Roanoke Business- March 2016 by Virginia Business

Medicaid Math p. 21

Private schools p. 25

MARCH 2016

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

David Catalano and Aaron Herrington, founders of Modea.

Building a

tech community

The Roanoke and New River valleys are developing a supportive network to nurture start-ups and help tech companies grow

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CONTENTS SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

March 2016

F E AT U R E S COVER STORY

Building a tech community

The Roanoke and New River valleys are developing a supportive network to nurture start-ups and help tech companies grow. by Dan Radmacher

Where are the women?

Southwest Virginia works to put more women in STEM jobs.

by Beth JoJack

BANKING & FINANCE No more sitting on the fence

Bankers say gradual rise in interest rates doesn’t mean consumers should postpone financial decisions. by Jenny Boone

HEALTH CARE Medicaid math

21 D

25 EDUCATION

Parents have a variety of choices for private education.

28 School away from home

Boarding schools offer a chance to prepare for college inside and outside the classroom. by Shawna Morrison MARCH 2016

25 E

30 INTERVIEW: John B. Williamson, III Chairman

Private schools by Shawna Morrison

Some hospitals support a new tax on their revenue, thinking it will increase overall profit. by Sandra Brown Kelly

of the board, RGC Resources Pragmatic leadership ‘Retired’ CEO plugs away at to-do list. by Beth JoJack

32 SPECIAL REPORT Hit by the cycle

Volvo Truck’s layoffs seem to be part of a passing phase, not a permanent problem. by Mason Adams

35 NEWS FROM THE CHAMBER

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FROM THE EDITOR

Water by Tim Thornton

alifornia is in a more-than-four-year drought, which is bad news for California farmers. That may eventually be bad news for a lot of people, since so much of what people across the U.S. eat comes from California fields and orchards. Even though this winter’s El Niño may be the strongest on record, it’s not likely to end the drought. Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, told The Associated Press, “We need a wet winter this winter and next and the following winter probably to get us anywhere close to equilibrium.” To make up for water not falling from the sky, California farmers have been drawing lots of water from the ground – so much water that parts of California are sinking. In Flint, Mich., state officials decided the town could save money by drawing drinking water from the Flint River instead of buying it from Detroit’s water system. But Flint, like many old water systems, has lead pipes. The water authority didn’t add an anti-corrosion agent to the water, so that lead began to leech from the pipes and come out through people’s faucets. There is no safe level of lead in drinking water, but the EPA says something should be done if there are more than 15 parts per billion (ppb). The World Health Organization sets the level at 10 ppb. Testing conducted by a team from Virginia Tech found about 10 percent of the homes in Flint had 27 ppb or more in their water. The highest measurement was 13,000 ppb. Here in Virginia, Dominion Power is closing down and sealing up old coal ash ponds. The plan includes putting millions of gallons of treated water from those ponds into the Potomac and James River systems. The State Water Control Board approved two permits for the plan recently, even though many people, environmental organizations and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources questioned the wisdom of that plan. Coal ash contains lead, arsenic, mercury and an unappealing stew of other chemicals. Opponents say more of those should be removed before the water is dumped into a river. Why put all this environmental stuff in a business magazine? Agriculture is a business that depends on the responsible use of water. In addition to harming public health, the Flint debacle provided a large dose of the kind of publicity any economic development promoter would like to avoid. Repairing the water system may cost more than $1 billion. Dumping water from a coal ash pond into a river may persuade some folks to stay away from tourism businesses along that river. Water is essential to life and a healthy environment, but its wise use and stewardship also is essential to business and a healthy economy.

MARCH 2016

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION Vol. 5

MARCH 2016

President & Publisher Roanoke Business Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Writers Art Director Contributing Photographers

Bernard A. Niemeier Tim Thornton Paula C. Squires Mason Adams Jenny Boone Beth JoJack Sandra Brown Kelly Shawna Morrison Dan Radmacher Adrienne R. Watson Christina O’Connor Don Petersen Natalee Waters

Production Manager Circulation Manager Accounting Manager Vice President of Advertising Account Representative

Kevin L. Dick Karen Chenault Ashley Henry Hunter Bendall Lynn Williams

No. 3

CONTACT: EDITORIAL: (540) 520-2399 ADVERTISING: (540) 597-2499 210 S. Jefferson St., Roanoke, VA 24011-1702 We welcome your feedback. Email Letters to the Editor to Tim Thornton at tthornton@roanoke-business.com VIRGINIA BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS LLC A portfolio company of Virginia Capital Partners LLC Frederick L. Russell Jr., chairman

on the cover David Catalano and Aaron Herrington at Modea Blacksburg Photo by Natalee Waters

Out About &

1. VA West, a coalition of chamber of commerce executives from Southwest Virginia, attended the 2016 Capital Reception held in Richmond on Jan. 26. They are, front row, left to right: Joshua Baumgartner, Roanoke Regional Chamber; Sharon Scott, Montgomery County Chamber; Doloris Vest, Botetourt County Chamber; Barb Nocera, Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber; Susan Martin, Bedford Area Chamber; Christine Kennedy, Lynchburg Regional Chamber; Amanda Witt, Martinsville & Henry County Chamber; and Laurie Moran, Danville/Pittsylvania County Chamber. Second row, left to right: Avery Grabenstein, Montgomery County Chamber; Marc Meachum, Greater Bluefield Chamber; Frank Tamberrino, Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber; Vicki Gardner, Smith Mountain Lake Chamber; Joyce Waugh, Roanoke Regional Chamber; and Frank Squillace, Charlottesville Regional Chamber.

2 3

2. Roanoke City Police Department Officer Joshua Johnson (right) was presented the 2015 Officer of the Year award by Roanoke Regional Chamber Chair Webster Day at the Chamberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 126th annual meeting of the membership held Jan. 14 at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. 3. At that same meeting, Roanoke County Police Department Officer Travis Honse (right) was presented the 2015 Officer of the Year award by Day. 4. Radford University President Penelope Kyle (left), Virginia Lt. Governor Ralph Northam, and Roanoke Regional Chamber President Joyce Waugh attended the 2016 Capital Reception held in Richmond on Jan. 26.

Share photos of your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special events with Roanoke Business. E-mail your candid photos and identifications to Adrienne R. Watson, arwatson@va-business.com.

JUNE 2015

4 Contributed photos

Calendar of events March Items on the calendar are just a sample of Roanoke/New River Valley business events this month. To submit an event for consideration, email Tim Thornton at tthornton@roanoke-business.com at least one month before the event.

March 2

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VirginiaBusiness.com ROANOKE BUSINESS

COVER STORY

Modea founders Aaron Herrington and David Catalano are tinkerers, Herrington says. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one reason for Ozmo, the duoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new project.

Building a tech community The Roanoke and New River valleys are developing a supportive network to nurture start-ups and help tech companies grow by Dan Radmacher 8

MARCH 2016

hen Aaron Herrington and David Catalano launched Modea back in 2006, the company was based on the belief that applying technological solutions to common problems could disrupt large markets. Modea developed a platform that allowed Graco Children’s Products to reward customers when they included Graco’s products on third-party baby registries. It also allowed Graco to collect data on its customers. That early success won the company a lot of business, kicking off five years of praise and growth. Yet Herrington says that success also caused the company to lose its way. Rather than focus on ways Modea could provide value to clients, the company began doing whatever clients asked them to do and began drifting “outside our sphere of excellence.” So Herrington and Catalano redefined Modea’s mission and

Photo by Jim Stroup, courtersy Virginia Tech

goals, creating a team and infrastructure they believe can succeed in the future. In some ways, that process is similar to what’s happening in the region’s technology community. The Roanoke and New River valleys won’t ever be mistaken for Silicon Valley, and some in the tech community say that’s a good thing. Yet they do see growing support for tech entrepreneurs — from state and local governments, educational institutions and elsewhere — coming together to form a true entrepreneurial infrastructure. This structure will help tech startups gain a foothold and give the best of them the ability to thrive and grow. ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story

Serial entrepreneur Bob Summers leads a class at Virginia Tech’s Innovate community.

Such efforts are boosted by a quality industry insiders say is missing in bigger, more competitive areas such as Silicon Valley: “There’s a common bond around here that has to do with the area and people truly wanting to see the area succeed,” Herrington says. “I find that pretty stimulating.” The challenge for the region’s tech community is to hold on to what’s special and to focus on what can become great. As Bonz Hart, president and CEO of Meridium, one of the region’s first tech startups, says, “What makes a successful business is the same thing that makes a successful region: Know your strengths and weaknesses; be positive and work super hard.” Rough spot for Modea That’s what Modea had to do when it hit rough times. In 2012, Modea lost Verizon, its largest client. Suddenly, a homegrown company that had seen nothing but positive press was announcing massive layoffs. Yet losing Verizon was a good thing, Herrington says. “It forced us to look inwardly to get a better understanding of where we are, who we are, what trajectory we were on,” he says. “Once we started looking at 10

MARCH 2016

these things and started understanding our business, it became clear we weren’t happy with the path we were on … We were on a path to become mediocre. We had to totally overhaul our business and transform our organization. “Ultimately, we decided that Modea exists to empower consumers where they lack transparency, choice and control — specifically in the telecom and health systems space,” he says. “What David and I also came to see again is the fact that we’re entrepreneurial to our core. Modea is our baby, but we are tinkerers.” And they needed something new to tinker with. So, last July, Herrington and Catalano announced the formation of a new company, which launched in January, after they turned over operational control of Modea to its new CEO, Ted Boezaart. The founders remain on Modea’s board, but Boezaart has operational control of Modea, allowing them to focus on building the new venture: Ozmo. Ozmo created a platform for wireless telecom companies to give their technical assistant representatives access to digital versions of the most popular wireless devices, along with step-by-step procedural guides.

Diversifying the economy The push by the technology community helps diversify the area’s economy at a time when more traditional companies – which long provided the foundation of the region’s economy – face tumultuous times. Norfolk Southern is pulling offices from Roanoke to consolidate operations in Norfolk and Atlanta; Advance Auto, though still officially headquartered in Roanoke, has relocated several key executives to Raleigh; and rumors are that the company has been approached by at least one buyer and may be up for sale. As those companies move away, the region is gearing up to support the kind of entrepreneurial spirit and drive exemplified by Herrington and Catalano. “What’s a lot more apparent now than it used to be is that technology needs to be a key part of our economy,” Hart says. “It can’t be the only part, but if we’re going to have a growth economy, then we need to look at what sectors are growing and what sectors offer unique opportunities.” From programs at Virginia Tech that immerse students in entrepreneurial culture to shared working spaces like CoLab and TechPad in Roanoke and Blacksburg and a business incubator coming to Vinton, the region’s emphasis on creating an entrepreneurial infrastructure for tech companies is clear. Many of the region’s native strengths are definitely valuable to tech startups and the kind of entrepreneurs who make them happen, says Hart. In fact, Hart says he resisted investments from venture capitalists who wanted Meridium to move when he started the company back in 1993. “The attitude of investors then was, ‘Not in Roanoke; we’re going to move you to our location,’” Hart says. Instead, Hart worked on building funding from clients who were willing to pay for software applications in advance or as they were being developed. “That allowed us to control our destiny and stay focused,” he says. But, perhaps, most Photo by Logan Wallace, courtesy Virginia Tech

importantly, it allowed him to tap into this region’s stable workforce and use its quality-of-life benefits to attract and retain talent. “There’s a lot of opportunity here to create the kind of lifestyle you want,” Hart says. “You can choose to live in the country, by a lake, in the mountains, downtown or someplace like Raleigh Court — there’s a lot of variety all within a half-hour to 45 minutes away.” Strong talent pool In addition, Virginia Tech and other world-class universities and colleges in the area provide a great talent pool, or what Hart calls “raw material for technology.” Tech startups fit with the Roanoke-Blacksburg region’s strengths, but they also play to the region’s economic needs. “You need big, established companies for stability and for major, incremental growth opportunities,” says Joe Meredith, who has headed Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center for more than 20 years. “They have the capacity to do big things. But you also need a viable enough infrastructure that when the big dogs run into trouble, there is a system that catches those people coming out and provides a safety net.” CRC was founded in the mid1980s in the hope of replicating the Research Triangle model in North Carolina, bringing in large, existing corporations that would want to tap into the research and development happening at Virginia Tech. By the time Meredith joined the CRC in 1993, it was pretty clear that approach wasn’t going to work. “The alternative seemed to be to create or own companies,” he says. “We’d been swinging for the fence, but we backed off to more of a singles strategy, with the idea that if we stayed in the game long enough, we’d advance enough runners to score.” The strategy has paid off. There are now 33 buildings on the CRC campus, housing 180 research centers and private companies — and employing about 3,000 people. Photo by Natalee Waters

Joe Meredith, president of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, wants tech startups to stay in the region.

“Companies that started with one or two people now occupy half a building or a whole building,” Meredith says. “We exceeded the original vision of the park, but we got there a different way than we thought.” Though the CRC doesn’t consider itself a business incubator — “We want companies to come here and stay forever,” Meredith says — the business park definitely invests itself in the success of those who start up there. “CRC is genuinely interested in ensuring our success,” says Alex Obenauer, co-founder and CEO of Mindsense, a startup software company that created the email workflow app Mail Pilot. “We’re not just a tenant to them, and they make that very clear in how they conduct business.” Entrepreneurial infrastructure grows CRC is just one part of the evolution of an entrepreneurial infrastructure whose development in the region has been accelerating in recent years. This development stems from a widespread and growing recognition of the important role tech startups could play in the regional economy, says Jonathan Whitt, president and CEO of the RoanokeBlacksburg Technology Council (RBTC).

Much of the impetus came from Innovation Blueprint in 2013, a strategic planning project spearheaded by the RBTC to help the region focus on the development of high-growth, high-impact companies. “The good news is that when we pushed this out and made it known in the community that this is a key economic driver in the region, a number of individuals and groups began to stand up and raise their hands to offer help,” Whitt says. The initiative helped prompt the opening of CoLab, a shared working space in Roanoke started by developer Ed Walker. It also spurred the development of NuSpark, a space for pre-launch and early stage entrepreneurs in Blacksburg, that closed last month after two years of operation. Other developments in the last couple of years include TechPad, a co-working space for software developers in downtown Blacksburg launched by Bob Summers, a longtime entrepreneur and investor. There’s also a tech accelerator going into the old Gill Memorial Hospital Building in Roanoke that will be managed by Virginia Western Community College’s foundation. “We’ve seen a lot of great stuff happen in the entrepreneurial community,” Whitt says. “We have a ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story

Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center is home to 180 research centers and private companies, employing 3,000 people.

much better story to tell today because there are many people working in many pockets to develop this entrepreneurial infrastructure.” Virginia Tech’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship launched the VT Investor Network in 2014 to fund high-potential startups involving Tech grads, students and faculty members. So far, VTIN has invested a total of nearly $4 million in four companies, according to Jennifer O’Daniel, investment director for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology’s venture capital fund and the VTIN co-founder. “Tech is tapping a much larger universe of people outside the region,” says Whitt. “That’s a cool thing, because there is a finite universe of people we can tap regionally to spend a lot of time or money on a local startup.” But Whitt says the region needs to do even more to embrace entrepreneurs, especially those without access to the Tech network. “We need to find them, put our arms around them, help them and keep them here so they can grow their company here and be successful.” The regional business accelerator in Roanoke will be an important piece, Whitt says, because “the accelerator will offer a baptism by fire. The program will be heavy on programming and training with intense mentorship and intense accountability. We want to help you take this and get your idea to the 12

MARCH 2016

next level as quickly as we can.” The goal will be to help three to five high-impact companies a year. Whitt knows exactly the kind of entrepreneurs the accelerator should be looking for. A case study Nearly 10 years ago, Jonathan Hagmaier had recently given up his job as an assistant principal at a local middle school. As Whitt describes it, one day Hagmaier walked into an RBTC luncheon with an idea for a software product that would help

Jonathan Whitt says the region has done a lot to help entrepreneurs, but it needs to do more.

teachers better reach students based on their assessment scores. Whitt says people in the room recognized his potential immediately and realized they needed to help him get to the next level. Today, Hagmaier is CEO of Interactive Achievement, which has grown from two employees to 90 and recently expanded its offices in downtown Roanoke to 10,000 square feet. “This is the type of company we’re most excited about in terms of seeing them pop up in the region and stay here,” Whitt says. Hagmaier says he could not have built his company without the tremendous support he received from RBTC, the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and a number of successful mentors including Warner Dalhouse and Heywood Fralin. ”This is a place where people have heart and want to give,” Hagmaier says. “We do not sit where we sit today without those people. So many people who have gone through it around here are willing to mentor those coming up.” Samantha Steidle, innovation officer for workforce development at Virginia Western, says the accelerator will, by necessity, be far more selective than CoLab, which welcomes everyone. “The new accelerator will aim to identify far fewer high-potential, high-growth, early-stage startups and surround them with venture capital and highlevel advice for growth,” she says. Photos by Natalee Waters

“It is designed to complement the region’s current innovation assets, such as CoLab, by providing services not currently offered.” The accelerator is coming together through cooperation among Virginia Western’s foundation, the Virginia Tech Foundation, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Network (part of RBTC), the city of Roanoke and Carilion Clinic. “One thing this region really has going for it are the great relationships between so many institutions and people,” says Dr. Robert Sandel, president of Sandel Virginia Western. “This accelerator is going to succeed. There are too many good people involved for it not to.” As the entrepreneurial infrastructure continues to grow, one asset will be invaluable, according to many entrepreneurs, investors and others: a uniquely open business culture. “I get asked a lot why we’re not in Silicon Valley,” says Mindsense’s Obenauer. “We feel so incredibly well supported here. The culture that we found here is innovative like any tech hub, but it’s unique in how authentic and supportive it is. People are always ready to support their neighbors, even in a business sense.” Whitt says the culture shines through in the cooperation among all the different regional actors working to promote entrepreneurial activity. “Folks are passionate about their own programs, of course,” Whitt says. “But what I’m seeing amongst all of us is cooperation and a willingness to work together. ... We’re not competing against each other. We’re looking to fill the gaps that we see, not duplicate what already exists.”

Chris Desimone founded StarTank to help connect entrepreneurs and investors.

rington. “There’s much less feeling the other person out when you meet someone new, trying to figure out what their angle is and what they want.”

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Stark contrast to Silicon Valley That can make a stark contrast to places like Silicon Valley, or even Northern Virginia. Meetings are definitely easier here than in other places, says HerPhotos by Natalee Waters

Some people say the small, close-knit nature of the community even reduces risks. “Pretty much everybody here knows everybody else,” says Meredith. “That’s a strong disincentive for taking advantage of someone.” Chris Desimone, a local attorney and founder of StarTank, which helps introduce entrepreneurs to potential investors, says he sees the region’s culture at work when applicants come to present at StarTank. “Investors here are so willing to help people,” he says. “It’s a different dynamic. When applicants come in to the StarTank, there’s no friction there. They know these business owners. It’s a little strange. They don’t see them as venture capitalists or angel investors. They just see us as neighbors who want to invest locally.” As Hagmaier says, “In the end, we all want the same thing: More jobs in the Roanoke-Blacksburg region.”

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cover story Renee Alarid and Heather Norvell founded a chapter of 100 Girls of Code to help girls and young women learn that STEM may be for them.

Where are the women? Southwest Virginia works to put more women in STEM jobs by Beth JoJack

ational numbers are pretty grim. Women fill close to half of the jobs in this country but hold fewer than a quarter of the jobs in science, technology, engineering and math, according to a 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce. That’s bad for women’s wallets since women in STEM professions earn 33 percent more than women in other types of jobs, says the report. The gender disparity, those researchers theorize, may be attributed to a variety of factors. “STEM career paths may be less accommodating to people cycling in and out of the workforce to raise a family or it may be because there are relatively few female STEM role models. Perhaps strong gender stereotypes 14

MARCH 2016

discourage women from pursuing STEM education and STEM jobs,” the report says. Many women who do choose careers as software developers or database administrators don’t stay in those careers. Women in science, engineering and technology are 45 percent more likely than men to leave the field within a year, according to a 2014 report by The Center for Talent Innovation, a. U.S.-based think tank. Those researchers found the motivations for the exodus includes a lack of female role models, a perceived bias in evaluations and being excluded from informal “buddy” networks. Nor are women flocking to college degrees in STEM subjects. Women account for only 18.2 per-

cent of bachelor’s degrees awarded in computer sciences and 19.2 percent in engineering, according to a 2015 report from the National Science Foundation. Technology professionals and educators interviewed by Roanoke Business in Southwest Virginia largely agree that the national numbers play out here. However, there are several efforts underway to change that. For one thing, the region is home to the NRV chapter of 100 Girls of Code, the only chapter in Virginia. Plus, there are professional groups for women already in technology fields and mentoring opportunities for college women considering those careers. Still Nicole Haskins, director of sales for Paymentus, a cloud-based Photos by Christina O’Connor

billing company with an office in Blacksburg, says there are gender disparities. She estimated that 10 percent of her co-workers are female. “Women are still the rarities,” she says. “You hear the comment quite often that, ‘I’m the only woman on the engineering team’ or ‘I’m the only woman who works in this software company.’” Haskins is among those in the area working to see more women enter STEM fields and rise to the top at STEM companies. In 2013, she co-founded WoTech, a professional group for women working in technology. Others in the area are trying to combat the problem with education and mentoring programs for girls and college students. Ashley Parsons, age 11, certainly thinks a woman’s place is in front of a computer. A sixth-grader at Belle Heth Elementary School in Radford, Parsons was enthusiastic about getting up early on a Saturday morning in December to join about 50 other girls between the ages of 10 and 18 for classes sponsored by 100 Girls of Code. “I really like these workshops,” she says. Renee Alarid and Heather Norvell, local women with careers in STEM fields, brought the workshop to Radford. Last Spring, they attended a technology conference in South Carolina where they spoke to organizers of 100 Girls of Code. An initiative launched in Tennessee in 2014, it’s designed to get girls excited about coding and computer engineering. Before long, over a dozen chapters had formed nationally to offer workshops to girls taught by women technologists, including the NRV chapter, founded by Alarid and Norvell. Alarid, an interactive designer for Modea in Blacksburg, and Norvell, a software engineer who left Modea in September to work for Harmonia, a Blacksburg software development company, loved the concept of women who code teaching girls to code. “They need the role models,” says Norvell. “They see, ‘Girls do

At a recent 100 Girls of Code event, girls made bracelets that spelled out their names — in binary code.

this, too. It’s not a boy’s game.’” The pair already has held several workshops, including the one in December where girls learned about computer algorithms by telling one another the steps involved in crafting paper airplanes. The group also made necklaces, using beads to spell their names in binary code. Jeff Pittges, chair of information technology at Radford University, was happy to arrange for the university to host the workshops. The group’s mission fits with his personal agenda of getting more women in STEM fields. “I’ve got a 13-year-old daughter,” he says. Of the nearly 400 students studying in his department, Pittges says, only about 30 are women. He’s working to increase that number through a campus Women in Computing Club, which in September organized a Sit With Me event. An initiative launched by the National Center for Women and Information Technology, Sit With Me events are designed to put a spotlight on the contributions women make in technology and inspire other women to go into tech fields. Nancy Artis, a Radford alumna and co-owner of the information technology company Performance Associates, based in Colorado,

shared her experiences working in tech with students last fall. “It was really inspiring,” Pittges says. Female students studying STEM fields at Virginia Western Community College also get the chance to rub elbows with professionals working in the industry. A pairing ceremony held in January matched students with a professional mentor. “Networking helps,” says Yvonne Campbell, a program adviser for the STEM department at VWCC. “If you’re a student and you have a connection to the business world, that can get you pretty far. Men have been doing this for years.” VWCC also recently launched a Women in STEM club that regularly brings professionals in those fields to campus. In October, for instance, students got to hear from the deputy director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. Last summer, the college hosted two girls-only day camps; one focused on construction and the other on gaming. The point with both initiatives is to get more female students interested in STEM. When Sandy Workman joined Virginia Western last fall as an academic success coach and coordinator for the Women in STEM mentoring program, she was surprised ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story by how few female students were in the engineering classes. “They’re lower than I ever expected,” she says. Of the degree-seeking engineering students at VWCC in 2013-2014, about 13 percent were women, according to data provided by Campbell. Workman hadn’t expected the gender breakdown of classrooms to look so similar to the late 1970s when she studied industrial technology at East Carolina University. “I really did not think it would take this long,” she says. Workman’s résumé tells of a distinguished career working as an AutoCAD trainer, 3D Modeler and CADD Manager, as well as vice president for the architectural and engineering firm Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern, which became Aecom after a merger. A key to getting more women interested in engineering and technology, she believes, is showing female students how careers in those

fields can be used to help other people. “They don’t respond to the robot that’s going to crush a foe,” she says. Instead, Workman asserts that female students need to hear they can make a robot that helps rescue people after an earthquake. “It makes perfect sense to me,” she says. “Women are more relational.” If a female student fails to run into a Workman or Pittges to encourage them to get a STEM degree, that doesn’t mean she won’t end up doing something in the tech industry. It’s the rare field that doesn’t always require a specialized degree. Ask Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, who dropped out of Harvard. Niki Sebastino took the selftaught route to a career as a web developer. She was working as the only in-house graphic designer at Shenandoah Life Insurance Co. when a judge placed the company in receivership in 2009. The company

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was temporarily forced to halt sales, so Sebastino had nothing to do. She used the time to teach herself HTML and CSS, computer languages that control how a website looks. Learning to design websites, Sebastino hoped, might give her a way to get out of graphic design, a field where it can be difficult to make clients happy. “It’s so subjective,” says Sebastino. “Programming is very objective. It’s very black and white. It works or it doesn’t.” Currently working as a Botetourt County freelancer, Sebastino likes that her Web designs seem to bring clients joy. “It’s like magic to people,” she explains. “They love the fact that you can write this simple code and this website appears.” Although much has been written of a ‘brogramming culture’ in Silicon Valley, so testosterone-fueled that women struggle to fit in, Sebastino says she’s doesn’t feel the technology industry is much different than the rest of corporate America. Women hold only a small number, 4.2 percent, of the CEO positions at S&P 500 companies, according to 2015 numbers from the New Yorkbased nonprofit Catalyst, which tracks data on women in corporate leadership. Unlike a lot of industries in Southwest Virginia, women in technology do have support from their peers. The number of women participating in WoTech, a subgroup of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council, continues to grow. A November luncheon that featured a webinar with nationally known author and leadership coach Tara Mohr drew about 75 women, according to Haskins. When Haskins launched the group with Barbara Rigatti she expected that women turning out for the meetings would be college-age women starting out in tech careers. She was wrong. “It’s the more experienced women who are wanting to give and lend support to each other,” she says. “That tells me there hasn’t been an outlet for a very long time.”

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BANKING & FINANCIAL

No more sitting on the fence Bankers say gradual rise in interest rates doesn’t mean consumers should postpone financial decisions by Jenny Boone

etting off the fence. That’s a phrase Dan Cullather, owner and president of Valley Tree Mortgage in Salem, says he has seen in action since December. Some customers are finally deciding to make a purchase and are borrowing money to do so. Others are locking in rates or renegotiating interest rates on old loans. Cullather and other financial representatives in the Roanoke Valley are encouraging consumers to act after the Federal Reserve raised the short-term federal funds interest rate by a quarter point in December. Though the increase had not impacted all rates, such as mortgage rates, as of early January, some lenders and financial institutions say they are preparing customers for gradual increases on various loans throughout the rest of the year. “The rate had gone as low as it would go,” says Lyn Hayth, president and CEO of the Bank of Botetourt, about the interest rate, which hovered near zero, a historic low, for the past seven years. The Federal Reserve lowered this rate to zero on Dec. 16, 2008, to help revive the economy in the wake of the Great Recession. As the economy has gained strength, the Federal Reserve raised the rate by .25 percent, the first increase since 2006. Most financial institutions nationwide, including some in the Roanoke Valley, saw the increase coming. An initial wave of business customers responded to the news with requests to lock in short-term rates on certain kinds of loans. After all, the Federal Reserve says that it likely will raise rates gradually over the next few years, depending on economic conditions. Photos by Don Petersen

Ellis Gutshall, a regional president with BNC Bank, says now is a good time to move on a loan.

“Now’s the time to lock in that rate,” says Ellis Gutshall, Roanokebased executive vice president and regional president with BNC Bank. It has nine branch locations in the Roanoke Valley. The Roanoke branches, Gutshall notes, have seen a business bump from customers negotiating new rates on loans since the Federal Reserve’s decision, but “it wasn’t a stampede.” It’s a prudent move for businesses to renegotiate rates on loans now, says Terry O’Shaughnessy, executive vice president and O’Shaughnessy chief lending officer at Roanoke-based HomeTown Bank. The slight interest rate rise helped to drive bank traffic in the early part of the year for HomeTown, he says. “We’re not seeing these rates slow commerce at all,” O’Shaughnessy says. “We’re not see

ing any slowdown in developments … or consumers putting off purchases because of rates rising. It’s headed back to normal,” he adds. “I think it’s important for businesses to get back to normal. Rates near zero are not normal.” The rate increase is likely to impact commercial developers, home builders and businesses planning for significant investments, such as expansions, bankers say. Still, most banks had not raised deposit rates as of early January. “That’s going to be the kicker,” Gutshall says. Mortgage rates are another story. As of early January, mortgage rates for 15-year and 30-year fixed loans remained under 4 percent, at 3.69 percent for 30 years and 2.91 percent for 15 years, according to Zillow.com. Mortgage rate forecasts vary, but rates could increase 50 basis points in the next year, according to RIS ROANOKE BUSINESS

banking & financial Media, a real estate industry information service. A potential increase isn’t a concern yet for mortgage lenders, but a rate bump later this year could deter homebuyers, says Nikki Griffin, vice president at Griffin Colonial Mortgage Co. in Daleville. For example, if mortgage rates rise by 50 basis points, that would equal a 6 percent increase in monthly mortgage payments, according to RIS Media. That means that a homeowner could pay $1,175 a month on a 30-year loan of $231,000, if rates climbed to 4.53 percent. That compares to a $1,107 monthly payment on the same loan, with an average interest rate at 4.03 percent, last May. Still, with the threat of mortgage rates rising this year, “I don’t think it’s persuaded someone not to buy a house,” Griffin says. That appeared true in the ear-

ly part of this year for Donna Marie Harris, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate in Roanoke and president of the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors. January, which typically is a slow month for real estate sales, was shaping up to be a busy month for inquiries from potential home buyers, she says. She attributes the increased business to “pent up demand,” though some customers inquired about the potential for rising mortgage rates. Still, the Federal Reserve’s decision likely will be slow to impact mortgage rates, Harris says. However, the real estate industry isn’t writing off some kind of impact this year. “Higher rates will drive monthly payments higher, and, along with that, debt-toincome ratios will also go higher,” writes Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com, about real estate trends for 2016. “Markets with the highest prices will see that higher rates will result in fewer sales.”

But he predicts swifter real estate sales, too. “The move to higher rates will spur more existing homeowners to sell and buy before rates go even higher,” Smoke writes. Even so, the Federal Reserve should not raise rates too high, too quickly, says O’Shaugnessy. “It will have little impact if it’s done gradually,” he says. “It will give them [the Federal Reserve] room to react to negative news.” There is a silver lining to interest rate increases. Some consumers now can recoup sizable returns on interest income. “Think about all of the savers, CD holders, who used to get 3 or 4 percent on their money,” Gutshall says. “There’s a whole lot of disposable income that’s been lost from people who relied on that.” That’s money that people could use to spend, spurring along the economy. “There’s a lot of money sitting on the sidelines waiting for the economy to improve,” Gutshall says.

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HEALTH CARE

Medicaid math Hospitals’ support for a tax on their revenue doesn’t change legislators’ stand on expansion by Sandra Brown Kelly

or the third time in three legislative sessions, the General Assembly has blocked Medicaid expansion in Virginia. Both Senate and House budget bills reject Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plan to expand coverage, even though he proposed to have private hospitals pick up the state’s part of the tab, and a lot of those hospitals say they were okay with that. McAuliffe’s fiscal 2017-2018 budget recommended a tax, called a “provider assessment,” of 3 percent based on revenue at most private hospitals. The money would have gone to the federal government where it would be matched and paid back to

File photo

the state via Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. When McAuliffe unveiled his latest Medicaid expansion proposal in December, he noted that he and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce estimated Virginia is “forfeiting $2.4 billion dollars in federal funds every year” by not having a provider assessment. Both House and Senate budget panels, however, removed expansionrelated language and the provider assessment from budget proposals they revealed in February. The General Assembly session ends March 12. The fiscal year begins July 1. In his proposal, McAuliffe pointed out that, while Virginia had talked

about an assessment for years, 30 states and the District of Columbia have added such programs. “In Arkansas, the state budget is expected to experience a positive impact of $438 million from 2017 to 2021, and hospital uncompensated care costs are projected to drop by $1.1 billion during that period,” McAuliffe said in his budget speech. In response to the legislators’ position opposing the governor’s plan, Karen Cameron, director of the Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare, says that “61 percent of the public supports Medicaid expansion” so she is baffled about why the lawmakers are so against it. “It’s not ROANOKE BUSINESS

health care Carilion CEO Nancy Agee served on a work group that decided Medicaid expansion would benefit uninsured patients and the hospitals that serve them.

a smart conservative position to take nor a smart fiscal position,” she says. Her group is the health-care arm of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. That group held a February news conference in Richmond at which religious leaders representing many faiths suggested it is “immoral” to ignore the plight of 400,000 Virginians who fall into an insurance coverage gap, covered by neither Medicaid nor private insurance. The interfaith group is continuing to get signatures on letters urging legislators to rethink their position. “If we don’t get [the expansion] this year; it will happen sooner or later,” Cameron says. In the governor’s proposal, the assessed hospitals would have benefited from Medicaid expansion, although just how much is uncertain. For example, Carilion Clinic could receive “north of $20 million,” says CEO Nancy Agee. “What it would mean to us? It’s a moving target.” Carilion, along with Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk and Inova 22

MARCH 2016

Health System in Fairfax County, suggested the implementation of a provider assessment a year and a half ago, hoping the federal money would bring their Medicaid reimbursements in line with those of hospitals associated with state universities, such as the University of Virginia. “We have a very thin margin here and began to search for other mechanisms the state wasn’t taking advantage of,” says Agee, who pointed out that state-affiliated hospitals receive 100 percent Medicaid reimbursement while private hospitals can receive only up to 72 percent. Agee says the cost of graduate medical education also is straining hospitals. Carilion trains about 280 residents and fellows while support from the federal government and the state is capped at 130 residents and fellows. Carilion spends $5.2 million for graduate education and gets a reimbursement of $1.8 million, so just 34.4 percent of costs are reimbursed. Carilion wants to offer more residencies because the demand for

them has increased and likely will increase more with Liberty University graduating the first class from its new osteopathic school in 2018. Responding to the hospitals’ concerns, the legislature in 2015 directed Secretary of Health and Human Resources William Hazel to conduct a study to develop a plan with options for a hospital provider assessment. The plan was to address indigent care and graduate medical education costs at hospitals in Virginia and equalization of Medicaid payments to private hospitals. Agee served on the 18-member work group, which submitted its final report Nov. 1. The report concluded that Medicaid expansion would be the best way to not only serve the uninsured but increase reimbursements to private hospitals. It projected that this route would involve no net costs to the state until 2021, and then “minimal cost thereafter.” The work group made no recommendation about the reimbursement equalizing issue, but noted that private hospitals had indicated they could support a broader plan, with stipulations. The Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association (VHHA), which represents some 107 hospitals and 30 health delivery systems, emphasized it supported the concept “with stipulations.” Those stipulations included: • that reimbursement to hospitals be at the “upper payment limit,” • that the money collected be used only for its intended purpose; • that private industry be involved in developing the program. Until last fall, VHHA had opposed any assessment, but changed its mind and said it could support one as long as federal funds returned to Virginia would: • Stabilize hospital reimbursement rates, which continue to fall short of the actual cost of care; • Provide needed support to struggling rural hospitals; and • Support graduate medical education programs at teaching hospitals where future medical professionals are trained. Photo courtesy of Carilion Clinic

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Linking an assessment so closely to Medicaid expansion, as the governor did, was “not Carilion’s intent,” notes Agee. She stressed that she still supported the proposal because of how much it would help people who now have no insurance. HCA Virginia facilities, which include the LewisGale Regional Health System, also would have been subject to any assessment, but officials there had no comment about the proposal except to say they would continue to monitor the issue. The state Department of Medical Assistance Services, which oversees Medicaid, suggested an assessment could bring private hospitals an additional $400 million in reimbursement based on fiscal year 2013 data. McAuliffe’s “carrots” in attempting to win support for the proposal included a projected savings of $157 million dollars in state funds during the next two years, which could be used to provide personal and corporate income tax relief of $105.7 million. The assessment proposal, with support from hospitals and limited backing by VHHA, at the very least gave the legislature some talking points, although some leaders made their positions clear from the beginning. In mid-December, House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) posted on his website the following response to the governor’s budget: “The Governor has raised expectations and over-promised. It is unfortunate to see Governor McAuliffe include Medicaid expansion in his budget again, which he knows the General Assembly does not support.” On the other side, Del. Sam Rasoul, a Democrat from Roanoke, viewed a provider assessment as a “win-win” situation. “There is so much benefit for Virginia, it will be difficult for naysayers to continue. I’m hoping there will be a sensible group that comes together for a compromise,” he said before the legislative budget reports.

EDUCATION

Roanoke Catholic teacher Tim Carlin helps Nathan Moak, Meaghan Finnigan and Sydney Aaron.

Private schools R

Parents have a variety of choices for private education by Shawna Morrison

equired summer reading, community service projects, a faith-based curriculum, small class sizes. Those are some of the things parents will find at the region’s private schools. When it comes to a private school education, there are plenty of options in the Roanoke region with 13 private schools in Roanoke City and Roanoke County, three in the city of Salem and one in the town of Vinton. They offer a variety of grade combinations, from only pre-kindergarten and kindergarten to elementary or high school. Sizes vary as well, ranging from fewer than a dozen students to nearly 500. Seven schools begin offering classes in pre-kindergarten and continue until 12th-grade graduation. The majority of the valley’s private schools are religious, with five of the seven Pre-K-12 options in the Roanoke Valley operating under a faith-based curriculum. The excep-

Photo courtesy of Roanoke Catholic

tions are Community School and North Cross School. Community School opened in 1971 and follows the “peaceable school” philosophy, which means students are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions and use conflict resolution skills to solve conflicts. Students are taught to “treat yourself, others and the environment with care,” according to the school’s website. They are not graded, and mutual respect between students and teachers is emphasized. North Cross was founded in 1944 and merged with other schools in 1961. Tuition is tailored to each family, with a goal of composing a diverse student body. North Cross has a huge focus on reading, with a new initiative requiring lower school students to read 100 books by the time they finish fifth grade. Summer reading is required for all students. All middle and upper school students take part in community

service projects. At Roanoke Catholic School, which has been around since 1889, Principal and Head of School Patrick Patterson says, “Faith drives everything we do.” Beginning in prekindergarten, students begin and end the day with prayer and pray before lunch. All students attend a weekly Mass together. “The morals and the ethics of the Catholic faith are interwoven into everything that we do,” Patterson says. About 80 percent of the school’s 470 students are Catholic. Patterson says it’s a common misconception that students must be Catholic to attend Roanoke Catholic. “We do accept students of all faiths,” he says. Patterson says prospective students are invited to attend school for a day. Ninety percent enroll at the school after visiting. In some graduating classes, as many as 50 to 60 percent of graduates have attended Roanoke Catholic since kinROANOKE BUSINESS

education

Alex Fittz, Catherine Carroll and Peyton Walthall examine data in a Roanoke Catholic lab.

dergarten, he says. “There is something to be said for being able to have your students in the same curriculum, surrounded by

similar faculty, and similar missions and visions, from pre-K all the way through 12th grade,” Patterson says. “I don’t know that it’s nec-

essarily better than what other independent schools or public institutions may have, but there is a lot of consistency in terms of

Virginia Boarding Schools

Many of these schools also offer day school programs. School

Location

Grade levels

Website

Blue Ridge School (all boys)

St. George

9-12

blueridgeschool.com

Chatham Hall (all girls)

Chatham

9-12

chathamhall.org

Christchurch School

Christchurch

9-12

christchurchschool.org

Episcopal High School

Alexandria

9-12

episcopalhighschool.org

Fishburne Military School (all boys)

Waynesboro

7-12

fishburne.org

Fork Union Military Academy (all boys)

Fork Union

7-12

forkunion.com

Foxcroft School (all girls)

Middleburg

9-12

foxcroft.org

Hargrave Military Academy (all boys)

Chatham

7-12

hargrave.edu

The Madeira School (all girls)

McLean

9-12

madeira.org

Massanutten Military Academy

Woodstock

6-12

militaryschool.com

Miller School of Albemarle

Charlottesville

8-12

millerschoolofalbemarle.org

Oak Hill Academy

Mouth of Wilson

8-12

oak-hill.net

Oakland School

Troy

3-8

oaklandschool.net

Randolph-Macon Academy

Front Royal

6-12

rma.edu

St. Anne’s-Belfield School

Charlottesville

9-12

stab.org

St. Margaret’s School (all girls)

Tappahannock

8-12

sms.org

Stuart Hall School

Staunton

8-12

stuarthallschool.org

Virginia Episcopal School

Lynchburg

9-12

ves.org

Woodberry Forest School (all boys)

Woodberry Forest

9-12

woodberry.org

Source: BoardingSchoolReview.com

MARCH 2016

expectations and fundamentals and all those kind of things when you start a child at age 3 and they can graduate at 17, 18 or 19 as a senior.” Parkway Christian Academy says on its website, “We instill God’s perspective on our world, into the heart and mind of each student.” The school was founded in 2002 and has grown from 37 students its first year to more than 300. Blue Mountain School in Floyd is a much smaller, independent school that has students in pre-kindergarten through seventh grade. There, teachers follow a “contemplative progressive” model, says Director Shelly Fox Emmett. The 40 to 50 students are taught in small groups and have daily enrichment classes that include art, music and yoga. They work on mindfulness practices “to help them with managing stress and anxiety and emotions, just daily life,” Emmett says. Children work on learning how to calm down through breathing and how to be part of a group. “I think these are skills that children really need to learn, that we all really need to learn, but they’re not something that usually is focused on in school because there isn’t always time,” Emmett says. “There’s a real focus on helping them make sure that they feel like they’re a part of something special and that they understand that they have a voice. Ultimately, regardless of what kind of workplace you’re in, you do need to be able to know how to interact with other people and how Photo courtesy of Roanoke Catholic

to get your needs met.” According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of students in private schools has dropped from 12 percent in 199596 to 10 percent in 2011-12. Private school enrollment in Pre-K through 12th grade and in Pre-K through eighth grade also has decreased, but private school enrollment in grades 9-12 increased from 1.2 million in 1995-96 to 1.3 million in 2011-12, the latest school year for which data was available. During the 2014-15 school year, there were 2,287 students enrolled in private schools in the Roanoke region, including the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt and Franklin and the cities of Roanoke and Salem, according to the Virginia Council for Private Education. The National Center’s numbers show that during the 2011-12 school year, half of all elementary school students in private school were enrolled in Catholic schools. An additional 7 percent were enrolled in conservative Christian schools, 10 percent in affiliated religious schools, 13 percent in unaffiliated religious schools and 21 percent in nonreligious schools. There were 33,360 private schools across the country in 2011 – 12,420 elementary, 2,780 secondary and 9,160 combined – compared with 98,817 public schools, according to the Center for Education Reform. A Private School Universe Survey searchable database of private schools, provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, shows 214 schools in Virginia that include grades from kindergarten through 12th grade during the 2013-14 school year. A total of 30,154 children are listed as students in those schools. According to one source, Private School Review, the average tuition for private schools in Virginia for the 2015-16 school year is $10,040 for elementary school and $15,342 for high school. To send a child to private school from kindergarten through 12th grade at the average cost for Virginia, with high school starting in ninth grade, would come to $151,728.

Figures provided by Private School Review, an online resource for evaluating private schools, show that the average cost of private high school across the nation ranges from a low of $5,064 in Alaska to a high of $36,414 in Vermont. Tuition for many schools in the Roanoke Valley is considerably lower than the state average, and many schools offer financial aid. At Roanoke Catholic, tuition ranges from $6,400 to $9,140, with deep discounts for parishioners and siblings. At Community High School, tuition was cut by more than 50 percent a few years ago so students pay only $5,000 per year. With its tailored tuition program, tuition at North Cross could cost from $3,700 to $16,900 per year. Some parents would say the investment pays off, in terms of college-bound students. According to National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of high school graduates who attend a fouryear college appears to be higher

among private school graduates than public school graduates. Of students who graduated in the 2010-11 school year, 40 percent of students who graduated from a traditional public school went to a four-year college, compared with 64 percent of those who graduated from a private school. Several of the private schools in the Roanoke Valley tout their college preparatory programs. They report that a high percentage of their graduates are accepted to college, place higher than average on standardized tests and receive large amounts of scholarship money. Life Academy says its accredited program has 100 percent college placement for high school seniors. Parkway Christian Academy reports on its website that 84 percent of its graduates enter college. At Roanoke Catholic, 32 graduates of the Class of 2015 – 86 percent of the class – received scholarships or grants totaling more than $3.3 million.

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ROANOKE BUSINESS

education

School away from home Boarding schools offer a chance to prepare for college inside and outside the classroom by Shawna Morrison

oarding School Review lists 18 Virginia boarding schools that serve high school-age students and one, Oakland School, which serves children in grades three through eight. Half of the high schools begin enrollment in the ninth grade, with the rest beginning with sixth, seventh or eighth grade. Five are for boys only, four are for girls only, and the rest are co-ed. Five of the boarding schools in Virginia are military schools.“There’s a huge misconception that the kids who go to military school are the bad kids and this is a last-resort type of thing, but that’s not what we are,” says Lori Campbell, director of marketing and communications at Massanutten Military Academy. It has 100 students in grades six through 12. Campbell describes Massanutten as a college preparatory school that uses the military structure to aid with scheduling and discipline. Parents often seek out the school, she says, because of its small class sizes – the average student-teacher ratio is 10:1 – and because all students there play sports every season, something they might not get a chance to do at a larger or public school unless they are standout players.

Campbell says boarding school gives students an advantage when they enter college because they’ve already had a chance to exercise autonomy and are used to being away from their parents, “so the freshman homesickness doesn’t really affect our students.” A 2002 graduate of Massanutten Military Academy herself, she says the school instilled in her a confidence she hadn’t had before, though she had attended several schools, because her family moved often. “They were giving me responsibilities and tasks that I would have never in a million years thought I could do, that I was accomplishing.” When she went to college, she says, “I was ready in the fact that I believed I could do it, because I had people who believed in me.” Stuart Hall Academy in Staunton is a co-ed school, serving students in grades eight through 12. Once known as a school primarily for “girls from the South,” Stuart Hall, which also offers a day school program, began accepting boys into the boarding program three years ago. It now has students from 14 states, Washington, D.C., and 16 countries, says Ann Snyder, the school’s director of enrollment management. The

diversity is beneficial to students because “they’re learning how to think on a global scale and making friendships with people who might live in South Korea or Italy or Mexico,” Snyder says. The curriculum at Stuart Hall is based on six pillars of education: honor and ethics, effective communication, global citizenship, critical thinking, creative innovation and effective collaboration. “They’re based on what universities and what employers are looking for in a student or employee,” Snyder says. “I think the biggest benefit of a boarding school is teaching personal resiliency and independence at an earlier age,” Snyder says. “Our kids graduate and go to college knowing how to do their laundry, how to speak up for themselves, how to solve problems on their own without having to go to an adult first.” Snyder says the school works closely with each student’s parents but says that “at a time when we are hearing more and more from college professors that they are getting phone calls from the families of freshmen in college, our kids don’t have to have somebody else advocate for them. They’ve learned how to do that from the moment they step on campus.”

Private Schools in the New River Valley School

Location

Gateway Christian School

Blacksburg

K-12

gatewayva.org

Dayspring Christian Academy

Blacksburg

K-12

dayspringchristianacademy.org

St. John Neumann Academy

Blacksburg

Pre-K-8

stjohnneumannacademy.org

Blacksburg New School

Blacksburg

K-8

new-school.org

Tall Oaks Montessori School

Blacksburg

Pre-K-6

talloaksmontessori.com

Children’s Garden Primary School

Blacksburg

Pre-K-1

thechildrensgarden.info

Pathway Christian Academy

Christiansburg

Pre-K-12

pathway-academy.com

Blue Mountain School

Floyd

Pre-K-7

bluemountainschool.net

Jefferson Christian Academy

Ripplemead

Pre-K-12

jcachristianacademy.com

Sources: PrivateSchoolReview.com, GreatSchools.org

MARCH 2016

Grade levels

Website

Private Schools in the Roanoke Valley School

Location

Roanoke Catholic School

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

roanokecatholic.com

North Cross School

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

northcross.org

Life Academy

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

mylifeacademy.org

Roanoke Valley Christian Schools

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

rvcs.info

Faith Christian School

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

faithchristianroanoke.com

Parkway Christian Academy

Roanoke

Pre-K-12

parkwaychristianacademy.org

Community School

Roanoke

Pre-K-8

communityschool.net

Community High School

Roanoke

8-12

communityhigh.net

Eastern Appalachian Academy

Roanoke

9-12

teenchallenge4u.com

Blue Ridge Autism & Achievement Center

Roanoke

Pre-K-8

braacroanoke.org

Roanoke Adventist Preparatory School

Roanoke

K-8

rapschool.org

Minnick Education Center

Roanoke

K-12

lfsva.org/educational-services-minnick-schools

New Vista Montessori School

Roanoke

Pre-K-K

newvistamontessori.org

First Baptist Church Child Development Center

Roanoke

Pre-K-K

firstroanoke.com/first-place-preschool

Roanoke Valley Montessori School

Salem

Pre-K-5

theroanokemontessori.com

Salem Montessori School

Salem

Pre-K-6

salemmontessori.org

HopeTree Academy

Salem

6-12

hopetreeacademy.org

Mineral Springs Christian School

Vinton

Pre-K-9

mineralsprings.net/christian-school

Christian Heritage Academy

Rocky Mount

Pre-K-12

chaknights.org

Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy

Wirtz

Pre-K-12

smlca.org

Boys WOODS Program (Wilderness Outdoor Opportunity Discovery School)

New Castle

8-12

hopetreefs.org/childrens-youth-services/woodsprogram

FREE

Grade levels

Website

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ROANOKE BUSINESS

INTERVIEW: John B. Williamson, III Chairman of the board, RGC Resources

Pragmatic leadership ‘Retired’ CEO plugs away at to-do list

by Beth JoJack ohn Williamson wanted to exit the 9-to-5 grind before he ran out of vim and vigor. “I had seen a lot of people work until they were 65 or 68 or something like that and then they retired and fell apart,” he says. “They had waited long enough, and they didn’t have the health and energy to do the kind of things they wanted to do.” In 2014 Williamson, a 61-year-old Bedford County native, voluntarily stepped down as president and CEO of RGC Resources Inc., the parent company of Roanoke Gas Co., where he had been the CEO since 1999. He continued working full time for RGC for a year as an adviser to successor John D’Orazio. Williamson remains chairman of the board of directors of RGC, a post he’s held since 2002. The business card Williamson hands out today provides a list of what he describes as his retirement “subjobs.” In addition to serving as chairman of the RGC board, Williamson sits on the boards of directors for several other companies, including the Bank of Botetourt, Luna Innovations and Optical Cable Corp. Botetourt County voters elected Williamson to the Board of Supervisors in 2013. “My goal was to retire before I was 60, and I did it,” Williamson says, still looking very much like a CEO from a perch in a conference room at Roanoke Gas Co. “It was important to me to exit the day-to-day business executive world in time to be young enough to do some other things.”

Roanoke Business: Let’s start off looking at your career at Roanoke Gas Co. and RGC Resources Inc.Tell me about a success you experienced during your tenure as CEO? John Williamson: We started a propane distribution company here [in the 1970s called Highland Propane]. John D’Orazio and I and others in the company grew that thing to about 20,000 customers and sold it for 30 million bucks [in 2004] . … It was a nice deal. We paid off all the debt, paid a $4.50-per-share special dividend, about $10 million to shareholders, and had seven or eight million left that was invested in natural gas distribution companies. It was a great transaction. Might be the best deal I ever did just in terms of the outcome and impact on shareholders. RB:You were CEO during the recession of 2008 and through its aftermath. Do you wish you’d retired before that? Williamson: I might have retired a couple of years earlier had the recession not happened, because for one thing it kicked my 401k in the head pretty hard. Personally, for financial 30

MARCH 2016

reasons, I needed to work a little longer. I had also promised this board we would work on a succession plan that made sense. Recessions are tough. This industry, the local distribution of gas, was impacted less by the recession than a lot of companies. Construction and banking was horrible. We lost customers here during the recession, so we had to belt tighten. Most of the key businesses in Roanoke, though, came through the recession reasonably well, and they were our customers. RB: Do you think Roanoke Gas will still be around in 50 years? Williamson: Certainly, the operation will be around in 50 years. I don’t see natural gas getting displaced in 50 years. As long as Roanoke is here in 50 years there will be a natural gas distribution system here. Roanoke gas is owned by RGC Resources, the parent company, which is a publicly traded company, so it’s owned by the stockholders. It’s performing well. It pays good dividends. The stockholders are happy. There’s no compelling reason for it not to be here. But it’s a corporate world and it’s a publicly owned company, so who knows. RB: A lot of corporations seem to want you on their boards. How come? What do you bring to the table? Williamson: There are not a lot of [CEOs of publicly traded companies] in the valley. Boards like to have, if they can get them, somebody who’s been a CEO and who has [publicly traded company] experience. For good or ill, it’s a whole other world dealing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. RB: What do you get out of sitting on a board? Williamson: It does pay some. RB: But is it that significant when one considers the salary of a CEO? Williamson: No, but there’s some remuneration. Intellectual curiosity. Being on the board of another publicly traded company is like going back and getting a degree just in terms of career development. It made me a lot better board member and CEO because I was exposed to serving on the boards of other public companies. Not everything is a surprise to you because you’ve seen it here or you’ve seen it there. You’ve seen it managed different ways at different places. It forestalled the potential of getting bored. If you’ve been doing something for 10 or 12 years, assuming you’ve learned something in the process, you’re at the risk of getting bored. It let me dabble in a lot of things, but it wasn’t a big enough distraction to keep

me from being reasonably effective [at RGC]. RB: Let’s switch to talking about your work in the public sector.You served as the county administrator in Botetourt County for six years before going to work for Roanoke Gas as director of rates and finance in 1992.You’ve said you left Botetourt for the business world for a lot of reasons, including the opportunity for better pay and less political pressure. Williamson: There’s never enough staff [working in county administration]. Never enough money. If you’ve got 50 or 60 percent of the folks happy, that’s considered good. I never got that. RB: But isn’t it just as difficult to build consensus on a board of supervisors? Wouldn’t some people describe that as an equally thankless position? Williamson: It’s plenty thankless. A group of business people here, including me … started something called the Business Leadership Fund, which is a [Roanoke-based political action committee — probably 15 years ago]. It raises money to try to get pragmatic, regionally thinking businesspeople to run for local government. I chaired that thing for several years and was on it continuously. So when I got ready to stop Photo by Don Petersen

John Williamson’s list of jobs in retirement include corporate boards, county supervisor and cashmere goat farmer.

anybody who worked any harder than her. She was as dedicated a county administrator as I ever saw. Me included. I think Botetourt is on the cusp of being able to re-launch itself post recession. [The industrial park Botetourt Center at Greenfield] is active again in terms of seeing industrial prospect visits … We recruited someone [in Larrowe] who I think may be someone who is one of the most active, creative county administrators around. Not to say Kathleen wasn’t a good county administrator, I don’t mean that. RB: What does he bring to the table that’s different? Williamson: He’s a deal maker … Either last year or the year before he did five or six industrial deals. Not all of them were big. [But,] in a place like Carroll County to be having that kind of success is pretty phenomenal.

working full time on a day-to-day basis, Terry Austin decided to run for [Virginia’s 19th House of Delegates district]. They started talking about me running [for the seat Austin vacated on the Board of Supervisors]. After berating people for 15 years to run, I suddenly no longer had an excuse to say no. I decided to take a turn in the barrel. RB: Did you retire when you did so that you could run for the Board of Supervisors? Williamson: That’s probably more coincidence than purposeful. If Terry Austin hadn’t decided to run for the House of Delegates and opened that seat up [on the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors], I never would have run against him. RB: At a meeting in September, the Board of Supervisors accepted the resignation of County Administrator Kathleen Guzi and announced Gary Larrowe, the county administrator of Carroll County, as her replacement.That surprised some who follow local politics. Things seemed to be going smoothly in Botetourt. Why make a change? Williamson: A bunch of things happened there. She stepped down. She wanted to do other stuff. It may be she perceived we wanted a leadership change. I don’t think I ever met

RB:The Board of Supervisors’ decision to relocate the last remaining historic structures of the Greenfield Plantation, a kitchen house and slave quarters, has prompted controversy.The county’s plan is to move the 19th-century structures to a planned historic attraction area at Greenfield.The nonprofit Greater Roanoke Valley Development Foundation is paying for the construction of a shell building in the area where the structures stood, in the hopes of luring new industry to the park. Williamson: It’s one of those things. Reasonable people will differ. I and the members of the board think that moving those two old cabins on to a site where they will be safe and on a piece of property along with other historical sites that can then become some sort of historical attraction makes sense. Having that stuff scattered in the park limits the ability to access them and limits the potential of the park. The original homesite burned down 50 years ago. If that original site had still been there, if Colonel [William] Preston’s house still existed, maybe that situation would be looked at differently. I think the county is doing the right thing. RB: In a December letter to The Roanoke Times, Fincastle resident Peggy Davis referred to you as her former friend and said you behave as if you are “the CEO of Botetourt County.” Did you see that? Williamson: I read it. RB: Did you take that personally? Williamson: Peggy and I have known each other for 30 years. I would rather we didn’t have this sort of wedge, but I’ve been in this business too long to lose more than a couple of nights of sleep over that sort of thing. RB:You’ve said one of your goals when you became supervisor was to see Botetourt County join the Western Virginia Water Authority.That’s done.

Williamson: Daleville has good water for the first time in my memory … Frankly, I thought that should have been done 10 years ago. RB: What’s something else on your todo list. Williamson: Getting Greenfield back on track. RB: How is it not on track? Williamson: There hadn’t been a new industrial facility located there for I don’t know … 10 years? … It just looked to me that Greenfield had gotten stuck. I thought there was an opportunity to help unstick it. You now have three options at Greenfield if you’re an industry. If you are in a hurry to build a building and you want your own uniquely designed building you can go on the pad-ready site. If you’re not in a big hurry and you want a uniquely designed building, then we can carve out a site within Greenfield that suits your needs and you build from scratch. If you’re in a huge hurry and you need 100,000 square feet that’s expandable to 200,000 square feet, and you want to be able to pour the floor and run the plumbing and move in within six months, there’s a shell building. There will be all three options in Botetourt, which is a pretty unusual thing to have at least in this part of the state. RB:You argued for the county to increase the real estate tax in 2015 to cover the gap between county expenses and county revenue. Instead, the board elected to draw from the reserve fund. Williamson: It wasn’t a huge amount of money to draw on the general fund. Botetourt has a pretty decent general fund. If you want a CEO decision, [though,] the CEO decision would have been, “Hell, let’s raise taxes a small amount and not touch the reserve.” Because the tax increase … other than some initial grumbling at a public hearing, nobody will hardly notice it. We’re going to go through a reassessment next year. Property values are probably going to come down some because the last reassessment was based on pre-recession numbers. I just thought it was the right business decision … We’ll see what the final reassessment numbers look like this year. My guess is we’re going to have to raise [real-estate taxes] anyway. I would have done it last year and gotten it out of the way and left that million dollars in the general fund. RB: Is it still possible for a farm kid from Bedford County to climb the professional ladder? Are we living in a classless society? Williamson: I don’t think we’re a classless society. But I don’t think that’s a fait accompli or that there’s not the ability to move among classes. Smart. Hard work. Luck. You’ve got to have all of them. You can’t just be born in Bedford County and a few years later be a CEO. You’ve got to work hard at it. ROANOKE BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT

Hit by the cycle

Volvo Truck’s layoffs seem to be part of a passing phase, not a permanent problem

Franky Marchand, Volvo’s Dublin plant manager, says the upscale trucks his plant produces requires skilled workers.

by Mason Adams

s Southwest Virginia’s fourth largest employer, the evershifting fortunes of Volvo Trucks affect thousands of regional workers. The list of layoffs and job reductions stretches through the years: 300 in 2013, 700 in 2009, 650 in 2008, 1,075 in 2007. Yet regional advocates took solace from two economic development announcements over the past two years. They included the investment of $69 million into a customer experience track in 2014, creating a projected 200 jobs, and an additional $38

MARCH 2016

million facility to accompany it, announced last year and creating 32 new jobs. Any hopes that these developments signaled an end to cyclical job reductions were dashed in early December, when the company said it would lay off 730 employees in February, a number that was later reduced to 600. The layoffs came in response to an industry-wide sag in sales of heavy trucks, known as Class 8 rigs, across North America. The Class 8 industry had soared in 2014 and early 2015 as major carriers ex-

panded and updated their fleets, but by mid-2015 much of that inventory sat unused as freight volumes ran below what had been predicted. “Orders stayed strong for a long time because truckers didn’t realize what was going on, but right now there’s probably $100 billion in excess inventory,” says Steve Tam, vice president of the commercial vehicle sector of ACT Research Co., a data analytics company that forecasts demand for new commercial vehicles in North America and China. “Class 8 probably has 20,000 to 25,000 Photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

excess trucks sitting in inventory in anticipation of demand that didn’t materialize.” Daimler Trucks North America — the Class 8 sector’s biggest company, with more than a third of the market — announced in early January it would lay off more than 900 people at its Freightliner-brand plant in Cleveland, N.C. Volvo and its sister brand, Mack, rank as the third-biggest company, following Daimler and Paccar (Peterbilt and Kenworth). Volvo Trucks makes a high-end product, Tam says, “a well-appointed truck with lots of creature comforts, lots of leather”— sort of the Mercedes or Cadillac of big-rig tractors. Volvo also tends to be more nimble than most of its peer companies, says Tam, meaning that it’s quicker to lay off employees in downturns and also quicker to rehire when production picks back up. Franky Marchand, Volvo Trucks vice president and general manager of the Pulaski County plant, says the layoffs are a consequence of the company’s labor-intensive product, which includes many handmade components. “The type of product we make is not made by a bunch of robots,” Marchand says. “It’s a premium product that requires a lot of manpower and trained people. I’ve got 2,100 people here [after layoffs]. I’ve only got 90 robots.” That process makes Volvo Trucks one of western Virginia’s biggest employers, but it also makes it vulnerable to sweeping market trends. The layoffs affect a quarter of the company’s workforce, reducing it from about 2,800 people to 2,100. The layoffs hit just ahead of the company’s renegotiation of its five-year contract with United Auto Workers Local 2069. That contract is set to expire in March. The good news: Volvo officials say construction of the customerexperience facility remains on schedule and should be completed by next year. That not only signals that the company intends to remain in Pulaski County for the long term, Top photo by Natalee Waters Bottom photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

Volvo has a record of laying off workers early in down cycles and rehiring workers quickly when orders pick up.

but the capital improvements should also leave it better positioned once the trucking economy rebounds. The new building will complement the plant’s customer experience track, a dogbone-shaped, 1.1mile paved loop that wraps around ponds and an off-road path. Built Franky Marchand is general manager of Volvo’s Dublin plant.

as a collaboration between management and the Local 2069, the track gives executives — responsible for purchasing decisions but who often don’t hold commercial drivers licenses — the chance to test-drive big rigs in a safe setting where they can test features and get a feel for what they’re buying. The accompanying 36,000square-foot customer experience center now in the works will supplement the track. “We believe that part of what our customer needs is to get close to the product and where it is made, and to see product in its environment,” Marchand says. “This is part of a strategy to get closer to our customer.” In 2015, about 7,000 people visited the plant, including roughly 1,000 customers. Many of them were given a demonstration on the track. ROANOKE BUSINESS

special report Despite recent layoffs, it’s apparent Volvo intends to stay in Pulaski County for the long haul.

“Two months ago, the new CEO of a company that only runs Volvo trucks came during one of our events,” says Volvo Inspiration Manager Marcus Thompson. “I took

him out in our ‘Spirit of the NRV’ [a custom-built, fully-loaded truck emblazoned with an American flag]. He looked at me and said, ‘I’m an example of this. I’ve never driven a

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MARCH 2016

truck.’” Charlie Jewell, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, says he’s hopeful Volvo’s new investments will help to offset the layoffs in the long term, both directly and indirectly. “In light of the layoffs, anything Volvo can do to support new orders coming through the plant is a really good thing,” Jewell says. “This facility will aid them in bringing in existing customers and potentially new customers to sell more trucks, which would lead to more orders being placed and hopefully having a rebound. The other part is that as they bring people in, business people who’ve never set foot in our community, my hope is that it will get us on more people’s radar for potentially more projects in the future.” History shows the plant will eventually see another upswing. “Our cycles tend to be about five to six years long, from peak to peak or trough to trough,” Tam says. “That’s comprised of two things: The economy, which if you look back over time, the U.S. economy typically goes into recession about every 10 years, usually in the 0 or 1 year of a decade. The Class 8 industry also tends to be a 10-year cycle, but usually cycles in the 5 or 6 year of a decade. This is not at all unusual.” Perhaps the best news may have come from the December sales, which rebounded to better November’s figures by 70 percent, even though they’re still down 37 percent from the year before. Still, that provides hope that the Class 8 sector may already be stabilizing. As a result, Volvo trimmed the number of layoffs to 600. “We’ve got a lot of forecasts, and we’ve got a great plan,” Marchand says. “We’ve been in this industry and this market for a long time. We take great care of the directions we want to take. Although we’re quick to react, we look very seriously forward.” Photo by Natalee Waters

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT

Randolph to chair Roanoke Regional Chamber

Randolph

Day

Kerr

Hudzik

The Roanoke Regional Chamber, Western Virginia’s largest business organization, has elected officers and directors for 2016. Ken Randolph, president of Rockydale Quarries Corp., has been elected chair. Other officers are: F.B. Webster Day, Spilman Thomas & Battle, past-chair; Nathan Kerr, Scott Insurance, chairelect; Mark Hudzik, Member One Credit Union, vice chair of public policy; Todd Morgan, MB Contractors, vice chair of economic development; Eddie Hunter, First Citizens Bank, vice chair of membership; Chris Wingfield, Brown, Edwards & Company, vice chair of operations/treasurer; H. Joseph “Joe” Jones, Appalachian Power, vice chair at-large; Terry Jamerson, The Roanoke Times, vice chair at-large; Todd Putney, Medical Facilities of America, vice chair at-large; and Joyce Waugh, Roanoke Regional Chamber, president and secretary. New members of the 2016 Board of Directors are: Dr. N.L. Bishop, Jefferson College of Health Sciences; Greg Brock, Firefli; Cora Carpenter, Paint Nite Roanoke; Dr. Kay Dunkley, Virginia Tech Roanoke Center; Katherin Elam, Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia; Nancy Oliver Gray, Hollins University; Matt Huff, Poe & Cronk; Dr. Cynda Johnson, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; Penelope Kyle, Radford University; Joseph LaScala, Elizabeth Arden; Michael Maxey, Roanoke College; Dr. Thomas McKeon, Roanoke Higher Education Center; Jamal Millner, M3Grafix; Dr. Robert Sandel, Virginia Western Community College; Sunny Shah, Ramada Inn Confer-

Morgan

Hunter

Wingfield

Jones

ence Center; Rick Webster, Union Bank; and Arika Zink, WFXR. Continuing to serve on the board are: G.B. Cartledge, III, Grand Home Furnishings; Martha Chester, Hughes Associates Architects & Engineers; John D’Orazio, RGC Resources Inc.; Beth Doughty, Roanoke Regional Partnership; Elda Stanco Downey, Roanoke Spanish LLC; Scott Gunn, Doctors Express Roanoke; Don B. Halliwill, Carilion Clinic; Landon Howard, Roa-

Jamerson

Putney

Waugh

noke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau; K.C. Huang, The Center for College and Career Services; Kevin Lockhart, SunTrust Banks; Nancy May, LewisGale Regional Health System; Mike McAllister, Cox; Patience O’Brien, County of Roanoke; Jason Price, Advance Stores Inc.; Eric Stelter, Wells Fargo; Wayne G. Strickland, Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission; Lori D. Thompson, LeClair Ryan; and Tina Workman, Downtown Roanoke Inc.

Chamber champions are members who support the Roanoke Regional Chamber through year-round sponsorships in exchange for year-round recognition.

2016 CHAMBER CHAMPIONS BNC Bank Brown Edwards Cox Business Gentry Locke Attorneys LifeWorks REHAB (Medical Facilities of America) MB Contractors

EVENT SPONSORSHIP Thursday Overtime – Jan. 7, 2016

Blue 5 Restaurant Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

126th Annual Meeting of the Membership – Jan. 14, 2016

BNC Bank LewisGale Regional Health System First Piedmont Waste Solutions Gentry Locke Attorneys Blue Ridge Beverage Co., Inc. Roanoke Regional Airport Commission Appalachian Power SFCS Inc. Trane Salem Printing Co.

Pepsi Bottling Group rev.net The Roanoke Times Rockydale Quarries Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC Trane Woods Rogers Attorneys at Law

NEW MEMBERS The following members joined the Roanoke Regional Chamber from Dec. 10, 2015, to Jan. 11, 2016.

LinDor Arts Parkside Storage Triangle Reconstruction (dba Roanoke Reconstruction)

ROANOKE BUSINESS

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce

Ely

Matthew Ely has joined the Roanoke office of Ameriprise Financial Services as a financial adviser. Ely will be part of the Myrias Group, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services.

Carilion Clinic Life-Guard presented $3,740 to the Jefferson College of Health Sciences Education Foundation at Cambria Suites. The funds are proceeds from the first annual Life-Guard 5K Rotor Run, which took place in Roanoke last July. Jefferson College will use the donation to fund a scholarship benefiting a nursing and/or paramedic student pursuing a career in flight medicine. The 5K Rotor Run was designed to promote health and wellness as well as raise awareness about the importance of services provided by both air and ground emergency medical services.

VerSluis

Dominion Risk Advisors has announced that Julie Mayhew VerSluis has joined the firm as commercial producer. She brings 28 years of experience in the insurance industry to her new position. Dominion Risk Advisors is located in downtown Roanoke.

As part of January’s Junior Achievement Alumni Month, Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia (JA) hosted an open house to give JA alumni and supporters a chance to view old photographs, see JA company products and learn more about JA programs and special events. The open house was held Jan. 28 at JA’s Brambleton Avenue offices. The Roanoke County School Board has elected Mike Wray as the 2016 board chairman. Wray, who represents the Cave Spring District, was elected to the board in November 2015. He is serving Wray his first term on the board and his first term as chairman. He previously served on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors from 2004 to 2008, serving as board chair in 2006. The Virginia Board of Education has named Roanoke County’s Mount Pleasant Elementary as a distinguished Title I school. The awards are based on student performance on Standards of Learning assessments during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. Roanoke County Public Schools has announced that Hidden Valley High School and William Byrd Middle School received grants from bestselling author James Patterson to support each school’s library. In addition, Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar of Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” teachers can use to acquire books and other materials for their classrooms. Hidden Valley and William Byrd were selected from 27,924 applications for funding grants. The high school received a $1,000 grant and the middle school was awarded $4,000. 36

MARCH 2016

Wayne Strickland, executive director of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission in Roanoke, was elected to the National Association of Development Organizations’ 2015-2016 board of diStrickland rectors. The association was founded in 1967 to provide training, information and representation for the regional development organizations throughout the United States. The owners of Stone Mountain Advisers and Old Dominion Capital Solutions have announced formation of a new Winesett Havens partnership. The agreement will allow both firms to better serve the regional business community in managing major change, strategic planning, performance improvement and mergers. The partnership was announced by Jennifer Havens, president of Stone Mountain Advisers, and Sheri Winesett with Old Dominion Capital Solutions. The partnership will operate under the Stone Mountain Advisers name. Jacqueline E. Bixler, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Spanish, and Michael F. Hochella Jr., University DisHochella Bixler tinguished Professor of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, are recipients of the 2016 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. The award, sponsored by the Dominion Foundation, is the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty in Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business has appointed Marc Junkunc, assistant professor of management, as the academic director of the Apex Systems Center for Innovation and EntrepreneurJunkunc ship. Junkunc, who was the faculty director of the Innovate livinglearning community at its founding in 2013, has been at Virginia Tech since 2011. Theresa S. Mayer, a leading nanotechnology researcher and the associate dean for research and innovation in Penn State’s College of Engineering, has been named Virginia Tech’s new vice president for Mayer research and innovation. Mayer is widely recognized for her research in device nanomanufacturing and served as a site director for the National Science Foundation National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network. Cal Ribbens, professor and associate head of the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, has been named as the new head of the department. Ribbens has been a member of the

computer science department since 1987. He was named associate head for the department in 2003 and associate head for undergraduate studies in 2008. Valerie Thomas, associate professor of forest remote sensing, and Yang Shao, professor of geography, were named the Shao Thomas new co-directors of the Center for Environmental Applications of Remote Sensing in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. The center was started 19 years ago by Randolph Wynne, professor of forest remote sensing, and James Campbell, professor of geography. Frank Shushok, Virginia Tech’s senior associate vice president for student affairs and associate professor of higher education, was awarded the 2015 Research & Publication Award from the AssoShushok ciation of College and University Housing Officers – International. The organization exists to develop exceptional residential experiences at colleges, universities and other post-secondary institutions around the world. The American Association of Equine Practitioners presented Virginia Tech’s Nathaniel A. White II, professor emeritus of equine surgery at the VirginiaMaryland College of Veterinary White Medicine’s Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center, with the Distinguished Life Member Award for his leadership and substantial volunteerism within the association during his 43 years of membership. Matt Winston, Virginia Tech’s senior associate vice president for alumni relations, has been recognized with the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of EduWinston cation (CASE) District III. The award honors Winston for exemplary professional service to CASE and District III, including active involvement in the advancement profession for a minimum of 10 years. He became senior associate vice president for alumni relations at Virginia Tech in November 2015. Virginia Western Community College has announced that through its partnership with CDS Tractor Trailer Training, 251 students graduated and received a Class A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in 2015 with a job placement rate of 86 percent. As the shortage of truck drivers continues to grow nationally, Virginia Western and CDS plan to maintain their partnership and expand opportunities for future students. The CDL program at Virginia Western consists of 160 hours of classroom and hands-on training to prepare students to work in the industry.

The vision to lead. The courage to innovate.

The heart to serve our community.

CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF

LOCAL ROOTS On our tenth anniversary, HomeTown Bank wishes to express a very special thanks to our Board of Directors for their continuing vision, guidance, and dedication. Their leadership has provided the foundation for our central mission: local banking that puts people first. Banking on the future by helping our community grow. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how we do local.

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ROANOKE I SALEM I NEW RIVER BANK I SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE

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One BANK. One COMPANY. Since 1979. Now serving Roanoke, Rocky Mount, and the surrounding area.

If your bank has changed, maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time you changed banks.

Jeff Forlines Senior Vice President Commercial Lending 276-245-5478 NMLS # 506274 or contact Debra Cline at 276-228-1125

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