Virginia Economic Review

When Lydia Ruffin began work as a restaurant server, her goal was to support herself through school. She could not have anticipated how profoundly that entry-level job would shape her career.

Mike Coleman is president and CEO of CV International, a Norfolk-based global logistics, freight forwarding, and trade compliance services provider, and Capes Shipping Agencies, a wholly owned subsidiary that provides ship agency, cargo forwarding, and logistics management services to clients.

Early in the morning of March 27, a container ship about as tall as the Eiffel Tower left the Port of Baltimore going approximately 9 mph. The ship, named the Dali, was fully loaded with cargo and weighed nearly 100,000 tons.