

First president of the Republic of Texas; only American to be elected governor of two states (Texas and Tennessee)

From: Rockbridge County

IALLEN IVERSON

Men’s basketball player, Georgetown University, Philadelphia 76ers; No. 1 NBA draft pick; 4-time NBA scoring leader; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee

From: Hampton

David Chang

Arthur Ashe

Ella Fitzgerald

Missy Elliott

Katie Couric

Dave Grohl

JBARBARA JOHNS

Civil rights leader; plaintiff in Davis v. Prince Edward County, the only student-initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education

From: Prince Edward County

VERNON JOHNS

Pastor, civil rights leader

From: Prince Edward County

Attended: Virginia Theological Seminary (now Virginia University of Lynchburg)

DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON

Professional wrestler, World Wrestling

Entertainment; actor, “Fast & Furious” series, “Black Adam,” “Moana”

Lives in: Orange County

ROB LOWE

Actor, “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The West Wing,” “Parks and Recreation”

Born in: Charlottesville

JASON MRAZ

Singer, “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry),” “I’m Yours”

From: Hanover County

NWAYNE NEWTON

KBARBARA KINGSOLVER

Author, “The Poisonwood Bible,” “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”

Lives in: Washington County

HODA KOTB

Co-anchor, “Today”

From: Alexandria

Attended: Virginia Tech

LHENRIETTA LACKS

Source of HeLa, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research

From: Roanoke

MERIWETHER LEWIS

Leader, Lewis & Clark Expedition; Governor, Louisiana Territory

From: Albemarle County

HOWIE LONG

Football player, Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders; Fox Sports analyst; Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee; father of NFL players Chris and Kyle Long

Lives in: Albemarle County

MSHIRLEY Mac LAINE

Actress, “Terms of Endearment,” “Steel Magnolias”; Academy Award winner

From: Richmond

MOSES MALONE

Men’s basketball player, Philadelphia 76ers (1983 NBA champion); first basketball player to turn professional directly from high school

From: Petersburg

JOHN MARSHALL

4th Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court; longestserving Chief Justice; Secretary of State

From: Fauquier County

GEORGE MASON

Founding Father; author, Virginia Declaration of Rights

From: Fairfax County

DAVE MATTHEWS

Singer, Dave Matthews Band (“Ants Marching,” “Crash Into Me”); 2-time Grammy Award winner; owner, Blenheim Vineyards

Lived in: Charlottesville

DANNY M c BRIDE

Actor, “Eastbound and Down,” “The Righteous Gemstones,” “Tropic Thunder”

From: Spotsylvania County

CYRUS M c CORMICK

Inventor, mechanical reaper

From: Rockbridge County

LELAND MELVIN

Astronaut; flew two missions on Space Shuttle

Atlantis

From: Lynchburg

Attended: University of Richmond

ALONZO MOURNING

Men’s basketball player, Georgetown University, Miami Heat; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee

From: Chesapeake

Singer, “Danke Schoen”; nicknamed “Mr. Las Vegas”

From: Roanoke

OGEORGIA O’KEEFFE

Modernist artist; known as “Mother of American modernism”

Worked at: University of Virginia

PATTON OSWALT

Actor, “The King of Queens,” “Ratatouille,” “The Secret Life of Pets 2”

From: Loudoun County

Attended: College of William & Mary

PPOCAHONTAS

Native American woman captured and held for ransom by English colonists

From: Gloucester County

LEWIS “CHESTY” PULLER

U.S. Marine Corps officer; most decorated Marine in American history with five Navy Crosses and one Distinguished Service Cross

From: West Point

PUSHA T

Rapper, Clipse (“Grindin’”); born Terrence Thornton

From: Virginia Beach

RWALTER REED

U.S. Army physician known for discovering the cause of yellow fever

From: Gloucester County

Hoda Kotb

Mike Tomlin

Pharrell Williams

Vern Yip

Booker T. Washington

Bob Saget

Dwayne Johnson

TIM REID

Actor, “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Sister, Sister”

From: Petersburg

Attended: Norfolk State University

TOM ROBBINS

Author, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”

From: Warsaw

Attended: Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University)

BILL “BOJANGLES” ROBINSON

Singer, dancer, actor; best-known Black entertainer in United States in early 20th century

From: Richmond

DAVID ROBINSON

Men’s basketball player, San Antonio Spurs (2-time NBA champion), U.S. national team (1992 Olympic gold medalist); No. 1 NBA draft pick; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee

From: Manassas

SPOTTSWOOD ROBINSON III

Civil rights attorney; judge, U.S. Court of Appeals

From: Richmond

Attended: Virginia Union University

JOSEPH JENKINS ROBERTS

1st and 7th president of Liberia

From: Norfolk

RALPH STANLEY

Singer, banjo player, bluegrass music pioneer; Grand Ole Opry inductee

From: Dickenson County

CURTIS STRANGE

Golfer; back-to-back U.S. Open champion; World Golf Hall of Fame inductee

From: Virginia Beach

WILLIAM STYRON

Author, “Sophie’s Choice,” “Lie Down in Darkness”

From: Newport News

JASON SUDEIKIS

Actor, “Saturday Night Live,” “Ted Lasso”

Born in: Fairfax County

WANDA SYKES

Comedian, actress, “The Chris Rock Show,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Black-ish”

From: Portsmouth

Attended: Hampton University

GENE VINCENT

Singer (“Be-Bop-a-Lula”), rockabilly music pioneer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

From: Norfolk

WMAGGIE WALKER

Businesswoman, educator; first Black woman to charter a bank and serve as bank president

From: Richmond

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Educator, author; founder, Tuskegee Institute

From: Franklin County

PERNELL “SWEET PEA” WHITAKER

Boxer; 1984 Olympic gold medalist; International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee

From: Norfolk

DOUGLAS WILDER

Governor of Virginia; first Black governor of a U.S. state after Reconstruction

From: Richmond

Attended: Virginia Union University

SBOB SAGET

Comedian, actor, “Full House”; host, “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

From: Norfolk

RALPH SAMPSON

Men’s basketball player, 3-time national college basketball player of the year; No. 1 NBA draft pick; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee

From: Harrisonburg

Attended: University of Virginia

GEORGE C. SCOTT

Actor, “Patton,” “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Exorcist III”

From: Wise

WILLARD SCOTT

Weather reporter, “Today”; creator and original performer of Ronald McDonald

From: Alexandria

SECRETARIAT

Racehorse, Triple Crown winner; still holds time records for all three Triple Crown races

From: Caroline County

BRUCE SMITH

Football player, Buffalo Bills; all-time NFL sack leader; Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

From: Norfolk

Attended: Virginia Tech

SAM SNEAD

Golfer; holds record for most PGA Tour wins, 7-time major winner; World Golf Hall of Fame inductee

From: Bath County

SISSY SPACEK

Actress, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Missing,” “In the Bedroom”

Lives in: Albemarle County

TLAWRENCE TAYLOR

Football player, New York Giants; one of two defensive players to win NFL MVP award; 3-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year; Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

From: Williamsburg

TIMBALAND

Rapper, record producer (Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake); born Timothy Mosley

From: Virginia Beach

MIKE TOMLIN

Football coach, Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl

XLIII champion)

From: Hampton

Attended: College of William & Mary

CURTIS TURNER

NASCAR driver; named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers; NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee

From: Floyd County

NAT TURNER

Leader of the largest rebellion by enslaved people in U.S. history

From: Southampton County

UBLAIR UNDERWOOD

Actor, “L.A. Law,” “Set it Off”

From: Petersburg

ODERUS URUNGUS

Singer, Gwar; born Dave Brockie

From: Fairfax County

Lived in: Richmond

PHARRELL WILLIAMS

Rapper, singer, member of music production duo The Neptunes; produced for Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Usher

From: Virginia Beach

RUSSELL WILSON

Football player, Seattle Seahawks (Super Bowl XLVIII champion), Denver Broncos

From: Henrico County

TOM WOLFE

Author, “The Right Stuff,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” “A Man in Full”

From: Richmond

Attended: Washington and Lee University

CARTER G. WOODSON

Historian, author; one of the first scholars to study the African diaspora

From: Buckingham County

DAVID WRIGHT

Baseball player, New York Mets; 7-time MLB

All-Star, 2-time Gold Glove Award winner

From: Chesapeake

YVERN YIP

Interior designer, TV personality from “Trading Spaces,” “Design Star,” “Deserving Design”

From: Fairfax County

Attended: University of Virginia

ZRYAN ZIMMERMAN

VJUSTIN VERLANDER

Baseball player, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros; 3-time Cy Young Award winner; 2-time World Series champion

From: Goochland County

Attended: Old Dominion University

Baseball player, University of Virginia, Washington Nationals (2019 World Series champion); 2-time MLB All-Star

From: Virginia Beach

Attended: University of Virginia

Economic Development Partners in Virginia

VEDP works in close partnership with local and regional economic development organizations. For a full list of local and regional partners, visit www.vedp.org/Regions

In addition, VEDP regularly works with a wide network of statewide partners, including:

State Leadership Partners

Governor General Assembly

Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Commission

Secretary of Commerce and Trade

Secretary of Finance

Project Delivery Partners

Colleges and universities across the Commonwealth (e.g., UVA, Virginia Tech, William & Mary)

CSX, Norfolk Southern, and short-line railroads

Dominion, AEP, and other electric utilities

The Port of Virginia Virginia Community College System

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit

Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity

Virginia Department of Taxation

Virginia Department of Transportation

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission

Virginia Tourism Corporation

Policy and Programmatic Partners

GO Virginia State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

Virginia Agribusiness Council

Virginia Association of Counties

Virginia Business Council

Virginia Business Higher Education Council

Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, Virginia Manufacturers Association, Virginia Maritime Association, Virginia Realtors Association, and many other trade associations

Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as many local and regional chambers of commerce

Virginia Economic Developers Association

Virginia Farm Bureau

Virginia Municipal League

Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions

Virginia Rural Center

Virginia’s Technology Councils