Virginia Economic Review

This issue of Virginia Economic Review details the things that represent Virginia and its influence on America’s governance, economy, culture, and norms. Highlights include an A to Z listing of those items and illustrative compendiums of famous Virginians and companies located in the Commonwealth.

Jonathan Zur is president and CEO of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC), a nonprofit organization based in the Richmond area that works with schools, businesses, and communities to promote inclusion.

Virginia has been indispensable since the beginning of its existence. In addition to eight U.S. presidents, the Commonwealth was home to numerous Founding Fathers who helped shape the direction of the country and many civil rights leaders who believed it was capable of more.

Brantley Ivey, general manager of River Ridge Land and Cattle Co. and managing partner of Landcrafted Food, recalls overhearing a farmer comment at the Virginia Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade: “If you’re not selling everywhere you can domestically, don’t consider exporting.”

Beth Macy is a three-time New York Times-bestselling author. She is the author of “Factory Man,” “Truevine,” and “Dopesick,” books that tell separate stories, but all stories through which the challenges, issues, prospects, and hopes of rural America are studied in different ways.

Seth Martindale is a senior managing director with CBRE Consulting. He has extensive experience in real estate strategic planning, working with both private and public sector clients.

Ben Davenport has been a champion for economic development in rural Virginia for decades. Davenport is chairman of First Piedmont Corporation as well as Davenport Energy.

Companies Find Tech Talent in the Mountains and Valleys of Virginia Big cities have long been synonymous with economic opportunity. But what if that's not universally true?

Virginia Talent Accelerator Program Delivers Custom Workforce Solutions to Companies How does a company find and train the skilled employees that will ultimately determine whether it succeeds or fails?

Virginia looks to increase the availability of development-ready sites with a two-pronged approach of characterization and development, working to bring business-ready sites online with greater speed and transparency than ever before.

...and How One State Has Set Out to Tackle It The Brookings Institution recently published a troubling analysis highlighting an expanding economic divide between metro areas (especially large ones) and rural areas in the U.S., as large metro areas have enjoyed considerably faster growth than smaller metros and rural localities.

Tom Barkin is the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Barkin joined the Richmond Fed in January 2018. In his time in Richmond, Barkin has taken an interest in the issues leading to a divide between urban and rural areas in the Fed’s Fifth District.

Peter Beck is CEO, CTO, and founder of Rocket Lab, a private space company with commercial launch sites in New Zealand and Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The age of autonomous vehicles has arrived. Autonomous shuttles, cars, farm equipment, mining equipment and trucks, on-highway trucks, and construction equipment will be here soon or are already commercially available.

Denbigh High School's Aviation Academy is a Top-Flight Launch Pad for Rising Talent Attitude Equals Altitude That’s the philosophy at Denbigh High School’s Aviation Academy in Newport News in Hampton Roads, a nationally recognized STEM site designed to put no limits on how high students can soar.

With Wing, Google Pioneers Drone Delivery in Virginia On a gravel lot just off of Welcome Street in Christiansburg in Montgomery County, an array of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recharging pads is flanked by office trailers and shipping containers.

Dale Nash is CEO and executive director of Virginia Space, the owner and operator of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), at Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

On a bright, early morning in the Mojave Desert in November 2021, test pilot Nils Larson will climb into a 97-foot-long airplane resembling something out of “Star Wars.” The nose, from tip to the single-seat cockpit, will be as long as the rest of the aircraft.