Roanoke Business- Feb. 2015

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FEBRUARY 2015

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

Road test Volvo’s Dublin factory lets customers take new trucks for a spin

Volvo’s customer experience track was built through a collaboration between the company, the union and workers with skills beyond the assembly line.

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CONTENTS SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

February 2015 F E AT U R E S COVER STORY

6

Road test

Volvo’s Dublin factory lets customers take new trucks for a spin. by Mason Adams

6

BANKING

13 Building trust

Community banks depend on developing strong relationships.

by Joan Tupponce

COMMERCIAL INSURANCE

16 Other threats

24

Polluters, kidnappers, embezzlers, hackers, fraudsters and foreign drivers. by Joan Tupponce

HIGHER EDUCATION

the need seemed 20 ‘Where the greatest’ Ferrum College continues tradition of serving less traditional students.

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by Beth Jones

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P

A

R

T

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INTERVIEW: Timothy Sands Hokie Hy

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COMMUNITY PROFILE: 419 Commercial District

Roanoke County’s downtown Virginia Route 419 draws hundreds of businesses and high traffic counts.

by Sandra Brown Kelly 2

FEBRUARY 2015

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S

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NEWS FROM THE CHAMBER Chamber Champions New Members Event sponsorship

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MEMBER NEWS & RECOGNITIONS

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RECENT EVENTS

Virginia Tech’s new president wants the university’s culture and traditions to inform its future. by Tim Thornton

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VALLEY FINANCIAL CORPORATION, THE HOLDING COMPANY FOR VALLEY BANK, ENTERS INTO A DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO MERGE WITH BNC BANCORP, THE HOLDING COMPANY FOR BANK OF NORTH CAROLINA. “Upon completion of the merger, the combined company is expected to have $5.0 Billion in assets, $3.6 Billion in loans and $4.0 Billion in deposits.

Most importantly, the similar culture and core values of Valley Bank and Bank of North Carolina will allow us to accelerate the integration and deepen existing customer relationships.

We anticipate completion of the merger by May of 2015. I will become the Virginia Market President, Kevin Meade will be the Roanoke Market President, Andy Agee will be the Senior Virginia Lending Officer and Eddie Martin will be the Virginia Credit Officer, so no change in the people and quality service you have come to expect from Valley Bank.

Our high quality team of commercial, consumer, wealth management and mortgage bankers will remain in place. Since there is no market overlap, our 9-branch network covering the Roanoke Valley will continue to serve its respective neighborhoods.

All of us look forward to providing you with the best banking services we possibly can and to continue our shared vision of a high performing community bank that meets or exceeds the expectations of its customers and creates value for all its stakeholders.”

Ellis L. Gutshall President and Chief Executive Officer Valley Financial Corporation

Kevin Meade

Ellis L. Gutshall

Andy Agee

Eddie Martin

Member FDIC

EQUAL HOUSING

LENDER

FROM THE EDITOR

Tapping into power

by Tim Thornton

W

hen the Roanoke Regional Chamber marked its 125th anniversary in December, it was evident from its choice of a keynote speaker the organization was looking to the future much more than the past. Ed Walker, whom the evening’s program described as “a social entrepreneur” and “urban activist,” clearly relished the opportunity.

“I don’t think I will have another chance to talk to this much of what I’d call traditional wealth and power in the place I love most,” Walker told his audience.

Walker, who said he comes “from a hundred years of lawyers,” has a background consistent with traditional wealth and power.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and spending a year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Walker earned a degree from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he’s an adjunct professor. Four years after W&L, Walker won the Virginia State Bar Association’s R. Edwin Burnette Jr. Young Lawyer of the Year Award.

Then Walker bought an old gas station — now it’s a Grandin Village watering hole — hoping to turn a profit. He discovered he could do much more. He became much more.

Walker’s biography from his time as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design calls him a “onetime outsider art dealer, lawyer, commercial developer, and civic revitalization engine.”

Walker has certainly been a revitalization engine for Roanoke. He brought music downtown with the Kirk Avenue Music Hall. He nearly single-handedly brought back downtown living by giving new life to old buildings, including The Patrick Henry, the Hancock Building and the American National Bank Building. Once he’d gotten people to move downtown, he persuaded more people to move a little farther out, into an old cotton mill (the Cotton Mill) and an old icehouse (the River House).

He brought attention, ideas and energy to the region through CityWorks (X)po, described on its website as a “collaborative, co-creative, and multi-disciplinary idea exchange and festival conference occurring annually.”

He turned an overgrown lot at the edge of Grandin Village into Tarpley Park.

Roanoke named Walker its Citizen of the Year in 2014. He prefers to praise others, including the two dozen people he brought to the chamber event. They represent what he thinks this community — any community — needs to succeed. They came from Jamaica and Brazil and Charlottesville. They grew up here, moved away, then came back. They considered Asheville but settled in Roanoke. They include a husband and wife who came home to the region after having a baby, and an interracial gay couple who are into renovations.

Making a community a “stronger, more joyful, more productive place,” Walker said, requires building relationships across divides. “I’m not talking about tolerance,” he said.

“What I’m talking about is embracing people who are radically different from us. I don’t think this is just a good idea. I don’t think this is a nice aspiration. I think it’s vitally important to our success.”

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FEBRUARY 2015

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION Vol. 4

FEBRUARY 2015

President & Publisher Roanoke Business Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Writers

Art Director Contributing Photographers

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

No. 2

Bernard A. Niemeier Tim Thornton Paula C. Squires Mason Adams Beth Jones Sandra Brown Kelly Joan Tupponce Adrienne R. Watson Sam Dean Alisa Moody Natalee Waters Kevin L. Dick Karen Chenault Sunny Ogburn Hunter Bendall Lynn Williams

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 Volvo trucks’ customer experience track Dublin Photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

COVER STORY

ots of little boys — and grown-up men and women for that matter — would jump at the chance to drive a big truck.

At Volvo Truck’s sprawling manufacturing plant in Pulaski County, prospective customers can do just that, thanks to a customer experience track. The dogbone-shaped, 1.1mile paved loop that wraps around storm-water ponds and a gnarly off-road path is the result of a collaboration between workers and management that’s given the company a new potent sales tool.

During a recent visit to the track for Roanoke Business, Volvo’s Inspiration Manager Marcus Thompson picked me up in a custom-built, fully loaded truck emblazoned with an American flag.

He brought the cab to a stop just outside the track.

“Now, this is the point where I look to the executive sitting where you’re at and ask whether they’ve driven a big rig before. Some haven’t,” 6

FEBRUARY 2015

Thompson says. “Have you driven a big rig before?”

“No.” “Well, now’s your chance,” Thompson replies.

And with that, we switched places, and I spent the next hour driving the cab around the paved track. I also drove a fully loaded truck with a trailer, then a dump truck weighed down with 30,000 pounds of gravel — all accompanied by Bruce Mochrie, an Australian-accented gentleman who trains Volvo Trucks’ North American sales team.

Mochrie walks people through each vehicle’s features, from the super-slow cruise control that allows truck drivers to creep in highway backups, to the dump truck’s ability to slowly glide down a 27 percent incline even though I’m not pressing the brake.

Afterward, Thompson walks me through the 1.6 million-square-foot factory, showcasing how trucks are built, chatting up workers and backslapping along the way.

Everything, from the advanced robotics on the factory floor to the sheer fun of driving a big rig, seems geared to appeal to a visitor’s inner 2-year-old. At the end of Photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

Road test

Volvo’s Dublin factory lets customers take new trucks for a spin

by Mason Adams

the tour, Thompson sometimes even gives out miniature tractor-trailer toys.

This is when they visit Volvo’s Dublin plant, the Swedish company’s biggest manufacturing facility and its only one in North America. The day I visited, Thompson gave similar tours to customers from Texas, Oregon and New England.

The factory walk has been part of the spiel for years at the 296-acre plant. But the customer experience track, which allows buyers without commercial driver’s licenses to experience a truck’s features in a setting that approximates real-life conditions, was built over the past two years.

It has boosted the company’s bottom line and cemented its long-term presence as one of the New River Valley’s largest regional employers, while holding down costs and building goodwill in its workforce.

“I’ll start by talking about how the idea came

in,” says Fr a n ky Marchand, vice president and general manager of the Volvo Trucks New River Valley Plant. “Around the world some factories have a test track where they can drive the trucks on their own property. You go and say, ‘How about we make a track for customers — who are not necessarily truck drivers but who are decisionmakers — and give them a chance to experience our trucks the way they’re supposed to be, in the right ROANOKE BUSINESS

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cover story

Volvo employees did the blasting, grading and paving and came up with the idea of an off-road track inside the paved track.

environment?’ Over the years that conversation has come and gone.”

The problem comes in justifying the cost of designing and building such a track. So while the conversation at Volvo continued, the company looked for a way to make the idea a reality. Then, the NRV management team and the union, United Auto Workers Local 2069, came up with a solution that would get things started without the major hurdle of investment.

Mark Peterson, vice president of Local 2069, and Billy Ogle, a member at large, put the word out on the factory floor that they were looking for people with a valid heavy construction equipment license and rural experience. “We have a lot of farmers and people with heavy equipment, dozers and flatbed trailers,” Peterson says. “It didn’t take long to come up with about 20 names of people who were quali8

FEBRUARY 2015

fied. That cut back on money and additional training, and sped up the process.”

The group took on a design developed by Volvo Facilities Engineer Johnny Kincer, who previously worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation, along with help from an intern, John Schula.

Volvo officials did the blueprinting in-house and evaluated whether it had suitable material for roadbuilding (it did). The outer, 1.1-mile paved track is designed with 12-degree banking, to test trucks’ ability in corners, and straightaways to allow for highway speeds.

Ogle, a transportation veteran who was involved in the Interstate 485 expansion project around Charlotte, N.C., headed up the crew. Work on the track involved blasting, grading, paving and more. Meanwhile, as the crew worked, it kept looking at the empty space in its middle.

“The first track was by plan,” Marchand says. “The second track in the middle, that’s where the magic happened. By having our own team working on it, being able to see it maturing and understanding the possibilities, they’re the ones who came up and Marchand said, ‘We’ve got plenty of room in the middle.’ They know the trucks – they’re the ones building them – and they’re the ones who said, ‘We can make a track in the middle,’ with no need for an engineer.”

Volvo surveyed customers for its heavy-duty, off-road trucks, asking them what they’d want in such a track. The resulting path winds up and down steep hills and over uneven ground labeled as the “articulation” portion of the track.

“The customer likes to try out a truck in the environment he’s buying it for,” Ogle says. “You can drive a dump truck on the pavement and get a sense of it, but will it perform off-road as well?”

Construction on the customer experience track began in May 2013 and ran until that December, when the weather got bad. The workers returned last spring, and the track was paved by Labor Day. Marchand says the company is only beginning to understand the full potential of the track but already is seeing results. “People are lining up,” he says. “We’re proud because we have a lot of visitors. We expect to easily more than double that. We see an increase of traffic, increased exposure for us as a company and for the area and region.

That’s the first direct consequence of this.”

Thompson sees a change in how customers process the experience at the Volvo plant, too. “Between the experience of being on the track, and not just the creature comforts of product but also the dynamics of it, it becomes an emotional event as much as a logical event,” he says.

Photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

At any rate, more people are experiencing the product behind the wheel. “Customers came out of those trucks with big smiles,” says Marchand. ”Even if you do not have a trucking experience, you can appreciate what the truck is doing for you, whether you’re fighting it or the truck is doing the work and allowing you to control a full load of gravel up and down the hill and on uneven terrain.”

Regional economic development boosters are quick to praise the track. “It’s great to see them invest in their future and make investments at the factory that will reap benefits, reap increased truck sales and increase manufacturing there,” says Aric Bopp, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance.

Pulaski County Administrator Pete Huber cites several positive

benefits. “First of all, it reduces local traffic. We talked about all the testing that has to be done. It’s less traffic for people to work around in the vicinity of the Volvo plant. Another benefit is it strengthens the competitive advantage of Volvo. Their buyers can test these vehicles out in an area where they can see the extremes of braking, etc.

“The third benefit is it makes good use of a piece of land there that had not been previously used.

It also raises the visibility of the local plant to Volvo buyers. People buying Volvos are going to come to this location to test trucks as opposed to a dealer. It raises the visibility of Pulaski County,” Huber says.

The customer track experience not only complements but enhances Volvo’s factory tour, which remains a crucial component of its sales pitch, because it brings poten-

tial customers to the factory where they see signs of cutting edge manufacturing from the moment they arrive.

A large array of solar panels lines the driveway to the administrative offices. They’re not just for show. In fact, as of this past November, Volvo can brag that its NRV plant is 100 percent carbon neutral.

In 2013, fossil fuels used to generate the plant’s electricity produced 40,408 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Plant officials worked to cut energy usage by capturing solar heat absorbed on the plant’s exterior wall to provide heating and by removing lighting from vending machines throughout the plant.

Volvo also tapped into an underutilized resource in the form of methane gas produced in 13 regional landfills, which now pro-

The off-road track wasn’t part of the original plan, but it’s become a valuable sales tool for trucks that will spend much of their time off pavement.

Photo courtesy Volvo Trucks

ROANOKE BUSINESS

9

cover story vide all electric power for the NRV plant.

“We are proud that Volvo’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond producing fuel-efficient trucks,” says Göran Nyberg, presi-

vations such as 3-D printers assist in the manufacturing process. One woman demonstrates how a 3-D printed box simplifies the process of fitting fuses into a truck.

The sales team walks custom-

“We need a couple of these for the troopers,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe joked after he drove around the track. “I’ve got to compete against 49 governors. We’ve got to come in in style. Put some lights and a siren on this thing, we’ll get every business deal we want.”

dent of Volvo Trucks North American Sales & Marketing, in a news release announcing the accomplishment. “Our customers can be assured that we strive for energy efficiency every step of the way.”

The factory floor maintains that cutting-edge feel. More than a million and a half square feet are filled with people, machines and tracks that move truck cabs and undercarriages down the assembly line. Immaculately tended gardens grow in sunny spaces beneath strategically placed skylights. Robotics are used extensively, and new inno10

FEBRUARY 2015

ers through the floor in a roughly chronological order, beginning with the beginnings of the truck and moving through until they see the completed product. Along the way, prospective buyers are encouraged to ask questions, not just of their guide but also of workers on the floor.

“I see people eager to talk, to communicate, to bring them into their little area and tell them about what they’re doing,” Thompson says.

The process moves quickly: A truck begun at 6 a.m. may be com-

pleted by 5:30 p.m. that afternoon.

Buyers are given a range of options, from paint color to truck model.

Long-haul models are offered in a variety of cab sizes, in addition to the heavy-duty dump truck and a low-ride, auto-hauler designed not to hit low bridges.

The Pulaski County plant employs 2,600 people. The number fluctuates depending on circumstances. At the moment it’s on an upswing, with 600 new workers hired in 2014. Most of the employees come from the greater New River Valley, especially Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe counties, though people travel from as far as North Carolina and West Virginia for employment there, too.

Newer workers tend to take the second shift in the evening. Those who are more experienced work the day shift, when they’re more likely to interact with customers.

Even newer employees are given leadership opportunities, though: Volvo trains and assigns team facilitators to track performance indicators, share them with teams and act as utility players, able to plug into different jobs in a given sector.

“We had a management team come in that gave us opportunities to create teams within the workforce, for quality, for ergonomics, for cleanliness, for safety,” Peterson says. “We got to design our own workstations. That gave everybody ownership.”

All of this has helped create a familial atmosphere within the plant, and one that’s conducive to employing actual families. Take Ogle, for instance: His brother first came to work there in 1988. Ogle himself started in 1999. One of his sons was hired in 2011, and another had his first day of work in December.

“One of the things that helped me decide to work on this customer experience track is that it doesn’t just help my future, but my sons and the community long-term,” Ogle says. “It’s a sign of the relationship here between all the people in the plant.”

Photo courtesy Governor of Virginia

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BANKING

Building trust Community banks depend on developing strong relationships HomeTrust Bank, a community bank based out of Asheville, N.C., has operations in Roanoke.

by Joan Tupponce

B

usinesses have relied on community banks for years, but recent surveys suggest bank customers have lost faith in the banking profession.

According to an August survey from The Harris Poll, half of American adults say their trust in banks has declined during the past few years. That could be, in part, because of the 2008 recession, which played havoc with the banking industry. In 2009, 140 banks failed, according to bankrate.com. A year later, the number rose to 157. But thanks to a slowly rebounding economy and

Photo by Natalee Waters

tighter regulatory restrictions, last year’s number of estimated failings was much lower, only 17.

“The majority of the banks that failed in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) program were smaller banks,” says George Morgan, SunTrust Professor of Finance at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. TARP, run by the U.S. Treasury, was set up to help stabilize the country’s financial system.

The banks that failed may have been more interested in making quotas than overseeing loan quality. “That had a signifi-

cant role in what drove the bad lending,” says Dana Stonestreet, chairman, president and CEO of North Carolina-based HomeTrust Bank, which has operations in the Roanoke area. “There was a lot of pressure to produce volume and when you focus on numbers and not what’s best for the customer, there are unfortunate consequences.”

A variety of financial issues that shook consumer trust started surfacing at the onset of the recession. Many of those issues were tied to risky and sub-prime mortgage loans at certain banks and ROANOKE BUSINESS

13

banking investment companies. Those issues, however, weren’t reflective of the entire banking community.

“The media didn’t do a good job distinguishing between Main Street banks and Wall Street,” says Tony Peay, executive vice president and chief banking officer for Union First Market Bank (which is changing its name to Union Bank in February.) “Some banks put people in a bad spot, and I think all banks got painted with that same brush.”

Community banks have built their foundation on personal customer service and that speaks volumes when it comes to customer loyalty. “In rural areas especially, people who have been at the bank for a long time become trusted advisers,” says Peay. “Community banks are grounded in strong relationships.”

They also are very invested in the community-at-large as well as the quality of life in that commu-

nity. “A community bank’s deposits come from the community we serve and we also loan those dollars out in the community we serve,” says Susan Still, CEO of HomeTown Bank in Roanoke. “Banks with branches all over the country can take deposits but they may use those dollars outside of the community.”

The number of community banks with assets under $1 billion has dwindled from 17,401 in 1984 to 6,146 in 2013, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The banks still standing typically have strong values, company officials say. “That makes a difference, especially in building trust,” says Stonestreet. “That is why we chose HomeTrust as our name. We felt like it communicated what we have done since 1926.”

Banking is one of the most highly regulated industries in the country, thanks in part to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform

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FEBRUARY 2015

and Consumer Protection Act. The act, which was signed into federal law in 2010, changed the face of financial regulation. “There is increased regulation, paperwork and requirements now,” says Morgan.

“It’s a huge task. Small banks don’t have the personnel to keep up with that.”

Stonestreet speaks of an “avalanche” of regulation. “A mortgage loan can be 100 pages of disclosures,” he says. “It’s a regulatory quagmire to make a home loan.

There is a lot of cost tied into the technology and being able to comply with all the new regulations. It’s sort of mind blowing. ” In response to the troubles that plagued the industry after 2008, many banks are enacting stronger internal and external auditing practices as well as more indepth risk management practices.

“Our enterprise risk management department monitors new regulations and tracks compliance with regulations,” says Peay. “We probably started with a strong compliance department 15 years ago.”

Union conducts various models and stress tests during the year to look at everything from interest rates to risks that could impact the bank. “We look at what happens if we start losing deposits.

Does Union have protection?” says Peay. “We imagine the worst and best day you could have as a bank and then look at everything in between.”

Many community banks are paying close attention to their level of capital. “We have to maintain 8 percent tangible common equity but we have typically been over 10 percent. Anything above that amount is considered well capitalized for regulatory purposes,” says Peay. “Having excess capital is a sign of strength in terms of regulators and our customers. We set aside money each month to cover any risk that might come back to us. We build up our reserves.”

Even with regulations in place, sudden changes in top manage-

ment such as recent abrupt changes in leadership at Bank of Floyd, can derail trust as well. (The bank ousted President and CEO Leon Moore in June 2012 and pushed out his replacement, Michael Larrowe, in November 2014.) “It certainly impacts a relationship business when people are changing,” Stonestreet says. “People tell me the reason they bank with us is because they see the same people in our branches, who call them by name.”

Any bank will have some change in management from time to time but as long as “you have the same board and the same philosophy that would not be a huge concern,” says Still. “Big banks change frequently.”

Bank of Floyd’s interim President and CEO, Mark Smith, believes the sudden change in leadership didn’t have any effect on the customers of the bank. “We don’t see any signs that our customer

HomeTown Bank’s Susan Still says community banks are tied to their communities.

base has been impacted at all by our leadership change,” he says, adding that customers build relationships with the bank’s tellers, banking officers and customer service personnel. “We do a great job in our service level as it relates to handling all those pieces.”

The bank is growing its customer base and Smith expects that

growth to continue. “In the past several years we have rebuilt the infrastructure of the bank to modernize it. We have really stepped up our game,” he says. “We have been aggressively pursuing customers.”

Stonestreet says management should build trust with the bank’s employees first. “That is the starting point: the way we treat our people, because that sets the example for building caring relationships with customers,” he says. “That is the heart of community banking: relationship banking.”

Morgan of Pamplin feels that community banks will continue to be the banks of choice for many people because of their customer service. “That is how I see them surviving,” he says. “They appeal to people that don’t necessarily want to do online banking or banking on their mobile phones. They appeal to the type of people who are more high touch. There is a market for those types of banks.”

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FDIC Photo courtesy Home Town Bank

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ROANOKE BUSINESS

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COMMERCIAL INSURANCE

Other threats

Polluters, kidnappers, embezzlers, hackers, fraudsters and foreign drivers

by Joan Tupponce

C

ity officials in Lynchburg had a mess on their hands last April when up to 14 CSX tanker cars on a freight train from Chicago derailed near downtown. The three cars that plunged into the James River and caught fire spilled almost 50,000 gallons of oil into the river. This type of accident underscores the importance of pollution liability coverage.

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FEBRUARY 2015

“Pollution coverage is almost always excluded from a commercial general liability policy,” says Carson Hamilton, CEO of Roanoke-based Commercial Insurance Services. “You can buy a specific policy that covers pollution that is sudden and accidental such as the rail wreck or an overspray of pesticides or herbicides.

You can also cover gradual spills such as underground storage tank

leaks. Mold is also considered a pollutant, which surprises a lot of people.”

Businesses that should consider pollution liability coverage include construction companies, refineries, manufacturers and gasoline stations as well as any rail or over-the-road carrier hauling hazardous materials. “I could make the case that any business could have pollution exposure, even AP Photo/Steve Helber

More than a dozen tanker cars carrying crude oil derailed along the James River near downtown Lynchburg last year. Three of those cars ruptured and their contents caught on fire, posing problems for CSX, businesses nearby and people downstream.

your smallest manufacturers,” says Nathan Kerr, vice president and head of the Roanoke office of Scott Insurance.

Pollution liability coverage is just one of several types of coverage that businesses often overlook when they are lining up their commercial insurance program. Others include foreign insurance coverage, crime coverage and cyber liability.

“Any business in the valley that is selling goods overseas and has employees going overseas needs to look into foreign insurance coverage,” says Kerr, noting the coverage can include workers’ comp, auto and commercial general liability. A separate kidnap and ransom policy can be added as well. “The majority of commercial general liability policies are worldwide coverage but only if a lawsuit is brought in

the U.S. If you sell your product overseas, and you are sued overseas, that is where you have a gap.”

Foreign commercial auto liability coverage is dependent on the country where you will be traveling. That country may not recognize a policy purchased in the U.S. “If you drive your car in Mexico, for example, you will have to take out a Mexican policy,” says Roy Bucher, chairman, president and treaROANOKE BUSINESS

17

commercial insurance “Pollution coverage is almost always excluded from a commercial general liability policy,” says Carson Hamilton, CEO of Roanoke-based Commercial Insurance Services.

surer of Chas. Lunsford Sons & Associates Inc., based in Roanoke.

A repatriation endorsement under workers’ comp in a foreign policy is designed to pay expenses for employees to be sent back to the U.S. for treatment if they become sick or injured or if they are killed while working abroad. Workers’ comp, which provides 24/7 coverage while working abroad, is additionally designed to cover medical costs and lost wages for any employee working abroad that catches an endemic disease specific to a certain part of the world, such as malaria.

A separate kidnap and ransom policy also can be added to the foreign package. This danger is on the rise. In October, for instance, the State Department sent out a “worldwide caution statement” regarding the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence 18

FEBRUARY 2015

against U.S. citizens. Parts of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia are prone to kidnapping for ransom plots.

“If you own a company and you are traveling overseas, you are susceptible to kidnapping and being held for ransom,” says Bucher.

Executives that have the coverage shouldn’t disclose to anyone that they have a policy. “You keep that coverage close to your vest.

Keep it quiet,” Bucher says, adding that someone may attempt a kidnapping just to get the insurance money.

Insurance companies will work with businesses and families dealing with kidnappers. The policy includes fees for negotiations and forensic analysis, investigators and attorneys as well as public-relations professionals. “Once the ransom is paid, the insurance company reim-

burses the family or employer who paid the ransom, provided it meets the insurance requirements,” says Hamilton.

Any organization that sends employees outside of the U.S. should consider a foreign insurance policy. “The coverage isn’t expensive but it’s not something I see people purchasing all the time,” says Kerr. “It’s an overlooked issue.”

Companies that already have executive protection coverage — which includes directors and officers, employment practices and fiduciary liability — need to look into crime insurance if they don’t already have it. “It’s applicable to just about any business,” says Hamilton.

Specific coverages under a crime policy can address issues such as employee theft, employee dishonesty and embezzlement.

Nathan Kerr, vice president and head of the Roanoke office of Scott Insurance, says companies should consider crime policies. “A lot of times it’s the person you least expect,” he says.

Photo credit

“A lot of times it’s the person you least expect,” says Kerr of employee theft. “It’s typically done over a long period of time. Most larger companies have this coverage now.”

Any company suffering a loss must be willing to prosecute the individual to the full extent of the law. “If you don’t prosecute, the insurance company will not pay for your loss,” says Bucher.

One of the newer endorsements being offered under crime insurance is The Chubb Group’s social engineering fraud endorsement. It is designed to provide coverage for an organization’s losses when an employee is tricked into making a payment through email, telephone, letter or other means to someone who purports to be a vendor or client.

Cyber liability is a large coverage some businesses overlook. But in an era when new hacking cases are announced nearly every day, it’s a coverage that is fast becoming a necessity.

“It’s something that can result in up to millions of dollars of losses,” says Bucher. “There is a lot of information involved in a data breach, which would include credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and financial information.”

The breaching of 53 million customer accounts cost Home Depot about $62 million. The breaching of more than 100 million customer accounts cost Target an estimated $148 million. It’s not clear what stolen data and pirated movies may cost Sony Entertainment. Early estimates were as high as a half-billion dollars.

The insurance includes firstparty and third-party crime coverage. First-party coverage comes into play when your company’s information is breached. For example, someone breaks into a company computer and steals important financial information. Third party covers the breach of customer information that is in your company’s safekeeping. “Hackers Photos by Sam Dean

Roy Bucher, chairman, president and treasurer of Chas. Lunsford Sons & Associates says, “If you own a company and you are traveling overseas, you are susceptible to kidnapping and being held for ransom.”

from foreign countries, especially China and Russia, are breaking in,” says Hamilton. “They can go after patents, trademarks, copyrights, so many things. Just about any company that uses a computer needs to get that coverage.”

Bucher’s company covers medical malpractice, and cyber liability

is important in the protection of medical records, he says. “It can be a nightmare if you don’t have cyber insurance.”

He suggests that businesses get quotes for three or four different carriers before purchasing the insurance. “It doesn’t cost anything to get a quote,” he says.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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HIGHER EDUCATION: Ferrum College

‘Where the need seemed the greatest’ Ferrum College continues tradition of serving less traditional students

Ferrum College was founded more than 100 years ago to educate “mountain boys and girls.” Now the school has students from across the United States and from a dozen other countries.

by Beth Jones

H

arley Patterson needed a school where professors knew her as more than a name on the class roll. Juggling studies, a part-time job and raising a 4-year-old with Down syndrome means she sometimes needs flexibility.

“Teachers here understand that family comes first,” Patterson says. “I haven’t had any professors who would say anything if I had to miss class because of my child.”

As a senior, Patterson, 21, has more on her plate than ever: wrap-

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FEBRUARY 2015

ping up an honors thesis on dystopian and eschatological literature, student teaching in the spring semester and giving birth to her second child, due April 28.

“I finish student teaching April 15. I have a baby and then graduate,” says Patterson. “At least that’s the plan. Fingers crossed.”

Ferrum, a small, private, liberal-arts college in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, has a long history of welcoming students like Patterson who, for a variety of reasons, may not fit the “traditional”

undergrad mold.

It was founded by a woman’s group of the Methodist Church who raised funds in the early 20th century with the goal of educating “mountain boys and girls, in a remote place, yet accessible, where the need seemed the greatest.” By 1913, founders had purchased 80 acres of a tomato farm in the village of Ferrum to build a training school where elementary through high school students could get prepared “for country life.”

“We had a lot of work study, Photo by Dave Hungate, courtesy Ferrum College

which was really, truly work study,” says Kim Blair, Ferrum’s vice president for institutional advancement who also serves as college spokeswoman. “Students worked in the laundry. They worked in the dairy.

They worked in the gardens.”

As the rural public school system improved, the Ferrum Training School also evolved, first dropping elementary grades and then transforming into a junior college.

In 1976, the school awarded its first four-year diploma.

Today, students can graduate with degrees in 31 majors. Popular fields include business, criminal justice and social work. Sticking to its roots, Ferrum is the only private school in the commonwealth to offer a four-year degree in agriculture. Ferrum also serves its Appalachian origins through the college’s Blue Ridge Institute and Museum, which documents and promotes understanding of regional culture through exhibitions, archives, the Blue Ridge Farm Museum and the annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival.

Ferrum administrators are quick to say that the school’s mission continues to serve underserved populations. About a quarter of current students are the first in their families to attend college. About half of the students are eligible for federal Pell Grants, which are offered to low-income students, according to data provided by college representatives.

African-American students made up about 32 percent of the student body in the 2013-14 school year, according to information from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). “We always think anybody who wants to go to college and who has the opportunity or potential to succeed should be allowed to come to college,” says Ferrum College President Jennifer Braaten.

When Braaten came to Ferrum in 2002, the campus had a student body of about 951. By 2013, that number jumped to 1,512. She’s Photo courtesy Ferrum College

overseen a corresponding physical growth of the campus, including four new residence halls, renovated classrooms and a new athletic center. When asked to account for the campus’ growth, Braaten doesn’t step forward for credit, explaining everyone on campus worked to turn enrollment numbers around. “She’s absolutely one that celebrates those around her,” Blair says of the president.

ny Modukraf to build residence halls. It also embraced the farm-totable food movement, which means buying food grown locally.

In May, Ferrum an- Burnette nounced plans to purchase freezers that will allow the college to purchase 60 percent of campus foods locally. “They’re helping our manufacturing and our ag-

The Ferrum Mercantile is a college-owned business across Virginia 40 from the Ferrum campus.

Linked prosperity With 324 full-time employees, Ferrum College is the third-largest employer for Franklin County, says Mike Burnette, the county’s economic development director. A study released by Ferrum in 2012 showed that the school contributes $93 million to the local economy.

The economic impact of Ferrum College is felt in some unexpected arenas as well. In 2008 and 2011, the school hired local compa-

riculture sectors,” Burnette says.

Ferrum’s investment in the local economy isn’t happenstance. The fate of the college, Braaten believes, is linked to the health of Franklin County and the surrounding region. “As the region grows, the college grows and vice versa,” she says.

In May, the college opened the Ferrum Mercantile near campus off Virginia 40. Formerly a convenience store, the spot now offers several eateries and sells local arts ROANOKE BUSINESS

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higher education

The annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival is one way Ferrum preserves and promotes Appalachian

and crafts. Eventually, it will host a farmers market.

The 41st Blue Ridge Folklife

Festival, held on the campus in October, drew 12,000 to 15,000 visitors. The college invites local

Ferrum hosts a branch of the Franklin County Family YMCA.

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FEBRUARY 2015

groups — Boy Scouts, churches and civic organizations — to sell fried pies, ham biscuits and wares at the festival as a fundraiser.

“We don’t make money Blair from doing it,” Blair says. “It’s just a way to say, ‘We’re in this together. We’re a partnership.’”

The Tri-Area Community Health Center, which occupies the lower level of Ferrum’s Vaughan Chapel, offers medical care and a pharmacy to students and area residents. Patients pay on a sliding scale if they don’t have health insurance or are underinsured.

“That was a strategic decision,” says Blair. “ ... not only to allow our students to have really good health care right there on our campus, but again [to provide] access for our community.”

In 2012, Ferrum’s fitness center expanded and affiliated with the YMCA, allowing area residents who purchase a membership to exercise with students. “No way would it have come to Ferrum without us inviting them to come to campus to be part of our facility,” says Braaten.

In another example of the college’s close links with the community, new Ferrum students put the college’s motto — “Not Self, But Others” — into action this past fall by working side-by-side with members of the local community.

Freshmen along with volunteers from area churches and civic organizations donned hairnets to package meals that ultimately went to feed the hungry in Haiti. The goal, Blair says, is for students to walk away with an understanding that they’re connected to others.

“You’re going to need to be an active citizen who contributes once you leave here,” she says.

Felicia Wingard transferred from Randolph-Macon College to Ferrum in 2009 for her junior year. Initially, she planned to be a chemistry major but changed her path after joining a campus service Photos courtesy Ferrum College

program that had her volunteering at a local after-school program and with the homeless population in Roanoke. “I really realized I do not want to sit in a lab for the rest of my life,” says Wingard, 25. “I would much rather interact with people.”

Wingard earned her degree in social work at Ferrum. After graduation, she spent another year in Franklin County providing therapeutic day treatment to children before she returned to Richmond to get her master’s degree. “I fell in love with this community,” she says.

Mixed reviews Despite such rave student reviews, school administrators were scratching their heads last fall when Ferrum did well on one ranking report and came in for harsh criticism on another. In September the college found itself in a three-way tie for 47th out of 74 ranked schools on the U.S. News and World Report list of Best Regional Colleges in the South.

That same month Washington Monthly magazine, a bimonthly based in Washington, D.C., that covers politics and government, ranked Ferrum “among the worst colleges in America.” The magazine dedicated its September/October issue to college rankings and in a story on Ferrum said, “Its students borrow more, default on their loans more and graduate less than do students at almost all other comparable institutions.” National Public Radio aired a piece about the article on Oct. 14 and also featured Ferrum.

The Washington Monthly article noted that barely half of Ferrum’s freshmen return for their sophomore year. It said the school accepts more than 90 percent of all applicants (the U.S. News and World report — based on data from the school — said the rate was 74.1 percent). Plus, the story said, “only 22.8 percent of seventeento-nineteen-year-olds who started their college careers at Ferrum in 2003-04 graduated within four

years from Ferrum or from any public or private nonprofit institution in Virginia.”

Ferrum College administrators declined to directly respond to the story. Instead, Blair provided a statement that read, in part: “Our 100-year historic mission has long been one of opportunity, accessibility and affordability.”

Nor do Ferrum’s leaders seem to want to hide the fact they have less stringent admissions policies than some schools. Braaten Braaten attended the White House College Day of Action on Dec. 4 where President Barack Obama rallied educational leaders to, among other things, increase the number of students who attend college and the numbers who graduate. “We’re an opportunity country and that’s why we want to stay an opportunity college,” says Braaten.

News of the Washington Monthly article had reached Wingard, still a passionate Panther. “I was kind of hurt by it,” she says. “That’s not even a good representation of the school.”

“Students were very up in arms about seeing that,” Patterson says of the Washington Monthly article, “because this is our school.”

Some first-year students, Patterson has found, simply aren’t ready to put in the effort college classes take. “You’ve got to reach a certain maturity level before you can understand the accountability needed for college,” Patterson says.

Blair would like to see fewer students leaving the college before graduating. “Retention is the number one priority for most colleges,” she says.

When asked, however, if the article made the college consider changing its admissions requirements, Blair was succinct. “I think you think we believe in the premise of the article, which we don’t,” she says.

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Timothy Sands, Virginia Tech’s 16th president.

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FEBRUARY 2015

INTERVIEW: Timothy Sands, president, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Hokie Hy

New president wants Tech to double its endowment and become more innovative

by Tim Thornton

T

imothy Sands began his term as Virginia Tech’s 16th president June 1, 2014.Trained in engineering physics and materials science, Sands was Purdue University’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost before taking his new job. He also spent half a year as Purdue’s acting president.

In an installation speech he delivered Oct. 17, Sands argued for a well-rounded university that produces wellrounded graduates who are comfortable working across disciplines.

“The challenges ahead,” Sands said, “demand an appreciation of the aesthetic, an understanding of history, and all of the rigors of science, engineering and technology that we can muster. The universities that thrive in the 21st century will be those that can span the disciplines in

Roanoke Business: How did you like Hokie Camp?

Sands: The real reason we did it was we need to understand our 18-yearolds and how they’re coming into the university and what is the process for becoming a Hokie. I don’t mean just in terms of learning the chant and what have you, but how do they become part of the community? It was very enlightening from that perspective. What they’re doing is some deep listening and sharing of stories. It takes a while to get to that point. That’s the part I needed to understand.The first day it’s all about wearing them out to a point where they can be reflective at the campfire at the end of the day when they’re hearing stories from the student leaders about how they got to Virginia Tech, what it’s meant to them. … For the 18-year-old, they have to go through a day of physical activity, of mental activity, of social engagement before they can stop and Photo by Logan Wallace, courtesy Virginia Tech

an integrated, holistic fashion.”

To achieve its goals, Virginia Tech must “at least” double its $800 million endowment by 2022, Sands said, but a $2 billion endowment would be a better goal. “That will be only the beginning,” he said. “Unless there is a major reversal in the public funding model for higher education, our endowment in 2047 will need to be about ten times what it is today.”

Roanoke Business met with Sands during this first year of his presidency when part of his job, he says, is to absorb “the essence” of the university. That absorption included a visit to Hokie Camp, a three-day, off-campus orientation session intended to help incoming freshmen understand what a Hokie is and how they can become one.

think and reflect. That’s really what I learned from Hokie Camp.

RB: How do you become a Hokie? You’ve said it’s almost automatic. People are here five minutes, and they’re part of the place. What does that?

RB: You told the Collegiate Times: “I don’t really think there’s anything like it out there, and I think the Virginia Tech community knows that it’s got something special.” What makes Tech different from any other large land-grant university?

Sands: I think what I’m saying there Sands: It started off essentially as a is it’s a welcoming community. Even if you don’t know what it means to be a Hokie, you feel like one because whether it’s a student ambassador leading a tour or the staff and student leaders running an orientation session, they send messages out subtly — and not so subtly — that all are welcome.

The fact that you’re here and you’re interested in Virginia Tech means we will welcome you into the community should you want to be part of it. You don’t get that feeling at every other campus. As a matter of fact, I think that’s very rare.

military service academy and it existed that way for a number of decades before it became a large public university with a land-grant heritage. I think the fact that the motto was “That I may serve, (Ut Prosim)” that has somehow permeated the entire culture of Virginia Tech. It’s a very supportive, service-oriented culture. You certainly see it when the students and the staff rally around each other. You see it when there’s a call for a service project. You get an incredible response, a bigger response than you would expect at a comparable university. But I think it’s also a longerROANOKE BUSINESS

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interview Like many new Hokies, Sands attended Hokie camp before his first semester on campus. He says the camp taught him something about 18-year-olds.

they’re bigger than they were when I was a professor.

RB: Talk about the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinary cooperation. How do you see that at work at Virginia Tech?

Sands: One of the things that attracted me to Virginia Tech was the faculty and students collaborate across disciplines, across big problems. I think it’s pretty well established over thousands of years — or at least hundreds — that the new fields, the new ideas come from the seams of the disciplines.

I think where Virginia Tech has been really forward thinking is in the way that the structure of the institution has been designed to facilitate interactions and collaborations between disciplines that are pretty far apart on the academic spectrum. What I’m so impressed with is that the interdisciplinary spirit is not just at the research level or the graduate program but has moved into the undergraduate experience in a way that I hadn’t seen at other institutions.

RB: What do you see as Virginia Tech’s role in the immediate community?

Sands: If you look at Virginia Tech’s

term kind of thing. I talk to students as often as I can about what their aspirations are, and often I hear from Virginia Tech students they have a service to humanity orientation as a student, which I am still finding amazing because I understand how adults develop that. I feel like I developed that later in life. A lot of them come in with that sense of their place in society at a very young age. I find that fascinating. I don’t fully understand it. We have a lot of conversations about how this arose, and I don’t know.

RB: What does a university president do? What’s your job?

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FEBRUARY 2015

Sands: I think a university president is, No. 1 a communicator, a consolidator of values and aspirations, someone who expresses the essence of the institution and rallies people around it. Of course, that’s not something you do in a vacuum. You’re basically absorbing what you hear, what you sense around you and trying to turn that into a story that can be conveyed to others. That is important, but it’s also coupled with applying the values of the institution in decision making because the job of a university president is essentially a series of pretty big decisions that have to be made every day. Some of them are small, but

history — it was one of the original land-grant institutions — and the way I read the land-grant act is that there are really two roles. One is the institution’s need to be preparing students from all walks of life, all backgrounds, to participate in our democracy. The other one is to contribute to the development of a stronger economy. Those two roles have never wavered at Virginia Tech, so far as I can tell. Historically, we’ve stuck close to both of those goals. Although the institution has changed from a demographic standpoint and an orientation standpoint, it’s always been true to the land-grant act. Of course, we translate it every 10 years. We say, “Those words mean something a little different now.” But we’ve always stayed on track with that that.

Right now we have an opportunity in Virginia, if you look at Roanoke and

Photos by Logan Wallace, courtesy Virginia Tech

the New River Valley … to be part of the transformation of the economy, the creation of new cultural centers in this part of Virginia. … I think Virginia Tech will play a big role in reshaping Virginia’s economy over the next couple of decades. That’s core to our purpose. That’s why we were put here in 1872.

Sands helped open the inaugural Virginia Science Festival in October.

RB: What are the university’s biggest challenges?

Sands: The biggest challenge of all is one we share with the other public institutions. Over time — the past 30 years or so — the public, our representatives, have chosen to divest or disinvest themselves from public higher education at a pretty alarming rate. … That has a real impact. … I think it also makes it harder for us to be an economic development engine when we’re asking, really, private individuals to fund the public good part of our mission. … The funding model has become decoupled from our public mission.

RB: Tech’s standing in the National Science Foundation ranking of research universities, according to their research dollars, has gotten a lot of attention. People like to point out that Virginia’s Tech is the commonwealth’s No. 1 research university, but it ranks 40th nationally after years of aiming to be in the top 30. How important is that ranking? If you think it’s important, what do you plan to do to improve it?

and World Report,Virginia Tech is the 10th best university in the ACC and the third best in Virginia. How seriously should people take that and, if you do take that seriously, what do you do to fix that?

Sands: The thing you have to qualify that with is Virginia is really the best state

Sands: The fact that we made it up to in the country on a per-capita basis in 40 and are still moving up is impressive.

That’s out of the whole country. I think that is a valid measure. It’s a proxy measure, though. There are other elements of research and impact that are not measured by research expenditures … I think there is certainly a big opportunity for Virginia Tech to stake out a stronger claim to be the innovation institution of this part of the world. We have great talent. I think we need to unleash it.

RB: According to U.S. News

terms of the quality of the undergraduate experience … So there’s a little bit of a distortion there.The ACC is loaded with top schools, in terms of undergraduates, as is Virginia. … In terms of our undergraduates, we typically measure in the top 15, top 25. So I’m not worried there.

RB: What do you want Virginia Tech to be when you move on to whatever you’re going to do next?

Sands: I think that’s a great question, but one that I am still in the process of formulating an answer to. That really has to be pursued in conjunction with the faculty and staff and the students and other stakeholders. My own feeling about it at this point is that Virginia Tech has a great sense of itself. It is a unique university. … We’re still discovering how to articulate that and how to spread that word, but I believe, it’s there. I have a sense of it. … If you look at Virginia Tech now, I think it’s a very strong university for the undergraduate experience. It’s done well on the economic development mission, but I think there’s even more that can be done there. I’m looking forward to see what we can do to enhance Virginia Tech’s global presence as well. That’s not only where we are in the rest of the world, but who comes to Virginia Tech. … I probably spend half of my waking and half of my non-waking hours thinking about that.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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COMMUNITY PROFILE: 419 Commercial District

Roanoke County’s downtown Virginia Route 419 draws hundreds of businesses and high traffic counts

by Sandra Brown Kelly

V

irginia Route 419 is an economic lifeline in the Roanoke Valley. The 10½-mile stretch of highway from the Roanoke city-Roanoke County line in the southwest part of the county snakes through a portion of Salem to a juncture with Interstate 81 near Hanging Rock. In the process, the four-lane, north/south corridor rolls by some 28 percent of the Roanoke Valley’s population and does exactly what it was proposed to do back in 1963: efficiently connect a significant portion of the valley.

The route passes by retail, office and commercial ventures, including a post office and LewisGale Hospital. It has promoted development and also has been well-groomed and maintained, which adds to the appeal of businesses that locate there.

Brian Powell, owner of Wine Gourmet, mentions the groomed look of 419 as a plus for his store’s move to Promenade Park in 2011.

“It’s been a great move for us.

We’re so much more visible,” Powell says.

The relocation landed Wine

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FEBRUARY 2015

Gourmet among a collection of stores on the corner of heavily traveled Colonial Avenue that includes Joran’s Interiors design, Nature’s Outlet and Pizza Hut. Colonial is one of many highly used streets that intersect 419.

Across the highway are the upscale Shoppes at West Village.

“419 is Roanoke County’s downtown,” says Jill Loope, the county’s director of economic development. The route’s popularity has filled it with so much development that Loope says future expansion will mostly come as redevelopment. The 44,000 daily traffic count through the Tanglewood area is projected to hit 60,500 in 2035.

The route passes through more than seven miles of Roanoke County’s most affluent areas and attracts the type of development seeking those customers, says Loope. Her office counted more than 750 businesses located along the county’s portion of the route. These include shops on side streets such as the Talbots, Chico’s and Henri Kessler Furs at The Forum Shopping Center on Starkey Road.

Photo by Sam Dean

Keagy Village, perhaps the only property on 419 that has languished, changed hands at a foreclosure auction in 2012.

Facts about Virginia Route 419 10.5 miles Connects Roanoke citycounty-Salem Serves more than 750 businesses Passes near 56,000 residents

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community profile More than a decade after its beginnings, South Peak has condominiums and a new Hilton Garden Inn at the corner of Virginia 419 and U.S. 220.

Traffic blessing and bane VDOT’s last review of the route in March 2010 revealed that more than 56,000 people, or about 28 percent of the combined populations of Roanoke, the county and Salem, live within a half-mile of the highway’s corridor. That’s one reason Marc Fink, CEO of Fink’s Jewelers, chose to build his headquarters flagship store on 419 a decade ago. The store had been in downtown Roanoke for decades, but, “The 24018 ZIP code had become our number one customer base,” he says.

Fink’s has stores in 11 cities. The store on Route 419 is one of the company’s more successful sites, drawing customers not only from the Southwest County area but also from Smith Mountain Lake. “We’ve been exceptionally happy; it’s location, location, location,” Fink says.

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The heavy 419 traffic so attractive to businesses takes on a different meaning, though, for commuters. VDOT’s review noted that morning traffic at the intersections “with Apperson Drive, McVitty Road and the U.S. 220 southbound ramp operate with unacceptable levels of traffic congestion.” The same congestion is found in the evenings at 419’s intersections with Roanoke Boulevard, Apperson Drive, Carriage Lane, McVitty Road, Colonial Avenue and U.S. 220.

VDOT, the county and Salem have been tackling the traffic issue for the past couple of years. Twenty-seven lights manage traffic.

Some congestion has been eased by the installation of adaptive signals from Tanglewood to the intersection of 419 and Colonial. The signals are timed to traffic flow.

David Holladay, county planning administrator, says he knows firsthand that the changes have helped because he can see how traffic moves from the county’s administration offices on 419.

The ability to time lights means morning commuter traffic moves faster, although drivers trying to get onto 419 from such side streets as Chaparral Drive (a route to a major residential area) encounter longer waits, he says. Since April 2013, flashing yellow arrows have been used for left turn indicators at major access points to improve traffic flow. “It’s not stop-and-go,” says Anne Booker, VDOT traffic engineer.

VDOT’s 419 review also looked at ways to use carpooling and public transit to get workers to large employers such as General Electric and Yokohama Tire along

Photo by Sam Dean

with possibilities for increasing pedestrian and bike access. For now, proposed changes are just that, although Roanoke County supervisors in October sent a letter of support to VDOT for improvements to the 419 section between U.S. 220 and U.S. 221.

Still growing While traffic management continues, so does growth. A 117-room Hilton Garden Inn opened in early December as part of the new South Peak luxury community on a hillside across from Tanglewood Mall.

South Peak currently includes 32 condos — the three-bedroom model sells for $569,900 — along with 23 sites for individual residences and plans for seven office buildings, restaurants and retail shops.

Plans are moving ahead, too, for Keagy Village, the one property that has languished on 419.

Ry Winston, a native of Roanoke who is now a partner in Collett, a commercial real estate company in Charlotte, N.C., bought Keagy Village at a foreclosure auction in 2012. He has hired leasing broker John Nielsen, of Cushman & Wakefield|Thalhimer in Roanoke, and says they are talking with potential tenants that include medical practices, restaurants and a grocery store.

“A grocery store has been one of the projects needed from day one,” says Winston. Tenants in early December included Firehouse Subs, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pure Barre (which offers ballet- and Pilatesbased fitness classes) and Embrace Home Loans. Winston points out the center still has five acres of developable land along a route without much room for growth.

Matt Huff, a broker with Poe & Cronk in Roanoke and leasing manager for several properties along 419, says the corridor is one of the first places new clients consider. “If we had another three miles of 419, I could sell every bit of it,” Huff says.

Photo by Sam Dean

Fink’s Jewelers, after decades in downtown Roanoke, moved its headquarters flagship store to 419 a decade ago.

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Roanoke Regional Chamber | SPONSORED CONTENT 2015 CHAMBER CHAMPIONS BB&T Brown Edwards Cox Business Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LeClairRyan LifeWorks REHAB (Medical Facilities of America) MB Contractors

Pepsi Bottling Group rev.net Richfield Retirement Community Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC Trane Valley Bank Woods Rogers Attorneys at Law

Note: Chamber Champions are members who support the Roanoke Regional Chamber through year-round sponsorships in exchange for yearround recognition.

NEW MEMBERS The following businesses joined the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce from Nov. 11 to Dec. 9, 2014:

AIG Financial Group Cellular Sales of Virginia Lionberger Construction Co.

National CineMedia Media Networks Parker Home Services LLC Ramada Inn Conference Center Siemens Industry Inc.

The Grocer The Patrick Henry Ballroom and Conference Center The Sanctuary Spa

EVENT SPONSORSHIP State of the County Address Dec. 3, 2014 Appalachian Power Carilion Clinic Cox Business First Citizens Bank Hall Associates Inc. RGC Resources

125th Annual Meeting of the Membership Dec. 11, 2014 LewisGale Regional Health System Valley Bank Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore Rockydale Quarries Corporation Appalachian Power Cox Business Landmark Aviation SFCS Inc. Trane Salem Printing xpedx

The Patrick Henry Ballroom & Conference Center

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber

Member news & recognitions B2C Enterprises has announced the promotion of Aaron Kelderhouse from graphic designer to B2C creative director.

Kelderhouse

Cowan

Perry

Branscom

CowanPerry PC has announced that three attorneys were selected by their peers as members of Virginia’s Legal Elite for 2014. They are: James K. Cowan, labor and employment; David E. Perry, taxes, estates, trusts and elder law; and Tara A. Branscom, intellectual property.

Cindy Shively has joined the Brenton/LaCroix Group at Merrill Lynch as a team financial adviser.

Shively Neathawk Dubuque & Packett won several Summit Awards, including the best of show, from the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for excellence in public relations. ND&P won three awards for its work to rebrand and revitalize Mountain Lake Lodge in categories that included social media, public relations campaign and the Lin Chaff Award for Creativity, which also won best of show. In addition, ND&P won two silver awards for its work to launch low-fare airline PEOPLExpress and a gold Summit Award in special events for the 10th anniversary celebration of the O. Winston Link Museum.

The Roanoke County Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism took home four awards at the Virginia Recreation and Park Society’s annual conference in December.

The county was recognized for excellence in special events with an award for the Roanoke Zombie 5K race, as well as excellence in environmental sustainability for “The World Is Not Your Ashtray” public information campaign.

The department was also recognized for outstanding promotional efforts including a Green Ridge Recreation Center video production and a facility rental brochure.

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FEBRUARY 2015

Feldmann

Darby

Goodlatte

Ziogas

Beers

Tenzer

Glenn Feldmann Darby & Goodlatte announced Carroll Troland that these attorneys have been named in the 2014 Virginia Business magazine’s “Virginia’s Legal Elite.” The recipients included: Mark E. Feldmann, construction law; Harwell M. Darby Jr., business law; Maryellen F. Goodlatte, real estate and land-use law; Robert A. Ziogas, civil litigation; Paul G. Beers, criminal law; David I. Tenzer, intellectual property; Jeremy E. Carroll, labor/ employment; and Charles E. Troland, taxes/estates/trusts/elder law.

Crandell

Whisnant

Neff

Economy

O’Shaughnessy

Stevens

The Greater Blue Ridge Chapter of JDRF held its annual meeting, announced new board members and elected new officers. New board members elected include: Ellen Crandell, Wheeler Broadcasting; Chris Whisnant, Wells Fargo; Heather Neff, Virginia Lutheran Homes; Paul Economy, Member One Federal Credit Union; and Terry O’Shaughnessy, HomeTown Bank. At the meeting, Norfolk Southern was named the Advance Auto Parts Outstanding Corporation of the Year. The 2014 volunteer of the year was given to Mike Stevens, communications director with the City of Salem.

All four LewisGale Regional Health System hospitals have been named among the nation’s 2013 Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health-care organizations in America. Only 37 percent of accredited U.S. hospitals and 33 Virginia hospitals earned this status for 2013. The hospitals were recognized by The Joint Commission based on 2013 data reported about evidence-based clinical processes linked to better patient outcomes for certain medical conditions and procedures: LewisGale Medical Center: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; LewisGale Hospital Alleghany: pneumonia and surgical care; LewisGale Hospital Montgomery: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and LewisGale Hospital Pulaski: heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.

The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors has appointed Thomas C. Gates as county administrator. Gates assumed his new position on Dec. 29.

He had served as deputy city Gates manager and chief of staff for the city of Alexandria. He also had served as the assistant county administrator for Spartanburg County in South Carolina. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and holds a joint master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Carolina and Clemson University.

Roanoke County Sheriff Charles I. Poff Jr., has announced the appointment of Mike Warner to the position of chief deputy sheriff. Warner had served as assistant chief Warner for the Roanoke County Police Department. In his new position, he will serve as second in command of the sheriff’s office.

Jack Davis, Reynolds Metals Professor of Architecture and dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, appeared in the DesignIntelligence 2015 rankings Davis as one of the 30 Most Admired Educators. DesignIntelligence publishes architecture and design school rankings annually. It is the only national college ranking survey focused exclusively on design.

Dowling

Norman Dowling, professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech board of visitors.

Thomas J. Grizzard, professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech board of Grizzard visitors.

Tracee de Hahn has been named director of alumni relations for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. de Hahn Carolyn Harris has been named director of academic advising for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech.

Harris

Ann La Berge, associate professor of science and technology studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of associate professor La Berge emerita by the Virginia Tech board of visitors.

Marathe

Pitt

Shipp

Three Virginia Tech professors have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to an announcement from the world’s largest scientific society. They are: Madhav V. Marathe, director of the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute; Joseph C. Pitt, a professor of philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences; and Stephanie Shipp, deputy director of the Social and Decision Analytics Laboratory of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at the Virginia Tech Research Center – Arlington.

Kimberly Morgan, assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been named the David M. Kohl Junior Faculty Morgan Fellow by the Virginia Tech board of visitors.

Shashank Priya, professor of mechanical engineering and Turner Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Robert E. Hord Jr. Mechanical Engineering Pro- Priya fessor by the Virginia Tech board of visitors. Priya has been a member of the Virginia Tech community since 2007.

Dr. Marcos Santos has joined the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech as a clinical instructor of large animal surgery in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Santos Sciences.

Virginia Western Community College is providing greatly expanded coursework, training, services and transfer opportunities at the Franklin Center in Rocky Mount, including new classes for the 2015 spring semester. As the primary community college serving Franklin County, Virginia Western is helping make the Franklin Center a one-stop shop for higher education in the area.

Susan Roberts has joined Waldvogel Commercial Properties as an assistant property manager.

She brings a strong background in property management to her position, including a prior stint at Roberts the firm.

The Westlake Golf and Country Club

Dr. Joao Henrique N. Soares has joined the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech as an assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Department of Small Animal Soares Clinical Sciences.

Robert W. Walters, vice president for research, has announced plans to retire effective Sept. 1, according to Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands. Walters served Virginia Tech for 30 Walters years, including eight years as vice president for research. With his oversight, National Science Foundation-reported research expenditures at the university grew more than 54 percent, from $321.7 million in 2006 to $496.2 million in 2013.

Pamela D. White has been named executive director of equity and access in the Department of Human Resources at Virginia Tech.

White

Lynn Hancock Hurt, librarian at Virginia Western Community College, has received the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award for her outstanding public service to the community and ongoing commitment to changing lives through education. Hurt is one of only 10 librarians within the United States recognized in 2014 for the esteemed honor.

The Willard Cos. announced The Westlake Golf and Country Club joined a growing trend of conversion among golf courses across the country from a semi-private golf course and country club to a full public course, effective 2015. The move from semi-private to public will create new playing opportunities for golfers in the region.

The Virginia law firm Woods Rogers counts 18 of its attorneys among the annual Virginia Business magazine 2014 Legal Elite rankings.

The honored attorneys are: Thomas R. Bagby, labor and employment; D. Stan Barnhill, construction; Francis H. “Chip” Casola, alternative dispute resolution; Sandra Chinn-Gilstrap, family/domestic relations; Nicholas C. Conte, business law; Thomas T. Cullen, criminal law; Frank K. Friedman, appellate law; Michael J. Hertz, young lawyer; Nicole F. Ingle, real estate/land use; R. Neal Keesee Jr., intellectual property; Alton L. Knighton Jr., legal services/ pro bono; Joshua F.P. Long, intellectual property; Mark D. Loftis, civil litigation; Heman A. Marshall II, health law; Richard C. Maxwell, bankruptcy/creditors’ rights; Elizabeth G. Perrow, health law; Alexander I. Saunders, taxes/ estates/trusts/elder law; and Daniel C. Summerlin III, legislative/regulatory/administrative.

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Coming to Virginia Business at THE BIG BALL Celebrating Virginia’s business leaders and the publication of THE BIG BOOK. Invited guests include: The 50 Most Influential Virginians, CEO’s of the top Virginia public and private corporations and other special guests.

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 6-9 p.m.

The Jefferson Hotel Cocktails • Hors d’oeuvres • Jazz Music Black Tie Optional - Dress up your formal wear with your college school colors.

A CLASSY way to show your school spirit.

Tickets: $150/person, $250/couple A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT THE VIRGINIA EARLY CHILDHOOD FOUNDATION Sponsored by:

For more information or to purchase a ticket, please contact: Sunny Ogburn - sogburn@va-business.com

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FEBRUARY 2015

Technology is hard wired into Virginia Western education.

For three years in a row, Virginia Western Community College has been named #1 or #2 in the top 10 digital community colleges in the nation by the Center for Digital Education.

That’s one of the reasons Virginia Western Community College is enjoying a growing reputation for hands-on training in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare (STEM+H). Students get the skills and knowledge that will take them where they want to go, whether it’s upgrading a current job, transferring to a four-year program or transitioning careers with confidence.

Looking for an affordable education with a future?

Virginia Western will take you there. .edu

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