Virginia Economic Review

Why So Many Executives Choose Virginia for Their Corporate Headquarters The last few decades have solidified Virginia’s position as America’s hometown for corporate headquarters. In total, 580 companies have relocated to or expanded headquarters offices in Virginia in the last decade.

To propel its growth in Virginia, Harris Healthcare is forging partnerships internationally. “A big part of our strategy is to grow in our current international markets, but also expand into new markets,” said Jeremy Trabucco, executive vice president at Harris Healthcare, based in Herndon.

Steven Brint is a distinguished professor of sociology and public policy at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of “Two Cheers for Higher Education.”

Northern Virginia has long been known as the data center capital of the world, owing to its status as one of the original four Network Access Points (NAP).

Tad Deriso is president and CEO of Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC), a South Boston-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that has built an advanced open-access fiber optic network in Southern Virginia.

Microsoft's Investments in Boydton and South Boston and its Regional Partnerships are Positioning the Region as a Tech Destination A century ago, South Boston was a tobacco-producing stalwart. In 1927 alone, the town accounted for more than 20 million pounds in tobacco sales.

Several Virginia higher education institutions now offer courses to help students and working professionals learn how to use data to inform decision-making and solve problems — and some are helping to shape research that could ultimately impact medical, financial, and numerous other fields.

How Virginia Became the Data Center Capital of the World Virginia is home to the largest assemblage of data centers in the world, with Northern Virginia alone accounting for more than 100 (out of 504 known hyperscale data centers worldwide) that total more than 13.5 million square feet of data center space.

Susie Adams is chief technology officer for federal government business at Microsoft. She oversees and implements the technical strategy for the technology giant’s Department of Defense, civilian, and intelligence community businesses.

Around the world, servers hum in the dark, churning through data that may have started as store security footage, a tweet, or a blood pressure reading. In the end, this data tells a story about people — how they think, how they make choices, and what risks they’re willing to take.

Joel Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism.

International Companies Find Advantages in Locating U.S. Headquarters in Virginia Foreign companies looking for a launching point to serve the U.S. and North American markets have many choices on where to plant their flag. Virginia has proven fruitful as that launching point for many of them.

New Amazonians are onboarding. Construction milestones are being met. From timelines to pipelines, Amazon’s mammoth HQ2 undertaking is on time and full speed ahead.

In the competitive realm of corporate headquarters location decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the way companies operate and could have major ramifications on office space moving forward.

Virginia's Veterans are a Natural Fit for Corporate Headquarters Virginia is home to 30 military installations and more than 721,000 veterans. It’s also home to 36 Fortune 1000 companies (eighth among U.S. states) and 2,300 corporate headquarters operations (seventh).

From its Bedford HQ, Company Eyes Overseas Markets for its Conveyor Systems For the past four decades, Sentry Equipment and Erectors, Inc. has fostered a reputation for delivering quality conveying systems and service to customers in all 50 states.

Town-and-Country Lifestyle, Access to University Talent Attract Investment While Virginia's larger metro areas along Interstates 95 and 64 have been recognized as technology hubs, the Commonwealth’s smaller metros are leveraging their unique strengths to create their own tech clusters.

Matt Calkins is founder and CEO of Appian, an enterprise cloud software company headquartered in McLean in Fairfax County. Calkins is a California native who founded Appian in 1999 and grew it into a publicly traded company.