Lynchburg’s Ivy Creek Park is located in the Lynchpin Industrial Park, which houses nine major businesses with more than 1,400 employees, and includes the 6-acre Clemmons Lake.
Pioneered and powered in Virginia, artificial intelligence emerges as a key problem-solving
The facilities in the world’s data center capital underpin today’s most innovative technologies
Virginia’s innovation ecosystem is realizing the big-picture benefits of collaboration
Federal agencies, defense contractors spur growth at Rivanna Station,
The Commonwealth has recognized the workforce asset veterans represent and taken
The Anthem GO Outside Festival in Roanoke is an annual event that encourages healthy, active outdoor recreation. This year’s festival, set for Oct. 18–20, combines a wide variety of outdoor activities in a beautiful Blue Ridge setting.
An Illuminating Look at Knowledge Work Innovation in Virginia
VIRGINIA’S INNOVATION BONA FIDES are easy to identify — the country’s best education system, the highest concentration of tech talent in the United States, our federal neighbors (and their research dollars) next door in Washington, D.C., and a commonsense business climate that enables and encourages companies to improve and iterate. The Commonwealth is an emerging hotbed in the growing field of artificial intelligence, due to factors both intellectual (one of the strongest tech talent pipelines in the country) and physical (the largest data center market in the world, which helps to power Virginia’s AI industry).
Virginia benefits from one of the highest federal research and development expenditures and Small Business Innovation Research awards in the country. Those expenditures help fund the crucial research being performed at top-notch universities across the Commonwealth, along with the groundbreaking work being done at Virginia’s federal R&D centers.
In this issue of Virginia Economic Review, we explore the ways Virginia knowledge work companies are innovating in numerous key industries and how the Commonwealth is enabling that innovation, from accelerators and incubators to innovative collaborations between industry and government. We highlight the Commonwealth’s large, talented veteran population as a workforce asset for forward-thinking knowledge work companies and profile a Fairfax County company that’s
working to create an air traffic control system for unmanned vehicles.
Also included are discussions with three thought leaders from major innovators in the knowledge work space: Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut, Amazon Vice President of Public Policy Shannon Kellogg, and Capital One Chief Scientist and Head of Enterprise AI Prem Natarajan, Ph.D.
Virginia’s knowledge work industry ecosystem consists of federally and university-driven research and development, accelerators and incubators, hallmark companies and the executive strategy and thought leaders helming them, and a wealth of small and mid-sized, growthoriented companies, buoyed by the Commonwealth’s position as a businessfriendly state. These factors combine to create a strong foundation for rapid industry growth and the realization of certain sectors as industry hubs and national assets.
We hope you enjoy this look into the way Virginia companies are embracing cutting-edge technologies to enhance their offerings and their employees’ capabilities alike.
Jason El Koubi
President and CEO, Virginia Economic Development
Partnership
Facts Figures
Number of New Tech Business Establishments
Top State for Percentage of Workforce in Tech
Top States by Net Tech Employment
Highest Share of Technology Companies
Projected STEM-Job Demand by 2030
Most Innovative State — Human Capital
Selected Virginia Wins
LS GreenLink USA, Inc., will invest $681 million to build a state-of-the-art 750,000-sq.-ft. direct current submarine cable manufacturing facility to serve the global offshore wind industry on approximately 100 acres of brownfield in the city of Chesapeake. The new facility at the Chesapeake Deepwater Terminal, adjacent to the Southern Branch Elizabeth River, will create more than 330 full-time jobs.
When constructed, the facility will be the tallest building in Virginia. The company plans to begin construction in 2025 and operations in 2028.
LS GreenLink is a wholly owned subsidiary of LS Cable & System, Ltd. (LS C&S), a global leader in power communication cable and system solutions. Founded in 1962, LS C&S develops and provides cable solutions for power grids and communication networks around the world. LS C&S has more than 6,450 employees around the world and 35 subsidiaries in 17 countries. LS C&S is a subsidiary of LS Corp., a global industrial conglomerate headquartered in South Korea.
Support for LS GreenLink USA’s job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, ranked the No. 1 Customized Workforce Training Program in the United States by Business Facilities in 2024. The program, created by VEDP in collaboration with higher education partners, accelerates new facility startups through the direct delivery of recruitment and training services that are fully customized to a company’s unique products, processes, equipment, standards, and culture. All program services are provided at no cost to qualified new and expanding companies as an incentive for job creation.
This state-of-the-art facility represents our commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and engineering. This facility will not only enhance our capability to meet the growing global demands for submarine power cables, but will also position us at the forefront of the industry.
BON-KYU KOO President & CEO LS Cable & System
Selected Virginia Wins
Greater Richmond
Condair Group AG
Jobs: 180 New Jobs
CapEx: $57.2M
Locality: Chesterfield County
KSB USA/North America
Jobs: 32 New Jobs
CapEx: $25M
Locality: Henrico County
Hampton Roads
Liebherr Mining
Equipment
Jobs: 175 New Jobs
CapEx: $72.3M
Locality: City of Hampton, City of Newport News
LS GreenLink USA, Inc.
Jobs: 330 New Jobs
CapEx: $681M
Locality: City of Chesapeake
I81-I77 Crossroads
Camrett Logistics
Jobs: 10 New Jobs
CapEx: $575K
Locality: Wythe County
Northern Neck
Carry-On Trailer
Jobs: 60 New Jobs
CapEx: $9.2M
Locality: Westmoreland County
Northern Shenandoah Valley
Desi Fresh Foods
Jobs: 56 New Jobs
Locality: Frederick County
Shenandoah Valley
Virginia Panel
Corporation
CapEx: $11M
Locality: City of Waynesboro
South
Central Virginia
JKOZ Engineering
Jobs: 45 New Jobs
CapEx: $37M
Locality: Nottoway County
Southern Virginia
RBW Sports & Classics
Jobs: 144 New Jobs
CapEx: $8M
Locality: City of Danville, Pittsylvania County
Southwest Virginia
Simmons
Equipment Company
Jobs: 75 New Jobs
CapEx: $8.5M
Locality: Russell County
Northern Shenandoah Valley
Northern Virginia
Shenandoah Valley
Central Virginia
Washington, D.C.
Greater Fredericksburg
Lynchburg Region
Southern Virginia
South Centr al Virg inia
Greater Richmond
Northern Neck
Middle Peninsula
Virginia’s Gateway Region
Hampton Roads
Easte rn Shor
A Conversation With Karen Dahut
Karen Dahut is the CEO of Google Public Sector (GPS), where she works to bring Google technology to solve complex problems for U.S. public sector institutions at the local, state, and federal levels. VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Dahut about GPS’ work with public and private sector partners to leverage Google technology to serve U.S. citizens.
Jason El Koubi: Can you just give us a high-level overview of Google Public Sector? What’s the company’s mission? What are some of the problems that you’re working to solve?
Karen Dahut: Google Public Sector was launched officially in 2022, but Google has been doing work in the public sector since 2006, and has been serving the public sector, really, since its founding.
We established Google Public Sector in 2022 as a separate subsidiary of Google. GPS has a core mission to really empower the public sector to accelerate digital transformation. This is about helping government agencies transform the way they deliver services to better serve their constituents using digital platforms. We deploy security solutions
to make government platforms more secure and protect against cyberattacks.
We also very proudly serve educational and healthcare systems using our communication tools and our collaboration tools with our productivity suite, Google Workspace. It enables these systems to use data to improve their critical infrastructure. In so many ways, across federal, state, local, and educational institutions, we are bringing our technology to really help drive their missions in new and improved ways.
El Koubi: I’m really interested in hearing about where you are and where the public sector is in this transformation along the different dimensions that you just outlined. You are basically at your two-year mark now as CEO of Google Public Sector.
Can you talk a little bit about the big challenges and where we are as a society in dealing with some of these transformations? What have been the key ingredients for you and your team at GPS as you help governments at every level take on some of these challenges?
Dahut: It’s such an exciting time to be at this intersection of technology and public sector mission. Generative AI has captured the imagination of citizens across the globe, and it has raised the awareness of what technology can do to enhance the lives of everyday citizens. It’s what energizes our teams at Google to be able to bring these technologies to bear.
I have had the opportunity to travel all across the country, meeting with local mayors, governors, state agencies, and federal leaders. What I hear, universally,
is that they are ready to adopt and accelerate their digital transformation, and they don’t really know where to start. Part of what has been so exciting is to show them the way, how Google Cloud and AI can help them enhance their services and make sure that their technology is truly secure. But more importantly, deliver on their missions better, faster, and more efficiently.
I joined Google because for years I felt like I was integrating other people’s technology, and this gave me the opportunity to work with the world’s leading technology company to actually build mission, purpose, and technology.
El Koubi: What have you found to be the most useful tools for helping those public sector leaders, those organizations, both individually and at a larger scale?
Dahut: It’s a really good place to describe the environment I think we find ourselves in today as public sector leaders and people trying to serve the public sector. There are challenges that our public sector leaders face, including data silos, legacy IT, ambivalence about implementing new technology, bureaucratic red tape, a need to recruit the next generation workforce, and how to equip those serving now with the skills for AI and more. Google Public Sector is about bringing a world-class team and world-class technology to this mission.
Google has taken a very different approach to GovCloud. Many public sector agencies are running on less reliable, less feature-rich, fortressed versions of commercial clouds known as GovCloud. We’re certifying our entire U.S. Google Cloud infrastructure to be able to serve the public sector mission.
I joined Google because for years I felt like I was integrating other people’s technology, and this gave me the opportunity to work with the world’s leading technology company to actually build mission, purpose, and technology.
KAREN DAHUT CEO, Google Public Sector
And this was a strategic choice. We believe commercial cloud solutions provide superior functionality, flexibility, and security.
Speaking of security, our approach is also radically different. It is truly at the center of every product and every solution we build. We use encryption, software-defined networks, and zerotrust, a security model based on the idea that no person or device should be trusted by default, even if they are already inside an organization’s network, rather than physical separation. We adopted zero-trust over a decade ago as our security foundation for the entirety of the company, and we believe that this is the same approach that the government needs to embrace. We invented foundational concepts around zero-trust architectures, and it’s proven that this zero-trust architecture ensures that an individual with the right identity, with the right access authorized by the right code, is more secure than any other approach to security.
These are just a few areas. As you can probably tell, Jason, I could go on for hours on this.
El Koubi: Just before we started this conversation, I was texting with somebody else here in my state government organization after having
gone through résumés saying, “Gosh, it’d be really nice if, instead of getting 25 résumés, I might’ve gotten an AI-generated spreadsheet.” I think people in organizations across the public sector and the private sector are asking similar questions right now. What role does artificial intelligence play in your internal operations and the capabilities and services that you’re delivering to your clients in the public sector? How do you see this evolving to serve different business needs? I’m interested in what’s happening at Google, but also, what do you see happening in the wider market?
Dahut: AI and machine learning have been employed by Google for years, from the very early days of the company. In fact, if you read some of our founding documents, you would see elements of AI and the possibilities of natural-language processing throughout. Our founders imagined the power of AI and its embedded capabilities into all of our products very early on in our journey. And it was in 2016, when Sundar Pichai, our current CEO of Alphabet and Google, said that Google is an AI-first company.
At a company level, we infuse transparent, responsible AI practices across all of our products, and it’s fully integrated into Search, YouTube, Maps, Workspace, and, of course, Google
Cloud with Gemini and our Vertex AI stack. It’s fully embedded. We’re very proud of the work that we’ve done around our Google Distributed Cloud. We have digital watermarking that’s generally available for AI-generated images produced by Imagen, and we’ve expanded all of our grounding capabilities to make sure that we’re producing responsible outputs to AI and generative AI.
You also asked about what we’re seeing in the market. Your example of the résumés is a really good one. We’re seeing generative AI used to enhance productivity. I think about it as an always-on personal assistant to a public sector employee that allows them to work on higher-order work while their generative AI assistant does some of the more routine work for them. It also helps to use AI to automate processes that are more mundane in their execution.
An area that we are really talking about in the public sector is: How do you engage your citizens differently? They might go to the website for the Commonwealth of Virginia and have really specific questions on how they apply for unemployment benefits. You can produce a generative AI assistant for that citizen that helps them navigate that website, allowing them to get much easier natural-language answers to their questions, and save the citizen time in the process. There are so many great examples and things that we are building prototypes for and proofs of concept for our customers, and we’re excited about the possibilities that are yet to come.
El Koubi: Among other things, you said that responsible AI implementation has never been more important. Why are we at this moment of time where
it’s become of utmost importance? How are you leveraging the capabilities of Google to ensure that there’s a responsible AI approach that helps government organizations with these kinds of implementations?
Dahut: There’s a lot of concern about AI because it is not well-understood by the general public, and so when they hear potential things that could go awry with the use of AI, that’s what stays with them. Google, since its founding, has been extraordinarily upfront and responsible in the application of any of our technologies. And when I talk about responsibility, I mean that we have been working as a first party. We understand it at its nucleus level, and we can explain and describe how it works in great detail. I think that’s the power of a company that really was founded and predicated on this idea of technology and AI.
When we talk about it being at the core of who we are, we don’t just mean that we’re applying it. It means that we truly understand how it works, how it comes to its conclusions, and how it’s being displayed in terms of answers to questions that users are asking.
We built a fully integrated enterprisegrade vertical stack that starts with the infrastructure. It goes all the way up that software stack to AI operations, and that’s really one of a kind. It’s singular in our industry. We’re very, very proud that we’ve built it, soup to nuts, and can apply it in meaningful ways. What we’re very excited about is the possibility of applying this to the public sector, whether it’s in classified spaces or unclassified spaces. We know how it runs, we know how it works, and we know what to expect from the outputs.
We’re seeing generative AI used to enhance productivity. I think about it as an always-on personal assistant to a public sector employee that allows them to work on higher-order work while their generative AI assistant does some of the more routine work for them. It also helps to use AI to automate processes that are more mundane in their execution.
KAREN DAHUT CEO, Google Public Sector
El Koubi: There’s a people side to this. You and your team are based in Northern Virginia, and we’re thrilled to have you here. There’s also a very physical side to this to support the technology of the digital transformation, including data centers. Just this past April, Google announced that it would invest an additional $1 billion into its existing data center campuses in Virginia.
What differentiates Virginia in terms of the decision-making process at Google? You guys have made some major investments here, both in terms of where you put your people, but also where you put your infrastructure. And where do you think that investment is going to go as you continue to scale your data-related capabilities and services, and how does that relate to
your clients in terms of where you put the capabilities?
Dahut: We’re headquartered, as you mentioned, right here in Northern Virginia in Reston, which is an amazing central location for us to serve obviously all of the federal government, but also has ease of access to great airports to be able to go wherever the mission calls us. We’re proud of our location in Virginia.
Virginia’s strategic location is critical, along with the robust infrastructure that Virginia provides and a readyskilled workforce, a business-friendly environment, and a thriving tech ecosystem. I was on the board of the Northern Virginia Technology Council for years, and was so appreciative of
everything that the tech council did inside the Commonwealth of Virginia and for federal and state employees.
Data centers and racks of computers really do generate the compute power to really power the AI movement, and so we continue to make investments in great states like Virginia to continue to power our position of being first across AI in the globe.
You also mentioned the importance of investing in people, and we at Google have a very strong heritage of doing just that, whether it’s through Google.org or our business leaders, such as myself, helping to teach, train, educate, and broaden the understanding of technology and AI. It makes life easier. It can create economic opportunity. It can address
some of America’s most complex and pressing challenges, but only if people really understand it and find it easy to embrace.
El Koubi: What does innovation mean at a company that operates at the scale of Google? How does that translate into impact for the organization and the customers you’re serving?
Dahut: I have always thought of innovation as a mindset, and when you can create the mindset that anything is possible, you can get the best thinking from people, organizations, and cultures. One of the things I really love about Google is that we have a healthy disregard for the impossible. Things can be super hard, but that’s okay. We can still solve for it. And so
When you can create the mindset that anything is possible, you can get the best thinking from people, organizations, and cultures. One of the things I really love about Google is that we have a healthy disregard for the impossible.
KAREN DAHUT CEO, Google Public Sector
it is part of the thing that attracted me to Google, because this mindset of solving for the impossible really is embedded in everything that we do to talk about Google Public Sector being the innovation choice for government and education among a sea of legacy technology vendors.
All of us have a responsibility to think about technology in ways that can benefit the world, because I think that in order for us to really take on some of these challenging areas that we all have in our daily lives as well as our professional lives, technology is going to be critical in that, and understanding it and applying it is going to really help us solve for some of these things that I think were previously considered unsolvable.
El Koubi: You’ve really been at the forefront as a proponent for women in tech and advancing women’s leadership roles in tech. Can you tell us a little about your personal journey and what you’ve observed about the journeys of other women business leaders?
Dahut: I went to graduate school at the University of Southern California, their School of Engineering. They have, for the last several years, had
more women in their classes of engineering than men. Now, that is a statement around the University of Southern California, but it’s also a statement that women are increasingly choosing technology and engineering roles, which is thrilling for me. And I do think generations of women, certainly women who came before me, have paved that way for women today.
Women possess unique strengths that make them the perfect candidates to work in STEM fields. They are collaborative. They have great organizational skills. They are persuasive and influential. These are critical skills for success in STEM fields, and women have these skills just innately. I have forever advanced the idea that we need parity at work and in skill sets like technology, and that we need to build trust and empower women to take on these roles, to reward risk-taking, to allow for failure, and to learn from failure.
El Koubi: I believe you spent some time early in your career as an officer in the Navy. How does that inform your leadership and your perspective in the private sector at Google and elsewhere?
Dahut: My father, an Italian immigrant who came to this country when he was
about six years old, served for 42 years in the Navy. He went all the way through the enlisted ranks and retired as a Navy captain. And he and my mom traveled the globe with my two sisters and I, and taught us such an important lesson: that a life of purpose, one that is rooted in service to our country, is really a worthy and an extraordinary life.
For me, the Navy was an amazing training ground and a tremendous place to learn and grow. I had the opportunity to lead men twice my age, experiment with new technologies, and travel to places that honestly I had only ever dreamed of.
I have come to realize over that time that my Navy service defined the rest of my life. I consider myself a mission junkie. I love this idea of serving the mission, and I think it goes back to those early days when you stand and you raise your right hand, and you take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. It’s really an awe-inspiring act. I’m not sure I’ve ever really gotten over how important those words mean to me, and to our country. I really try to carry that lesson of service to the mission. I was only in the Navy for about seven years, but it really was the foundation that I think set me up for my career.
El Koubi: Karen, thank you so much for joining us today.
Dahut: Jason, it has been such a pleasure speaking to you. Thank you.
For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts
Buoyed by the country’s best education system (CNBC, 2024), the presence and prominence of the nearby federal government, and best-in-class electronic infrastructure, Virginia’s knowledge work ecosystem is generating innovation across a wide variety of industries. Virginia companies are at the forefront of innovative applications of artificial intelligence, while its world-leading data center concentration is enabling users from the private and public sectors to use the data flowing through those servers in new ways.
Read on to learn more about the ways Virginia companies are pushing the envelope on using new technologies to improve their services and offerings, along with how the Commonwealth continues to encourage that innovation — from accelerators and incubators to government/industry facility clusters. Virginia’s value proposition for knowledge work companies spans workforce, education, and quality of life, and these companies and entities are taking full advantage of everything the Commonwealth has to offer.
Goochland County-based CarMax uses two tests to ensure that it’s using AI responsibly: that it’s solving an actual problem, and that employees have tried it first.
Pioneered and powered in Virginia, artificial intelligence emerges as a key problem-solving tool
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE may seem like a new technology, but CarMax has been using it for years.
The Goochland County-based company is the country’s largest seller of used cars. Figuring out how to price cars at scale is where an algorithm, also known as AI, is an essential tool, said CarMax Chief Data Officer and Head of Business Strategy & Analytics Gautam Puranik.
What has changed recently is how CarMax uses AI — and it has ambitious plans for using the technology in the future.
“We’re now leveraging AI to come up with the right answers to the most complicated customer questions,” Puranik said.
That’s helpful to the company’s employees, as well as customers purchasing one of CarMax’s used vehicles. And it may only be the start of
Capital One Financial Corporation has a heavy presence at its Fairfax County headquarters and its Goochland County office leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance its banking services.
how AI complements human efforts to make the car-buying experience better than it’s ever been.
Puranik said, “My dream is that AI can help us get to a place where there is no pothole and every customer transaction, every journey, is as seamless, as smooth as possible.”
It’s been less than two years since OpenAI released its first version of ChatGPT, the groundbreaking AI tool that can not only analyze and categorize, but create new content as well. Known as generative AI, this smarter, more flexible version of artificial intelligence offers organizations the possibility of revolutionizing not only how work is done, but who does what. Experts say the day is soon coming when generative AI can take over routine work while highly skilled employees are able to spend more time on strategic customerdriven activities.
“AI is one of those seismic changes,” said Vinnie Schoenfelder, principal and chief technology officer at Richmondbased consulting firm CapTech Ventures, Inc. “Thirty years from now, when my children are looking back at this, they’re going to say, ‘I can’t imagine ever living without this in my life,’ the same way we say that about a handheld device or the internet. That’s how big of a change it is.”
POWERED BY VIRGINIA INFRASTRUCTURE
The power and promise of AI is particularly relevant to Virginia. Major companies across the technology space are funding AI research right now, and most of them (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM) have a significant presence in the Commonwealth. Northern Virginia alone is home to 35% of the world’s known hyperscale data centers, which lay the foundation for that AI activity to happen.
My dream is that AI can help us get to a place where there is no pothole and every customer transaction, every journey, is as seamless, as smooth as possible.
GAUTAM PURANIK Chief Data Officer and Head of Business Strategy & Analytics, CarMax
“Since we’ve been building large-scale data centers for more than 15 years and GPU-based servers for more than 12 years, we have a massive existing footprint for AI infrastructure around the world,” said Shannon Kellogg, vice president of public policy at Amazon. “Virginia is a very, very big part of that infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, the next generation of workers who will develop AI is training now at the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities, including Virginia Tech’s Sanghani Center for AI and Data Analytics, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative and the university’s new School of Data Science, Virginia Commonwealth University’s AI Futures Lab and newly launched minor in practical artificial intelligence, and George Mason University’s Center for Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. Together, they offer an ideal ecosystem to attract and grow AI-related companies.
But the technology also comes with risks. A November 2023 report from consulting firm Deloitte lays out three main concerns:
◾ Generative AI has an unfortunate tendency to make things up and believe its own falsehoods — the technical term for this is “hallucinating.”
◾ It’s only as good as the data it’s been trained on, and if those datasets have bias, the AI will as well.
◾ Finally, it can put privacy at risk by exposing data from queries or training to developers.
That’s why organizations must not set AI free, but insist its power be harnessed by people who oversee and modulate its output every step of the way, said Hariharan Murthy, a managing director of Deloitte Consulting LLP, and a co-author of the Deloitte report.
“AI does not replace humans. It accentuates and elevates humans,” Murthy said. “You need to put the human in the loop.”
CONSTRUCTING THE PROPER GUARDRAILS
At CarMax, this meant, in part, creating an AI Center of Excellence charged with evaluating risks and erecting guardrails around this promising and potent new technology. A cross-functional unit, it’s staffed with leaders from across the company, from lawyers to information security experts, data scientists, and engineers, Puranik said.
“We encourage open conversations about what could be the biases, what could be the risks, what kind of things can happen,” he explained. “We have a pretty thorough conversation before we make any decision on how to use AI, and that’s another reason why actually asking questions is encouraged, as opposed to not.”
At CarMax, any use of generative AI must pass two more tests as well. AI must be leveraged for a purpose. It can’t be used just because it’s cool and exciting, but because it solves a customer problem. Any new AI tool must be tested by employees, who are asked to be honest in their feedback so any issues can be spotted and fixed before the new technology is rolled out to customers.
“Our mission is all about integrity and transparency,” Puranik said. “Therefore, whether it’s generative AI or nongenerative AI, our key principle is really based on making sure we’re leveraging these tools to do the right
thing by our customers and for our associates.”
Fairfax County-based Capital One Financial Corporation is also pouring energy and attention into AI in a bid to transform and simplify its interactions with customers, and customers’ interactions with finance.
“Our ability to apply data and AI to understand our customers’ needs, goals, and pain points means…we can continue to deliver tremendous value to people in all different spheres of their lives, and we can do it at scale to over 100 million customers,” said Prem Natarajan, the financial service company’s chief scientist and head of enterprise AI.
Already, Capital One is using generative AI to summarize emails and documents, and to help analysts discover and use relevant data to make decisions. At each step, the goal is to transfer the burden of mundane tasks from humans to systems.
“To me, AI is ultimately about empowering people so they can spend more time on more satisfying, more high-value tasks,” Natarajan said.
ENHANCING THE HUMAN TOUCH
This may be of particular use to government workers, said Joe Mariani, a senior research manager with Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights.
In reviewing data for an April 2024 report on generative AI and government work, Mariani and his co-authors found that the top task for all government workers, whether state or federal, was documenting and recording information: 400 million hours a year for federal workers, and about 10 million hours per year for government workers in a mid-sized state.
But in one trial, using generative AI to assist with researching and writing a report for an intelligence agency, the workers produced a report in 20 hours
AI does not replace humans. It accentuates and elevates humans. You need to put the human in the loop.
that would ordinarily have taken 120 hours. “That 80% savings opens an aperture to do lots of stuff with that time,” Mariani said.
What kinds of things? That’s where Mariani believes the future “gets really exciting. There are opportunities to do entirely new things and new types of work that we’re not doing today, and accomplish the outcomes the public wants in fundamentally new ways. The horizon stretches out much farther.”
That doesn’t mean generative AI will transport human workers to some kind of employment Shangri-La, with as much time as they need to complete interesting, complex tasks.
“I’ve been told my whole life that computers are going to allow us to work less. We don’t work less,” Schoenfelder said.
He believes AI will offer a similar kind of transformation — the ability for workers to do more in less time. It may not yet be clear how that will happen, what work AI can safely do, and where all the pitfalls lie. But when it comes to a disruptive technology like AI, caution is not a leader’s friend.
“Those who know how to use it are going to perform better than those who don’t,” Schoenfelder said. “That was the same thing with computers. It was the same thing with mobiles. The same thing with the internet. There’s always change and the people who are not frightened by change, but are excited by it, and want to know how they can do more with it, will outpace the others.”
Prem Natarajan, Ph.D., is chief scientist and head of enterprise AI at Fairfax County-based Capital One Financial Corporation, where he manages technology strategy, architecture, and development for the company’s enterprise data, machine learning, and analytics initiatives. Prior to joining Capital One, he worked at Amazon, where he served as vice president of Alexa AI. He is a member of the advisory board for the University of Virginia’s new School of Data Science.
VEDP: You’ve worked on AI in some form throughout your career — first in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) world and in academia, then at Amazon leading Alexa AI, and now at Capital One. What excites you most about applying AI to the consumer experience in financial services? What’s most interesting to you about AI at the moment?
Prem Natarajan: What excites me most is advancing science and technology to create new capabilities that make a difference in people’s everyday lives at home and at work. Personal finances and banking are central components of people’s lives. But finances are ultimately an avenue to do many other enjoyable and satisfying things, whether it’s travel, planning for your kids’ education, caring for your parents, or buying a new car you’ve been saving up for.
Our ability to apply data and AI to understand our customers’ needs, goals, and pain points means we’re in an unprecedented position to continue delivering the right help at the right time. It means we can continue to deliver tremendous value to people in all different spheres of their lives, and we can do it at scale to over 100 million customers.
VEDP: What led you to shift from academia to industry when you moved over to Amazon? How are your experiences in both fields guiding you as you fulfill your role on the UVA School of Data Science (SDS) Advisory Board?
Natarajan: Throughout my professional life, whether in academia or
industry, I have been drawn toward the pursuit of technological advances that help transfer everyday cognitive burdens from a human user to an AI system. The appeal of delivering AI-powered experiences to millions of people through a conversational AI assistant was what drew me to join Amazon.
Subsequently, after several years at Amazon, when I started thinking about the next frontier of challenges I wanted to tackle in my career, I kept coming back to the verticals where AI had the most potential to impact the most lives. It came down to a few specific industries, and ultimately finance rose to the top of my list. Money, and especially access to financial services, impacts all our lives in a fundamental and enduring way. The prospect of bringing the power of AI to transform and simplify that access is deeply exciting. That, coupled with their reputation as the financial services leading technology enterprise, led me to Capital One.
Every industrial enterprise thrives on talent that emerges from academia. But in areas like AI and data science, where the pace of progress is breathtakingly rapid, it’s crucial for academia and industry to partner closely and ensure that faculty and students have access and exposure to the latest advances in both areas, as well as deep awareness of the real-world challenges that need to be addressed in putting these advances to actual use. My professional experience spanning academia and industry has enabled me to develop an organic understanding of the two
cultures, the importance of multisector partnerships, and the mechanisms through which such partnerships can be nurtured. As a member of the Data Science Advisory Board, I’m excited to have the opportunity to help shape programs, initiatives, and collaborations that provide UVA SDS students with differentiated learning opportunities and SDS faculty with the opportunity to drive advances that directly benefit millions of people.
Capital One has a long history of using data, tech, and analytics to deliver superior financial services products and services to millions of customers. As a Capital One customer myself, I’ve always appreciated how the company has been at the forefront of the financial industry’s digital transformation. For example, we were one of the first major companies to go all in on public cloud technology, and the first bank to do so. Through friends and colleagues, I was aware of the company’s investments in AI and machine learning for years. As a customer, I was impressed by how they consistently translated their investments in technology into delightful experiences.
As I spoke with company leaders and associates and became more familiar with Capital One’s people and culture, it became clear that, at its core, Capital One is a technology company with a bank’s skills and risk management capabilities. Every associate I spoke with was inspired by the mission of continuing to change banking for good, and improving millions of customers’ financial lives. The entire company lives and breathes that mission every
day. The power of AI, combined with our ubiquitous focus on our mission, presents an unprecedented opportunity to continue delivering positive change for all our customers.
VEDP: What are your top AI priorities at Capital One?
Natarajan: Capital One has already made great strides in its technology journey, in the data, AI, and machine learning spaces. I am focused on continuing to build and extend our science and technology capabilities, including our capabilities and infrastructure in AI, modeling, analytics, engineering, data science, and related disciplines that will help us anticipate and prepare for the future.
that successfully incorporate disruptive technologies versus those that don’t?
Natarajan: Companies successful at incorporating disruptive technologies are ones where the senior-most leadership has a visionary mindset that recognizes the enduring transformational impact of technological innovations and continually invests in that, along with a modern tech stack and world-class talent.
In Capital One’s case, we have a deep reverence for data and a long history of using data, tech, and analytics to deliver superior financial services products and services to millions of customers. That, combined with our modern tech stack, industry-leading enterprise data platforms, and top-notch talent puts us
Even today, we see examples where poorly designed ‘intelligent’ automated systems actually shift the burden to the users. To me, AI is ultimately about empowering people so they can spend more time on more satisfying, more high-value tasks.
PREM NATARAJAN, PH.D. Chief Scientist and Head of Enterprise AI, Capital One Financial Corporation
Some of my top priorities are to accelerate delivery of new and differentiated experiences for associates and customers, to help strengthen the data- and technology-focused culture that already thrives at Capital One, and to ensure we remain a prime destination for world-class technical talent. A foundational priority is to build a worldleading, next-generation enterprise AI framework and a robust, scalable foundation for fast development and delivery of meaningful customer-facing experiences and features.
VEDP: As someone who has been at the forefront of AI implementation at two major companies and observed the industry through that lens, what are the characteristics of companies
in a great position to harness the full power of recent AI advances to deliver great experiences to our customers and associates, and value to our customers.
VEDP: What actions can companies take to make sure they’re implementing AI responsibly?
Natarajan: Perhaps the most important safeguard is cultural, because it’s such a strong determinant of practices and outcomes. To maximize AI’s benefits, it’s important to adopt an inclusive approach from the outset. A spirit of responsibility and intentionality should pervade the entire development process and production life cycle, from research and experimentation to design, building, testing, and refining. It’s also
critical to conduct extensive testing and implement human-centered guardrails before introducing AI systems into any customer or business setting.
We believe strongly in the value of multisector partnerships between industry, academia, and government to ensure diverse perspectives and equities are represented when developing, testing, and deploying AI. Earlier this year, we established the Center for AI and Responsible Financial Innovation with Columbia University and the Center for Responsible AI and Decision Making in Finance with the University of Southern California to advance state-of-the-art research in responsible AI and its application to finance. And we are partners in multisector consortiums like the Partnership on AI and with institutions like the National Science Foundation, in which we’re helping to advance research and strengthen our national capabilities in AI.
VEDP: How do you anticipate AI changing the associate experience at financial institutions like Capital One?
Natarajan: One of the great opportunities AI presents is that of transferring the cognitive burden, especially of mundane tasks, from humans to systems. Our AI advances will continue to augment, complement, and elevate our associates’ capabilities, enabling them to focus on work that is most satisfying to them and delivers maximum value to our customers. Whether it’s helping our software engineers focus on creative problem solving, using generative AI to summarize emails and documents, or helping our analysts discover and use relevant data to make decisions, AI will drive pervasive changes in associate experiences across functions and industries.
To help our associates adapt to a fast-changing environment, we keep strengthening our continuous learning and skills development culture. As we
In addition to his role heading up AI at Capital One Financial Corporation, Prem Natarajan helps advance key technologies and industries in Virginia through his role on the advisory board for the University of Virginia School of Data Science.
advance our technology stack and integrate new technologies into our products and business, we’re continually training and reskilling our associates to remain on the leading edge of AI and machine learning.
We provide our associates with robust training, learning, and development opportunities to help them stay on the forefront of technology and AI skills through avenues such as our homegrown learning platform and programs like Tech College, which offers courses in technology disciplines like cloud computing, AI, and cybersecurity. Tens of thousands of associates have used these platforms and programs, and we continue to add AI-specific content to the curriculum to help our associates stay abreast of cutting-edge skills and capabilities in this space.
We also partner with some of the nation’s top universities on everything from project collaboration and research exchanges to physical lab space, talent development and recruitment, and internship programs.
VEDP: What are the most important insights you’ve learned about AI over your career? How do you see the technology evolving?
Natarajan: One of the first lessons I learned while developing and deploying conversational AI for call centers in the early 2000s was this: The fundamental design tenet for any advanced technology, especially AI, should be that the way it’s applied in practice should progressively reduce the cognitive burden on human users by shifting it to the system.
Even today, we see examples where poorly designed “intelligent” automated systems actually shift the burden to the users. To me, AI is ultimately about empowering people so they can spend more time on more satisfying, more high-value tasks. That tenet is important to keep front and center when we develop and deploy AI for our customers and for our associates who build our customer-facing experiences. In my view, the bottom line is that, whether it’s through AI or any other technology, the central element of our job is to make things simpler and easier for our customers and stakeholders.
Another key lesson is to relentlessly test, test, test, and test again, with an explicit emphasis on identifying majoritarian performance biases. Comprehensive and continuous testing is crucial to ensure that systems work reliably and well for every set of users.
Looking ahead, one evolution I’m excited about is AI that can learn in the field, dynamically adapting to changes in user behaviors. While that evolution will take some time to manifest, it will lead to a further inflection in AI’s usability and effectiveness.
VEDP: What unique advantages does Virginia offer that position it as a leading hub for AI innovation and development? How can these advantages be leveraged to attract talent and investment in the AI sector?
Natarajan: Virginia is a worldclass hub for technology talent and multisector collaboration and innovation for many reasons, but I’ll share my personal top three. First, many of the most cutting-edge companies have a footprint here and are developing state-of-the-art innovative solutions right here. Second, the beating heart of the federal government’s top technological innovators — DARPA and the National Science Foundation — is in Virginia, along with many nongovernmental institutions right in our backyard. And last but certainly not least, Virginia is home to world-class universities and research institutions, several of which Capital One partners with to advance the state of the art in areas like AI and data science.
The Backbone
The facilities in the world’s data center capital underpin today’s most innovative technologies
IMAGINE AN APARTMENT BUILDING. The lobby entrance, residential door, and parking deck are all accessed and opened via a phone app. The resident takes their laptop to the pool and it automatically connects with Wi-Fi. The resident clicks “print” on the laptop, sending the document through the chosen printer no matter where the resident is. When a guest visits, the
resident can give real-time instructions on which parking space to use, thanks to the app’s live smart parking information.
“All leasing and any interactions with the management company are conducted over the same phone application,” said Scott Brown, owner of Pixel Factory Data Center in Hanover County. Pixel Factory helps fiber optic ISP Internet Subway enable these services for apartment buildings and multifamily dwellings. That data goes back and forth from the residence to the data center.
“It’s seamless. You can’t tell the data is traveling half a state away,” Brown said.
Innovative digital applications like this allow property owners to differentiate their real estate offerings, to provide valuable amenities. “You can have the nicest marble and appliances, but the quality of internet is a differentiator. The younger generation knows how to measure and identify when the internet is substandard quality,” Brown said.
THE GLUE OF THE INTERNET
Data centers are the glue connecting the internet “pipes” running between all homes and businesses. The Pixel Factory provides secure and direct connections between half a million
of AI
households, businesses, and content providers.
“It’s a central point and a meeting point where wireless fiber and wireline connections come back to one place,” Brown said. “The more concentration of networks and content that is in a data center, the more cost effective the services are for everyone. We’re enabling everybody who is an end user to get to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to take the shortest path and get the lowest latency possible with the highest input.”
Since 2017, Virginia Beach has been one
of the Eastern Seaboard connection spots for three (soon to be four) subsea cables connecting the United States to Europe, South America, and, eventually, Africa. This connectivity has helped data centers become a big business in Virginia, a business that continues to grow.
In late 2022, the Pentagon awarded cloud computing contracts, totaling $9 billion through 2028, to Amazon, Google, Microsoft Corp., and Oracle Corporation. The Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability contract will provide the cloud computing network for the Pentagon’s modern war
We’re enabling everybody that is an end user to get to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to take the shortest path and get the lowest latency possible with the highest input.
SCOTT BROWN Owner, Pixel Factory Data
Center
operations, sharing access to government data and intelligence with the U.S. military worldwide. All four companies have a Virginia data center presence, along with offices in the Commonwealth.
AI’S DATA NEEDS
One reason for the rise in data centers is the rise of artificial intelligence.
“We’re making investments in infrastructure and data centers, and that is important to be able to bring the benefits of AI to American workers, students, and small businesses,” said Karen Dahut, the Google Public Sector
CEO. “Data centers and racks of computers generate the compute power to really power the AI movement, so we continue to make investments in states like Virginia to continue to power our position of being first across AI in the globe.”
Many companies are determining how best to use AI to improve efficiency (see page 18), including automating processes so employees can focus on higher-level work and more customerfocused efforts. AI can improve productivity, making jobs more satisfying by allowing people to work on new initiatives and strategies, or on activities requiring more thought, rather than lower-level tasks that AI can tackle.
AI requires powerful cloud systems, and data centers power these innovations. Virginia’s strong data center infrastructure is a draw, but companies are also focused on ensuring a robust local workforce to staff the facilities. Amazon is among the companies drawn by that workforce — Amazon Web Services (AWS) Director of Economic Development Roger Wehner called Virginia “a world leader in innovation
and cloud computing, thanks to its investment in a robust, highly skilled workforce and emphasis on long-term public and private partnerships.”
Amazon has sought to press that advantage, partnering with 13 Virginia community colleges on a cloud computing degree specialization that, when launched at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) in 2018, became the first of its kind in the country. Amazon also partners with NVCC on an apprenticeship program that trains veterans for cloud computing positions with the company, including a 16-week educational program and onthe-job training at AWS’ Fairfax County headquarters. Apprentices come away from the program with several technical industry certifications.
TRAINING THE FUTURE OF DATA CENTERS
The Commonwealth is focused on educational plans at multiple levels to ensure those data centers remain staffed with qualified team members. That means putting programs in place for up-and-coming generations to get ahead of the curve.
“We have to make sure the school systems are aware of the opportunities coming to work on HVAC and electrical,” Brown said. “There are opportunities for the younger generations to get into very well-paying trades.”
Big tech companies are also concentrating on the workforce. Google has a strong legacy of investing in people to help teach, train, educate, and broaden their understanding of technology and AI, and the company launched a $75 million AI Opportunity Fund earlier this year, aimed at helping lower-income Americans learn essential AI workforce skills.
“It can create economic opportunity. It can address some of America’s most complex and pressing challenges, but only if people really understand it and find it easy to embrace,” Dahut said. “And so we really focus on educating the American citizenry, to help them advance their own skill set so they become those skilled workers we all rely on to deliver on the promise of technology.”
Microsoft has collaborated with local educational institutions to
Amazon Web Services established its first Virginia data centers in 2006 and announced a $35 billion data center investment in multiple Commonwealth localities in 2023.
facilitate workforce training through its flagship Datacenter Academy program. The program’s 18 global locations include facilities in Loudoun County, near “Data Center Alley” in Northern Virginia, and in Halifax and Mecklenburg counties near the company’s Southern Virginia facilities. This program helps prepare students for IT careers, including at data centers. Microsoft donated servers and other equipment to the participating schools to build working data center-like labs.
Pixel Factory’s Brown is optimistic that workforce development programs in Virginia will make an impact. “I believe it is going to trickle down. With all this new growth in the region, the effect is going to be amazing. I’m excited about that,” he said. “It’s going to bring businesses the opportunity to do things they’ve probably never done before, to explore new verticals and expand services.”
The Richmond region is expecting a massive influx of new data centers, Brown
said, and he’s been happy to see elected officials hungry for information on how to make them as successful as possible. “I have had more interaction with every regional and local county official in the last 12 months than I’ve had my entire career in the Richmond region,” Brown said. “They’re all looking to be better educated to make sure they’re making the correct decisions and the most informed decisions about how to integrate these facilities into the region, and to make sure that they’re good corporate citizens.”
The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center in Halifax County is home to a location of the Microsoft Datacenter Academy, which prepares students for IT careers in data centers.
Data Center Solutions at Scale
A Conversation With Shannon Kellogg
Shannon Kellogg is vice president of public policy at Amazon, where he leads the company’s public policy efforts in support of Amazon Web Services (AWS). VEDP Interim Vice President of Knowledge Work Meghan Welch spoke with Kellogg about Amazon’s cloud investments and other tech innovation the company is spearheading.
Meghan Welch: Some of Amazon’s biggest investments in Virginia have been in data centers through AWS, including the announcement to expand data center campuses across the Commonwealth. What has the data center industry meant to the company’s direction, and why has Virginia become such a hotspot for data centers and cloud computing?
Shannon Kellogg: We like to say that Virginia should be seen as really the center of cloud computing when you think about the global emergence of cloud over the last 15 years. Virginia is at the heart of how the cloud computing industry has developed. As we look forward and think about generative AI, we think Virginia is very well-placed in this emerging technology space as well, given the foundation that it’s built around cloud.
Virginia has been an important place for Amazon and AWS going back to the establishment of Amazon Web Services in 2006, which is when our first data centers were established there. Since that time, we have invested $63.9 billion in Virginia from 2011 through the end of 2023, building out our AWS data center infrastructure there. That number, as we look at this year, is expected to be around $75.4 billion since 2011, so we’re continuing to invest heavily in the Commonwealth.
Welch: We thank you for that commitment to Virginia. To support that growth, you all have had an active partnership with Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), creating an associate’s degree in cloud computing. Are there any other Virginia partners working with the company on workforce development?
Another key ingredient in Virginia’s competitiveness is the talent with the right technology skills to build on our progress. That’s a big part of why we’ve invested so heavily here and also have HQ2 here in Virginia.
SHANNON
KELLOGG Vice President of Public Policy, Amazon
Kellogg: That partnership with the Northern Virginia Community College system has really been a critical one for us. We first started our cloud computing associate degree partnership with them in 2018, when we established the first associate cloud computing degree in the nation. Really, that was just the beginning. That program has grown to over 13 community colleges across the Commonwealth that are now currently offering cloud computing programs to their constituencies. In 2019, we supported a collaboration between NVCC and George Mason University to create a pathway for community college students to earn a master’s degree. And that collaboration actually won the 2019 Partnership of the Year award from Higher Ed Dive, which was a nice early accomplishment and recognition of that program.
Another close partner has been school districts throughout the Commonwealth. We’ve worked with a number of institutions to offer AWS Girls Tech Days, to connect thousands of students around our data centers in the clusters that we’ve built with Women in Tech to give young girls a head start when pursuing a career in the technology industry. We’re super proud of that program. We’ve also established 38 learning labs called AWS Think Big Spaces, to give students in communities where our data centers operate a place beyond the classroom to get hands-on experience with technology.
Welch: How do data centers play a role in the proliferation of artificial intelligence?
Kellogg: Cloud is really foundational to artificial intelligence and the emergence of generative AI technologies. When you
In the operation phase of leveraging and implementing these technologies, it is important to implement safeguarding mechanisms to continuously validate the system’s performance to use feedback mechanisms and to consider human oversight.
SHANNON KELLOGG Vice President of Public Policy, Amazon
look at today’s AI and machine learning workloads, it requires enormous amounts of compute, storage, and networking capacity, all of which can be provided by large-scale data centers, of course, which AWS owns and operates. And AWS is known for its scale, and that’s why most companies that need access to on-demand infrastructure capacity at scale for AI workloads come to our company.
Since we’ve been building large-scale data centers for more than 15 years and GPUbased servers for more than 12 years, we have a massive existing footprint for AI infrastructure around the world. Virginia is a very, very big part of that infrastructure.
Welch: What are the unique advantages that we have here that can position Virginia as a leading hub for AI innovation and development?
Kellogg: Historically, Virginia has positioned itself as an environment to make data centers flourish more broadly. It’s always been data center-friendly, and I hope that continues to be the case. It starts with focusing on the power of public-private partnerships. Government agencies are among the fastest-growing adopters of the cloud, and to better serve constituents and achieve their missions, they are leveraging technologies used by the private sector to improve that customer experience with citizens and constituents and of course the overall business operations of the Commonwealth.
Another key ingredient in Virginia’s competitiveness is the talent with the right technology skills to build on our progress. That’s a big part of why we’ve invested so heavily here and also have HQ2 here in Virginia. Virginia’s highly rated college and university system must continue to produce highly skilled, technical talent, and
businesses like ours should be encouraged to do their part, like with some of the programs that I mentioned earlier. That’s why we have partnered with institutions and education at every level, ranging from the public primary and secondary schools to upskill programs created to help veterans develop in-demand cloud skills and other technical skills.
Welch: What best practices can companies follow to make sure they’re implementing AI in a responsible manner?
Kellogg: This is a really big priority for us. We, as a company, are committed to putting responsible AI into practice for research and continued education in this area. Responsible AI does require a multidisciplinary effort. At AWS, we take a people-centric approach that starts with education and building the next generation of developers and data scientists with programs like our AI and machine learning scholarship program, as well as new bias and fairness courses from our Amazon Machine Learning University.
In this process, we consider a number of factors for developing and implementing AI in a responsible manner. For one, it’s important to consider diverse perspectives, regulations, training, and education when building and using AI systems. Considerations that apply to all phases of the AI life cycle include promoting human oversight and control, which is very important, and cultivating a culture of responsible innovation. In the design phase of these technologies, it is important to define the use case and requirements for the AI system, establish performance criteria, and explore the potential impact of the system on users and other parties.
In the building phase, it is important to develop the AI system by iteratively training and tuning, after careful evaluation, and to consider mitigation techniques to address potential risks. And having that risk-based approach is really, really important. And then finally, in the operation phase of leveraging and implementing these technologies, it is important to implement safeguarding mechanisms to continuously validate the system’s performance to use feedback mechanisms and consider human oversight.
Welch: Your experience in Virginia has taken you to many different regions and places throughout the Commonwealth. Do you have a favorite spot you’ve visited?
Kellogg: I have been fortunate to travel across the Commonwealth, so I don’t say that I have an absolute favorite. But one of my kids went to college in Williamsburg. I’ve always loved that area. The other went to Blacksburg, to Virginia Tech. But I love all counties in Virginia, and we’re now investing in a large number of them as we continue to grow our footprint across the Commonwealth, and looking forward to discovering more and more of Virginia as we do that.
Welch: Two very important universities in Virginia who are doing a lot in the AI space and developing that nextgeneration technology. I really appreciate the time today.
Kellogg: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.
For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts
Virginia’s innovation ecosystem is realizing the big-picture benefits of collaboration
Backed by monumental funding deals, a peaking business profile, and a strong entrepreneurial undercurrent, Virginia is building an accessible, collaborative, and truly thriving innovation ecosystem far and wide across the Commonwealth.
But, like so many of Virginia’s homegrown headline-earning accomplishments, it started as something different. A brief rewind reveals a prequel of siloed thought and resource farms comprising multi-million-dollar ideas, willing and able support systems, and generous state resources — each limited by stunted reach and a vague awareness that the missing piece was right next door.
Add time, transparency, and the achievements of a critical mass of key players — founders, accelerators and incubators, investors and mentors, and educational partners and government assistance — and Virginia is emerging as a model for how to cultivate an innovation ecosystem.
“Organizations cooperate very well, but are moving toward more collaboration,” said Debbie Irwin, managing director of Richmond-based accelerator Lighthouse Labs. “That’s how a statewide ecosystem should work.”
It’s easy to get caught up in some of the headlines the flourishing ecosystem has generated. Take Reston-based Laser Light Communications, the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to investment. The data services platform raised $400 million in 2023.
And then there’s the new Virginia Invests initiative, a Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation-led (VIPC) program designed to expand investment and growth opportunities for Virginiabased innovation-driven startups and ecosystems. The program, announced in May 2024, is designed to activate $250 million in private investment and create partnerships engaging 1,000 Virginia entrepreneurs.
But it’s often the off-the-radar, organically shared stories of coming together — anecdotes of organizations now collaborating that formerly competed for founders or funding — which is the true measure of the Commonwealth’s innovation ecosystem maturation.
DISSECTING VIRGINIA’S INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
It all starts with founders. These are the calculated risk-takers, trailblazing pioneers, and dare-to-dream doers who sketched out their plan on a cocktail napkin or app.
More than ever, light bulb moments don’t flicker out — they illuminate a startup’s path forward.
“Current staff and current board have adopted a mindset of abundance versus scarcity,” Irwin said, referencing the high volume of founders seeking expert guidance and believers turned benefactors.
Then come entrepreneurial support systems, starting with incubators and accelerators. These are the motivational coaches, savvy mentors, and connected
resource wranglers offering competitive programs and training right-sized for founders’ places in the startup journey.
Take the early stage-focused Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, which offers bootcamps, training, and funding for the Shenandoah Valley small business scene.
When startups are ready to flip the switch, accelerators await across the Commonwealth. The growing list includes the aforementioned Lighthouse Labs, along with Stafford County-based RIoT, which focuses on IoT, AI, and data technology, as well as Norfolk-based 757 Accelerate, The Advancement Foundation in Vinton, The Launch Place in Danville, and the Roanoke-based Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP), among others.
ZEBOX America, located in Arlington County and backed by shipping giant CMA CGM Group, helps startups in the focus areas of operational efficiency, assets and decarbonization, workflow automation, and the future of work.
Smart City Works in nearby Fairfax County bills itself as “the world’s first business actuator,” or a new type of accelerator aimed at more rapidly commercializing new technologies and innovations.
Then add investors, including CAV Angels, a network of 160 accredited investors with a connection to the University of Virginia. And don’t forget schools elevating the relationship between higher education and industry, including the Old Dominion University Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Or state and
federal agencies and programs, such as the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, which has provided matching grants for Southwest Virginia startups since 2017.
You’ll find a similar ecosystem composition in other states, with people and places playing similar roles, but not as evolved and mature as what’s happening in Virginia.
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Equally eclectic as the inputs and outputs of Virginia’s innovation ecosystem is the Commonwealth itself. With leading industries ranging from data centers to agriculture, and a fivehour cross-state drive that takes you from the beach to the Appalachian Mountains, Virginia’s diversity poses more opportunities than challenges — as long as its nuances are embraced.
“Don’t expect to see cookie-cutter solutions work,”said VIPC Vice President of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Conaway Haskins. “Just because there’s water and sand in Virginia Beach and water and sand in Smith Mountain Lake doesn’t mean my fishing gear is going to work as well.”
As the head of VIPC’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystems group, Haskins leads a three-member team that supports early-stage innovators. They’ve consequently built strong relationships with incubators and accelerators, investors, chambers of commerce, and other state-based resources.
VIPC’s work includes administering the Regional Innovation Fund (RIF), a state-funded program that awards grants to these support organizations, as well as overseeing the Virginia Accelerator Network (VAN).
“We haven’t found a lot of other states that have a startup network like this,” said Haskins, adding that partners’ ability to work across lines in Virginia can power innovation.
VIPC took over management of the network about two years ago and focused on viewing members as partners and collaborators.
“It helped take down some of the competitiveness,” Haskins said.
HOMING IN ON THE RIGHT MARKETS
One of the goals in working with VAN members is to help them dial in their area of specialization. For example, an
accelerator may evolve from focusing on general tech startups to energy tech. Finding this unique market niche helps draw the right funders as well, Haskins said.
Irwin, who previously led the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, brings the unique perspective of having fostered support systems within both rural and urban regions.
“Depending on which Virginia region
Danya Sherman founded KnoNap in Arlington County to produce products that detect drugs often used in drink spiking. KnoNap was one of eight companies backed by Lighthouse Labs in its 16th cohort earlier this year.
More and more, the large companies that Virginia is recruiting are asking about the startup ecosystem.
CONAWAY HASKINS Vice President of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation
you’re in, you’ll get a different view of how the ecosystem works,” she said. “Shenandoah Valley was very collaborative, because it had to be.”
It’s the relative scarcity of resources that developed resilience and accelerated collaboration in these regions, Irwin said.
Whereas founders in Richmond, Northern Virginia, or Virginia Beach had a buffet of resources in their backyard, trailblazers and support systems in places like Harrisonburg and Staunton came together even earlier out of necessity.
And they helped show the path forward for their larger neighbors.
“When we take a statewide view versus a regional view, Virginia wins,” Irwin said.
She’s seeing maturation happen in real time. It’s about more than entrepreneurial support systems choosing their lane or dialing in their focus. It’s about getting out and connecting.
Irwin recalls a recent collaborative “brain dump” with her peers leading other Virginia accelerators. This led to back-channel discussions regarding where founders best fit — regardless of whether or not they had applied to that particular accelerator — then making the recommendation and handoff. Then there’s the joint investor roadshow she’s working on with Lighthouse Labs and Roanoke-based accelerator RAMP.
“The one area that we are working on strengthening statewide is access to capital for startups through a stronger investor network,” said Erin Burcham, president of the Verge Alliance, which
encompasses RAMP and the RoanokeBlacksburg Technology Council.
“Virginia has so much potential,” Irwin said. “It’s already doing amazing things, but there’s so much untapped potential... We all think this way because we constantly talk about it.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Many startup founders find themselves at the table with the big fish — C-level decision-makers with a keen interest in what they’ve created. Some even find themselves in the shark tank.
This is the critical intersection in Virginia’s innovation ecosystem, where companies from across the globe are
waiting to make their move.
“That’s how startups are going to scale,” Haskins said. “A lot of [large corporations] are the first customers.”
Take DroneUp, a drone flight services company specializing in “last-mile” delivery. The Virginia Beach-based company was tapped by Walmart to handle home delivery in a COVID-era pilot program and recently expanded the partnership to a footprint of 34 sites spread across six states, including Virginia. The company is scaling, including a testing, training, and R&D center for drone operators at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County.
Drones are an appropriate microcosm of the overall momentum gained by Virginia’s innovation ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s very easy for me to see the amount of support that startups can get today versus pre-pandemic,” Irwin said.
The Virginia Accelerator Network brings together numerous Virginia-based organizations with the common goal of supporting the launch and growth of early-stage, innovation-based startups.
From boosting funding opportunities to mental health resources, it’s a credit to Irwin and her support system peers.
Next on her list? “I firmly believe there should be a common app for all accelerators in Virginia,” she said.
Virginia has also been busy seeding opportunities for entrepreneurs through government channels. Highlighting this effort are the aforementioned VIPCled Virginia Invests program and a push for a $90 million investment to launch “Virginia’s Research Triangle,” a biotech, life sciences, and pharmaceutical manufacturing innovation and collaboration network that includes the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
In addition to launching these new initiatives, Haskins believes Virginia shouldn’t abandon what’s responsible for its innovation ecosystem’s momentum to date. He advocated “doubling down and reinvesting in the successes, continuing to support what works, and scaling up.”
Key site selection figures and publications are taking note. In addition to Virginia’s ranking as CNBC’s Top State for Business, the Commonwealth ranked No. 2 in the country for new tech business establishments in CompTIA’s 2024 Cyberstates report and No. 8 in M&A adviser WebAcquisition’s “Best States for Tech Startups” list. The Washington, D.C., metro area, including Northern Virginia, was ranked the 12th-best global startup ecosystem in a Startup Genome report, between Shanghai and Amsterdam.
“More and more, the large companies that Virginia is recruiting are asking about the startup ecosystem,” Haskins said.
Thanks to an innovation ecosystem increasingly embracing collaboration, the Commonwealth has some pretty compelling answers.
Tech Bridges Connect Navy With Private Sector Innovators
The U.S. Department of the Navy is now taking a more productive approach to finding innovative private sector partners, and Virginia is playing a big role.
The NavalX Accelerator Department runs the Navy’s new regional Tech Bridges program, a network of innovation hubs to enhance collaboration between the Navy, industry, and academia. The department currently operates 16 Tech Bridges across the country — along with two others based overseas in Japan and the United Kingdom — with two locations in Virginia based near existing naval bases in Norfolk and the Fredericksburg area. The Tech Bridges work independently, but stay in contact with their counterparts to enable sending potential innovators to the right place.
“We’ve got those that already know the region working with the Navy, who know what’s inside the fence and know what the Navy needs, so we can have that conversation,” Robert Smith, then the director of the Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, told the Federal News Network. “They are there as connectors of folks so we get that conversation started and help them along the way...They’re not always going to have the answer. But they’re charged to find out who does.”
The Tech Bridges are physical locations outside the naval bases — the Potomac Tech Bridge is colocated at the University of Mary Washington’s Dahlgren campus in King George County, while the Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge in Norfolk is hosted at 757 Collab, a local incubator and accelerator, but convenient to
numerous Navy facilities in the area. Each Tech Bridge focuses on specific areas of interest to the naval facilities in that area.
Part of the Tech Bridges’ mission is to provide a space for companies to interface with Navy decision-makers and demonstrate their ideas. The Potomac Tech Bridge’s first event was the Adaptable Interface-Innovation Challenge in November 2023, which tasked participants with developing advancements in the rapid integration of systems on Navy ships. The winning entry left with a $250,000 prize and a pathway to supply the tool it created to the Navy.
“We have a pretty established acquisition process with our current vendors and partners,” said Gerrold Walker, a competency supervisor at Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic and one of the Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge’s three directors. “But there was a recognition that there are advanced technologies out there that we were seeing popping up in the commercial sector that we thought would be great to get into our systems. We didn’t have easy mechanisms to reach out to those organizations that weren’t already in our government contracting ecosystems.”
The word “bridge” is the key element of the Tech Bridges program. The program aims to become a conduit for traditional and nontraditional vendors to get their products in front of Department of Defense decisionmakers and, ultimately, provide solutions. As Potomac Tech Bridge Director Michael Clark said, “In many cases, it’s hard to access certain solutions. The Tech Bridge is there to close that gap.”
Last year, Albemarle County acquired 462 acres of land near and adjacent to the Rivanna Station U.S. Army sub-installation with the goal of establishing an Intelligence Community Innovation Acceleration Campus, shown in this rendering.
Federal agencies, defense contractors spur growth at Rivanna Station, North Fork Discovery Park
On 462 acres in Albemarle County, a plot of land along U.S. Route 29 adjacent to a federal intelligence hotspot is the latest addition to a growing cluster of industries coming to define the Charlottesville area. County officials identified the plot as a place where academic institutions, private industry focused on defense and biotech, and government agencies could come together, develop partnerships, and
benefit from their proximity and talent. The county Board of Supervisors finalized the agreement to purchase the property in late 2023, the largest parcel of land purchased in the county’s history.
The new plot is adjacent to Rivanna Station, the aforementioned intelligence cluster, and directly across from the University of Virginia’s (UVA) North Fork Discovery Park, another parcel that spans more than 500 acres and hosts a
Charlottesville has become a center of gravity for a lot of technical expertise, and therefore innovation.
TUCKER MOORE Principal Director, Booz Allen Hamilton
similar range of organizations. Together, the growing Rivanna Station and North Fork campuses allow the industries to grow in a region increasingly known for defense and biotech companies. The county plans to use the land to establish what it’s calling an Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus, where defense contractors, the U.S. Department of Defense, and academia can cooperate to solve national security problems.
Partnerships between industry, area higher education providers UVA and Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC), and federal government agencies have proven to be beneficial for all sectors, which continue to grow as the state and local government focus on establishing more land and infrastructure dedicated to those economic drivers. The new land acquisition around Rivanna Station and emerging plans for a 6,500-foot biotech accelerator at North Fork are two new developments in industries that contribute significantly to Central Virginia’s economic prospects.
AN UNASSUMING INTELLIGENCE HOTSPOT
Rivanna Station is a U.S. Army garrison, a sub-installation of Fort Belvoir, and home to the Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The facility expanded to its current 75 acres in 2010 when the DIA opened its Joint Use Intelligence Analysis Facility, and the area’s critical mass of technical expertise has blossomed.
“Charlottesville has become a center of gravity for a lot of technical expertise, and therefore innovation,” said Tucker Moore, who manages the science and technology portfolio in the national security sector as principal director at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Albemarle County office, located at North Fork, next door to fellow defense contractors CACI International Inc. and the Battelle Memorial Institute. Other area defense companies include Northrop Grumman Corporation and General Dynamics, both of whom operate a few miles down Route 29, and GDIT, which has an office in the Pantops area southeast of Charlottesville. And just north of Rivanna Station, Greene County maintains a defense production zoning overlay that provides incentives to defense contractors.
At North Fork, just across Route 29, UVA fosters relationships between the private sector and businesses that focus primarily on science and technology, which include those in the biotech industry. The combination allows ideas generated by researchers and students to be further developed and tested at labs and turned into job opportunities. Both private industries and government agencies draw from a pipeline of talented students with interest and expertise in a variety of disciplines. The cluster will help further develop Virginia’s growing knowledge work sector, fueled by UVA, which generates $5.9 billion for the Commonwealth each year.
“We have a really unique opportunity with this powerful intersection of defense, biotech, data science, and IT,” said Pace Lochte, assistant vice president for economic development at the University of Virginia. “We intend to be active economic development partners, leveraging our research and knowledge to augment and enhance this burgeoning cluster in our region.”
FROM RURAL TO RESEARCH
“I am proud to say that Northrop Grumman has had a significant part
in this,” said Jeroen Heuzen, senior director of Northrop Grumman’s maritime systems integration operating unit and site executive for the company’s Charlottesville-area facility. “Our plant has been here since 1956, when most of the area around us was fields and forests. But the most significant factor for growth has been the University of Virginia.”
The defense industry is the secondlargest economic generator in the Charlottesville area, accounting for more than $1.2 billion in economic impact each year, according to a report published in February by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Defense Affairs Committee. Rivanna Station accounts for roughly half of that. Another report conducted in 2017 showed that expanding Rivanna Station by just 50 acres could result in 900 new jobs and an economic impact of $135 million. The new acquisition is more than nine times that acreage and could have space for more than a million square feet of light industrial and office uses.
“Our strong relationships with the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, as well as access to local resources, make doing business in the area easier and pave the way for future growth,” said Heuzen, who added that he envisioned the Route 29 cluster eventually connecting to Interstate 81, helping to enhance relationships with Virginia Tech and James Madison University along with UVA.
BIOTECH BENEFITS
UVA recently announced the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, thanks to a $100 million gift from the philanthropists for whom the facility is named, $50 million in state investment, and $150 million from the university, demonstrating a commitment to the field. Biotech, another growing industry in the area, accounts for $1.2 billion in local economic activity, according to CvilleBioHub, a
Northrop Grumman Corporation built its Albemarle County facility in 1956, when it was surrounded by “fields and forests.” Today, the company is a cornerstone of a thriving intelligence and defense hotspot on U.S. Route 29.
nonprofit that works to connect and grow biotechnology companies. The organization works with more than 75 young companies in the region, and that number is expected to grow as businesses spin out of the new Manning Institute.
CvilleBioHub sees the need for a biotech wet lab accelerator to spur even more early-stage companies toward commercialization.
“The missing piece was the physical infrastructure for life sciences, knowing that the innovation corridor is being developed, and there’s commitment and interest in seeing all the pieces come together,” said Nikki Hastings, the organization’s operations biotech
We have a really unique opportunity with this powerful intersection of defense, biotech, data science, and IT. We intend to be active economic development partners, leveraging our research and knowledge to augment and enhance this burgeoning cluster in our region.
PACE LOCHTE
Assistant Vice President for Economic Development, University of Virginia
executive and entrepreneurial ecosystem builder.
“The opportunity is immense for our community, and we have a lot of players interested in bringing it to fruition,” said Emily Kilroy, interim director of
economic development for Albemarle County. “We think there’s so much potential. This is a place where innovation is in our DNA, and it’s bigger than any one particular project. It’s this theme that binds us all together. Innovation is really what we’re excited about.”
The global aerospace industry is reinventing itself, with innovation spanning materials, engineering, and a more expansive vision for how we take to the skies. Virginia sits at the heart of this transformation as a breeding ground for ingenuity. From pioneering aerospace business accelerators to the testing grounds for the latest ideas in space travel, the Commonwealth is home to more and more industry leaders in the evolving aerospace sector.
Perhaps nowhere is this truer than at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s (VSA) Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. A tenant of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, MARS has grown significantly since its first launch in 2006. The spaceport features three launch pads, with a fourth under construction, and a payload processing facility that
collectively enable the launch of small and mid-class rocket systems and testing for unmanned aircraft.
Government and private organizations find VSA provides reliable, cost-effective, and mission-capable space access.
Texas-based Firefly Aerospace cited the spaceport’s reliable support for rapid launch and minimal congestion as its reason for launching from MARS. In June, Firefly announced its plans to launch its two-stage orbital Alpha rocket from Wallops. The rocket will provide on-demand deliveries of up to 1,000 kilograms for commercial, civil, and national security missions.
FULFILLING FEDERAL PRIORITIES
Firefly joins longtime MARS client Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, which has launched a number of resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) from Wallops Island under
TOP: BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Fairfax County, develops, manufactures, and deploys state-of-the-art technology for use in defense, space, intelligence, research, and commercial missions.
BOTTOM: In addition to its launches, the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County boasts research facilities that developed new NASA technology that turns a single sounding rocket into multiple instruments.
its contract with NASA. For a decade, the Falls Church-based aeronautics and defense company’s Cygnus spacecraft has delivered payloads that sustain life and research aboard the ISS.
Companies like Northrop Grumman that are pushing the envelope on space travel find they benefit from the work of research organizations located in the Commonwealth. Those resources include The Aerospace Corporation, which operates the only federally funded research and development center committed exclusively to the space enterprise. In early 2024, the organization moved its headquarters from California to Fairfax County in order to deepen ties with key stakeholders and partners, including NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the intelligence community.
“Moving our leadership headquarters to the D.C. area allows us to be alongside
key decision-makers so that Aerospace can best integrate across the entire space enterprise as it grows and evolves,” said John Galer, chief of government relations at The Aerospace Corporation. Alongside these partners, the nonprofit conducts research advancing space exploration technology, addressing challenges facing commercial space flights, and enhancing the safety of future space missions.
Aerospace is also helping to develop a workforce prepared to advance space innovation. The organization works with partner companies to grow best practices around diversity in engineering and prepare a young workforce to meet the needs of space missions for generations to come.
“Our locations at Aerospace are strategically placed to allow us to hire the best talent in the country,” Galer said. “In Northern Virginia, we can hire those with deep experience at our customer organizations and tap the deep technical talent pool surrounding the defense, civil, and commercial space communities that reside right here in our backyard.”
AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP
As Aerospace has found, Virginia’s strength in resources and proximity to government partners have fueled investment among similarly missionfocused companies. In the past decade, Virginia has seen the introduction of nearly 70 aerospace and unmanned system projects representing more than $865 million in investment.
The Commonwealth’s tech talent and proximity to federal clients have also enabled growth of the Dulles Technology Corridor, described by The Atlantic as “the Silicon Valley of the East.” Those factors have attracted aerospace leaders such as Airbus Americas, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, Parsons
Corporation, Peraton, and Rolls Royce North America. They’re supported by a thriving aerospace ecosystem, including suppliers like space electronics provider Trident Systems, which was selected as a Northrop Grumman subcontractor for 14 Space Development Agency tracking satellites in 2023, and announced an expansion in Fairfax County earlier in 2024. Another supplier, satellite communications company SpaceLink, expanded in Fairfax in 2021.
“As an innovative space company, we have the opportunity to draw from the rich pool of talented technology and business professionals who are drawn to the region for its opportunities and dynamic environment,” said SpaceLink CEO David Bettinger. “Northern Virginia is an important hub for the aerospace and defense industry, which makes it a great fit for SpaceLink’s corporate headquarters.”
Defense contractors such as CACI International, Leidos, and SAIC leverage this location to support aerospace partners, and companies across the Fairfax aerospace ecosystem are taking steps to capitalize on their presence. In 2024, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) picked the Dulles Technology Corridor for the site of its first U.S. innovation center. From its Herndon facility, the organization seeks to foster cooperation between local startups in the aerospace sector. Through its five-month business accelerator program, IAI hopes to develop new technologies that push boundaries in the areas of trusted AI, quantum science, sustainability and energy, and space.
INNOVATING WITH VIRGINIA RESEARCH
Among the beneficiaries of IAI’s program is MELD Manufacturing. The Montgomery County-based company recently received a $1 million grant from the U.S.-Israel Binational
Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to develop large civil aviation components utilizing additive friction stir deposition technology. This technology, born out of research from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Advanced Manufacturing Team, uses large-scale metal 3D printers to rapidly produce large metal components. By using stronger, lighter materials, engineers can reduce the amount of energy required to power the next generation of air and spacecraft. MELD notes that the melting process it uses enables it to produce fully dense components that increase strength while reducing material costs.
As MAG Aerospace President Matt Bartlett said, “Being in the technology corridor, close to major offices for technology and defense companies, helps facilitate business development.”
From its headquarters in Fairfax County, MAG serves commercial clients around the globe, but most of MAG’s business is with the federal government. The company was founded in 2010 to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, but has since expanded to serve as a technology integration company that specializes in developing innovative solutions to deliver data that gives customers decision superiority.
MILITARY CONNECTIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Federal clients include the U.S. Army. Through a partnership with L3Harris Technologies, MAG is equipping Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft with the most modern ISR sensors that will enable the rapid collection and data delivery of operational intelligence for the Army. The Army’s Theater-Level High-Altitude Expeditionary Next Airborne ISR-Radar (ATHENA-R) program aims to ensure battlefield commanders are equipped with
actionable intelligence. MAG notes that the project benefits from its experience operating around the globe and from the work of its experienced teammates. For many of the company’s communications and software engineering professionals, that includes military experience.
“We pride ourselves on hiring veterans and supporting our veteran community. That’s a huge part of the MAG culture,” Bartlett said. The organization sources applicants through programs including Virginia Values Veterans (V3), operated by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, along with DoD
SkillBridge and Hiring Our Heroes. Through V3 certification, MAG gains access to veterans equipped with soft skills training via V3’s program for service members transitioning into the civilian workforce.
And MAG sees plenty of need to continue growing its workforce.
“There’s a lot happening as we work with our customers to address the increasingly complex global threats that require the implementation of new technologies,” Bartlett said.
“We’re a step ahead in implementing the latest technologies with our proven processes and techniques to deal with
the threat landscape that is emerging around the globe.”
Galer agreed that the space industry “no longer comprises only a few providers who launch and fly satellites. There is now much more commercial competition and use cases for national security and other government space missions.”
Galer added that aerospace companies need to be agile to support the sector’s growing needs and help partners solve emerging challenges. A location in Virginia provides these companies a strong foundation from which to lead this technological change.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, Loudoun County
Colonial Beach, on the shores of the Potomac River, was founded as a summertime retreat for Washington residents in the pre-air conditioning era. Today, the town is home to the second-longest bathing beach in Virginia.
WITH 30 MILITARY BASES, Virginia is among the states with the highest share of active duty troops relative to state residents. As those service members prepare to transition into civilian life, employers across Virginia stand to benefit from the wealth of skills these individuals gained through service, as well as state resources that connect employers with a talent pipeline equipped to serve in private sector roles.
“[Veterans are] one of the most dynamic and sometimes underutilized talent markets out there today. They bring a series of skills that you’re just not going to find in the civilian job seeker market,” said Michael Glascock, Northern Virginia employer liaison for the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS).
Regardless of their technical expertise, veterans tend to bring to civilian
Only the much larger states of California and Texas boast more active duty and reserve personnel than the nearly 150,000 service members stationed in Virginia in 2022, including these Navy sailors on the USS John F. Kennedy, an aircraft carrier currently being constructed by HII and due for delivery in 2025.
employment an aptitude for leadership, an ability to work well in teams, and a history of adaptability.
“Whether it’s the veteran with an order from their commanding officer to ‘figure it out’ or military spouses who’ve had to pack up the family and move multiple times across the world, veterans and military families bring to work an ability to get thrown into the fire and just make it work,” said Brennan O’Boyle, a career services adviser for Deloitte’s ample military community.
VETTING THE VETS
In many cases, these veterans may also bring with them security clearances. These clearances have proven to be in high demand among private employers, particularly the more than 18,000 defense contractors operating in Virginia. “It’s absolutely invaluable,” said Juan Garcia, managing director for Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Garcia served as an assistant secretary of the Navy in 2016, when a military contractor with access to the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard.
“That incident led to a very selfconscious evaluation about the clearance process,” Garcia said. “It slowed it down, and it continues to be a backlog. It’s understandably more difficult to get clearance than when that individual was able to walk into the Navy Yard. So, clearances are rarer — and more valuable.”
When candidates hold active security clearances, Deloitte is able to place those employees directly on projects within its Government and Public Services division. “I would say more than half
of the projects in that space require clearance,” Garcia said.
Ed Dupass, the Northern veteran employment regional manager for Virginia Works, agrees that security clearances are a strength for transitioning service members. However, he cautioned, “There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to security clearance. For a lot of individuals transitioning out of the military, there’s only a short period of time before that clearance goes basically inert. Companies need to think instead about an employee being clearable.”
MATCHING CANDIDATE WITH CAREER
That said, Virginia Works’ veteran employment specialists — who are tasked by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement to prepare veterans for the next phase of their careers — aim to match cleared candidates with employment opportunities as rapidly as possible.
The state program also works to ensure veterans hold the skill sets needed to thrive in a civilian career. As Dupass points out, what employers truly want is “a qualified person.” This is where Virginia’s wealth of workforce development programs proves invaluable for candidates and employers alike.
“A lot of employers fail to look at the resources right in front of them,” Dupass said. “Indeed and Monster are great tools, but how many employers understand that the Virginia Workforce Connection does all the same things? They just have to go in and utilize it.”
Virginia Works serves as a specialist that helps employers understand how
veterans’ unique skill sets can be applied to open jobs. Veteran employment representatives in each region help businesses “decipher the military lingo,” as Dupass explains. He said, “We can help train their personnel to recognize and understand a lot of the gray area between a military résumé and a civilian résumé.”
Dupass has firsthand experience in how military lingo can be lost in its
translation to the corporate world. Upon leaving the military as a reenlistment recruiter, it wasn’t until Dupass landed his first corporate role that he realized he held the same experience and skill sets as a senior human resources professional.
“I went from being a recruiter to an operations manager, managing six contracts across the United States,” Dupass said. “But my employer didn’t
understand what they were getting when they hired me. I had to get in the door first. Now, we have people who can bridge that gap.”
A RESOURCE FOR COMPANIES
Virginia Works partners with agencies across Virginia, including DVS. Through its Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program, DVS connects employers with professionals who can help them leverage state resources from recruitment
Fort Barfoot
through hiring and retention. Companies earn access to many of these resources through V3 certification, which demonstrates these employers are veteran- and military family-friendly.
“In Northern Virginia, we do work with a lot of defense contractors, both large and small, from tech startups looking to get into cybersecurity all the way up through global leaders like Booz Allen Hamilton and Leidos. But we can and will certify
any type of employer looking to broaden the scope of their employees,” Glascock said. “We’re looking into manufacturing, skilled trades, local government entities, and more.”
V3 also provides transitioning service members and their spouses with peer-to-peer support that helps veterans address specific employment needs. This might include referrals to partners who can provide résumé reviews, interview
training, and introductions to V3certified companies. The result of this multi-pronged approach is that veterans have the precise skills needed to serve employers building a talent pipeline.
A VALUABLE AUDITION
While Deloitte has its own powerful veteran recruitment and training programs — including Career Opportunity Redefinition Exploration programs available to any transitioning service member and other employees — the firm also makes use of state and federal recruitment resources. Garcia has found that a location in Northern Virginia helps amplify the impact of participation within programs such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes SkillBridge platform.
The program provides a 12-week audition for both candidates and employers. “The service member gets a good look at our firm, our culture, and work — and the chance to determine whether this resonates with them — and we get the same,” Garcia said. Due to Deloitte’s heavy presence in Northern Virginia, Hiring Our Heroes has connected the company with numerous individuals transitioning from the Pentagon.
“It’s competitive to get Pentagon duty when your kids are in high school, because people want to take advantage of these great Virginia feeder schools,” Garcia said.
As Garcia puts it, the same resources that make Virginia an ideal location for employers are the ones that keep veterans local after discharge.
SOURCE: WalletHub Best & Worst States for Military Retirees, 2024
ORGANIZING THE SKIES
Fairfax-based ANRA Technologies works to create order from unmanned chaos, with an assist from VEDP’s VALET program
Sixty years after The Jetsons promised a future of personal-sized spacecraft that moved people and things safely through crowded skies, that vision, or something like it, is ever closer — thanks to a Virginia company that’s a global leader in building digital air highways.
ANRA Technologies, based in Reston in Fairfax County, got its start in 2015, but the history of drones dates back to the 1930s, when militaries used them to train antiaircraft gunners. Drones later took the form of remote-controlled planes that hobbyists flew for fun. Their potential took off with the development of GPS and the rise of smartphones.
“The smartphone really allowed us to move forward with technology to understand geolocation,” said Brent
Klavon, head of global operations for ANRA, which also has offices in India, Estonia, and the United Kingdom.
The promise of drones has left many abuzz with the idea they’d become commonplace to deliver everything from meals to medicine. But for that promise to be realized, companies like ANRA are creating the equivalent of air traffic control so drones can be used safely.
“How do we keep our skies safe? How do we manage [drones] in a way that allows [companies] to continue to innovate and be used for industry, but at the same time make sure no one bumps into each other or does any harm?” are questions Klavon says need answers.
MOVING BEYOND THE LINE OF SIGHT
The task is monumental, especially
when compared to the safety net for commercial aviation. The high cost of planes and their operations limit how many can fly. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates 5,400 aircraft are in the skies at peak times. The FAA tracks those flights using 520 airport traffic control towers and 14,000 air traffic controllers in the United States.
But the same air traffic system isn’t suited for the 782,203 drones registered with the FAA, a number that will increase exponentially as their commercial use expands. Those 520 airport traffic control towers aren’t equipped to help drones safely navigate low altitudes in urban and suburban spaces where the potential for commercial use is highest.
That concern has caused most of the world, including the United States, to forbid the flying of drones that are more
Other players can come in and integrate, and we can build the whole ecosystem together. I think there’s an opportunity for us as the Commonwealth of Virginia to do a lot.
AMIT GANJOO Founder and CEO, ANRA Technologies
than 55 pounds or beyond operators’ visual line of sight — a 1,000–2,000-foot leash even on clear days. While the FAA can issue waivers, companies must first provide convincing evidence they use technology that enables them to operate drones safely beyond the line of sight.
Those limits are soon to change. The FAA is creating rules that would allow drones to fly beyond the line of sight, and they’re expected to be finalized within 16 months. New rules will clear the way for companies to invest in drones and their applications, allowing that industry to take off. “You need stability in order for investment to occur,” Klavon said.
Founded in 2015 by Amit Ganjoo, who previously did work for the U.S. Department of Defense on its drone programs, ANRA partnered with NASA to figure out how unpiloted drones could replicate the safety of manned planes. Less than a decade later, ANRA is demonstrating how its airspace management can safely guide multiple companies at once. Previously, the FAA approved systems for individual companies’ own operations, ones that didn’t need to consider other companies’ airspace use.
Just like building public highways required rules that grew their use and spurred development, so will the building of what Klavon calls “digital highways.”
“We’re hopeful the FAA sees what we’re doing, takes the lessons learned — what not to do, what to do — and takes that into the next rule,” he said.
TESTING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
ANRA has tapped into VEDP’s International Trade offerings to build a future that extends beyond the Commonwealth, with notable successes already. In January 2023, ANRA was one of two companies selected by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to seek certification to operate. While the other company selected, Google’s Wing subsidiary, plans to use its system only for its own drones, ANRA plans to open its service to the broader market.
“That puts us on track to be the world’s first certified airspace provider by a noted regulatory body,” Klavon said.
Meanwhile, the company has launched a demonstration program in Estonia and has been awarded a contract in Canada to provide traffic management for drones in Nova Scotia.
Navigating those factors for ANRA is a CEO who knows how to succeed in markets where rules must change to keep up with changing technology.
Amit Ganjoo previously played a senior role at Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson when the company needed to grow mobile service at a time when different countries had adopted wildly varied standards. That experience led him to push for harmonized regulations that enable drones to cross borders and operate effectively and safely.
While many of ANRA’s demonstration programs are focused on safely moving cargo at low altitudes of 400 to 500
feet, ANRA is also developing a system to manage larger drones powered by electric motors to move passengers and larger cargo loads in urban areas as far as 120 miles, all without a pilot, and at altitudes above 500 feet — requiring traffic management that considers not only drones, but planes, from private to big commercial passenger jets.
Since the drones take off and land vertically, ANRA calls the space its systems manage a Vertiport. Early planning is already underway in Los Angeles with a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, Supernal, to demonstrate routes there in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
VEDP has helped us punch above our weight. It allows us to expand our market reach in areas that I don’t think we would otherwise have gone into.
BRENT KLAVON Head of Global Operations, ANRA Technologies
Such technology might someday connect Richmond with Washington. The idea is to replace gas-guzzling, polluting, noisy helicopters with quiet, clean drones.
ANRA Technologies, Fairfax County
“We’re one of the few companies in the world that does both the low altitude and urban air mobility for airspace management. We’re hopeful to continue to grow that market in Virginia,” Klavon said.
‘PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT’
VEDP has also used its strong relationships with key figures overseas to help ANRA open doors to officials who could make things happen. From 2022 to early 2024, ANRA participated in VEDP’s Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program. That funding enabled the company to show its capabilities at international trade
shows, and helped develop marketing materials to share the potential of its forward-thinking air traffic management. That led to pitches in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates, where the Dubai Air Show opened paths to potential partners.
“These shows are opportunities to make business connections and develop interest, so they want to have discussions about making use of your services and technologies,” Klavon said. “VEDP has helped us punch above our weight. It allows us to expand our market reach in areas that I don’t think we would otherwise have gone into.”
Along with the VALET program, the company was also able to tap into funding from VEDP’s regional export program and the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP), funded through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Those programs allowed us to expand our reach and market penetration. And in a novel industry with novel technologies, you need to be able to reach out and touch the prospective client, customer, regulator, and government official in many different markets to be able to sell,” Klavon said.
While several VEDP programs helped ANRA extend its reach globally, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership at Virginia Tech helped further its technology and collaboration with NASA and the FAA.
“They have a very strong technical background to be able to help with some very complex projects — everything from generating data for the research efforts with NASA and the FAA to co-developing technology for companies like ours,” Klavon said.
Collaboration, hard work, and ingenuity have left ANRA on the cusp of something monumental, Ganjoo said. Potential partners who were skeptics a year ago are now excited about the path ahead.
“I don’t think anyone else can claim to be in the position we are in, having gone through all these iterations since 2015, and we have the battle scars to prove it,” Ganjoo said. “We have positioned ourselves from a technical and strategic point of view, from a regulatory point of view, in the right place.”
ANRA’s success at home and abroad makes it a magnet for other businesses to come to Virginia, Ganjoo said. “Other players can come in and integrate, and we can build the whole ecosystem together. I think there’s an opportunity for us as the Commonwealth of Virginia to do a lot.”
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is the largest university-level transportation institute in the United States. Its New River Valley facilities include the Virginia Smart Roads, state-of-the-art closed test beds managed in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
THE NEW RIVER VALLEY OFFERS:
13.5% of residents between the ages of 20 and 24, more than double the national average
Interstate 81, a major trucking thoroughfare that runs through the region and connects it with Interstate 77, just 10 miles from its western border
Abundant hiking and outdoor recreational opportunities including the New River, Claytor Lake State Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and a stretch of the Appalachian Trail
NEW RIVER VALLEY
A Research Hotbed
BY AN ANCIENT RIVER
The New River Valley boasts a strong tech sector bolstered by the talent coming out of the region’s highly ranked colleges and universities. Key industries in the tech-heavy region include advanced manufacturing (Volvo Trucks North America, Kollmorgen, Moog Inc.), food and beverage processing (TekniPlex, Red Sun Farms, Spectrum Brands), information technology (1901 Group, Modea, Block.one), and unmanned systems (Aeroprobe Corporation, Torc Robotics, VPT, Inc.). The presence of Virginia Tech and Radford University helps the New River Valley provide small-town charm, an innovative, business-friendly culture, and cultural opportunities more often found in larger communities. Meanwhile, nearby Floyd County attracted an influx of hippies in the 1970s, who helped foster a unique musical and arts culture that continues today.
Radford University (top and middle) is one of just 25 large public institutions nationwide to earn a Gold Military Friendly School designation from Military Friendly in 2024.
campuses
an alternative pathway to a bachelor’s degree.
U.S. News & World Report ranked numerous Virginia Tech College of Engineering programs in the top 10 of its 2024 rankings, including the No. 3 ranking for undergraduate industrial and manufacturing engineering.
With
in Dublin and Christiansburg, New River Community College (bottom) operates a bridge program with Radford University to provide students with
FloydFest, held each summer in Floyd County, has drawn music fans annually for a five-day festival since 2002. Performers over the festival’s 22-year history include Lauryn Hill, Blues Traveler, Doc Watson, The Avett Brothers, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, and the Drive-By Truckers.
FloydFest isn’t Floyd County’s only contribution to the Virginia music scene.
The Floyd Country Store honors the area’s artistic roots with the Friday Night Jamboree concert series.
The New River Valley gets its name from the New River, geologically one of the oldest rivers in the world despite its name. The river marks a hydrological border of sorts in Virginia — everything from the river west ultimately drains to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Atlantic Ocean.
Mountain Lake Lodge in
County is best known by another name —
from the
for most of the on-location filming for the movie.
Giles
Kellerman’s Retreat, the fictional Catskills resort
1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing. Mountain Lake was the site
At nearly 4,000 feet in elevation, Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve in Floyd County offers panoramic views for nearly 50 miles on a clear day. The mountain was once the eastern frontier of the Cherokee Nation.
New River Valley companies that spun out of Virginia Tech include (clockwise from left) infectious disease diagnostics manufacturer TECHLAB, Inc., additive manufacturing company MELD Manufacturing, and advanced materials developer NanoSonic, Inc.
Economic Development Partners in Virginia
VEDP works in close partnership with local and regional economic development organizations.
In addition, VEDP regularly works with a wide network of statewide partners,
State Leadership Partners
Governor
General Assembly
Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Commission
Secretary of Commerce and Trade
Secretary of Finance
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Transportation
Project Delivery Partners
Colleges and universities across the Commonwealth (e.g., UVA, Virginia Tech, William & Mary)
CSX, Norfolk Southern, and short-line railroads
Dominion, AEP, and other electric utilities
The Port of Virginia
Virginia Community College System
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit
Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity
Virginia Department of Taxation
Virginia Department of Transportation
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation
Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission
Virginia Tourism Corporation
Policy and Programmatic Partners
GO Virginia
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
Virginia Agribusiness Council
Virginia Association of Counties
Virginia Business Council
Virginia Business Higher Education Council
Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, Virginia Manufacturers Association, Virginia Maritime Association, Virginia Realtors Association, and many other trade associations
Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as many local and regional chambers of commerce
Virginia Economic Developers Association
Virginia Farm Bureau
Virginia Municipal League
Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions
Virginia Rural Center
Virginia’s Technology Councils
What’s the best place to locate my business if I want to grow my exports?
Virginia is a state that helps businesses reach their export goals. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce honored the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s International Trade division with its coveted E Star Award, the highest honor U.S. exporters and export service providers can receive from the federal government, for the second time.
What states offer the best programs to help my company hire and train quickly?
Virginia is ranked No. 1 in the United States for Customized Workforce Training for the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, according to the Business Facilities Rankings Report. The program also earned that honor in 2023.
Can you give me a stat that summarizes Virginia’s business climate succinctly?
CNBC ranked Virginia as America’s Top State for Business in 2024. This is the sixth time Virginia has received that honor, the most of any state.
Thanks for your help!
You’re welcome! If you have any more questions about how a Virginia location can help your business succeed, visit vedp.org.
