Eastern Virginia
Regional View
ODU, Norfolk program aims to aid entrepreneurs by Veronica Garabelli
University have formed a partnership to help local entrepreneurs. Earlier this year
T
Marty Kaszubowski says he wants the program to help companies grow to “where they need to be.”
they began the Innova- tion Center – Norfolk. The downtown facil- ity — located at 501B Boush St. — offers businesses work space and assistance. ODU hopes the center will be one of many in Hampton Roads that will help entrepreneurs, with each location tailored to a locality’s needs, says Marty Kaszubowski, executive director of the university’s Center for Enterprise Innovation (CEI). “If I’ve learned
ON THE WEB
Complete list of For the Record and People at
VirginiaBusiness.com FOR THE RECORD
German grocer Aldi has pur- chased property and filed plans to open a store in Gloucester County. The discount chain bought a 1.8-acre site for $1.9 million from Evergreen Develop- ment LLC, according to land records. The property is adjacent to the Fox Mill Centre — the county’s largest commercial development — owned by devel- oper Robert Kubicki of Evergreen Development. (Daily Press)
Green Flash Brewing Co., based in San Diego, will open its East Coast craft brewing facility in Virginia Beach on Nov. 13. The $20 million facility will include a 58,000-square-foot tasting room with 30 beers on tap, a beer garden, food trucks, a retail store, private-event room and garden. Upon completion, the company said the production facility will provide freight efficiencies for
anything in my 30 years in Hampton Roads, [it] is you have to be relevant to each individual city or else you’re in trouble,” he says.
The Innovation
Green Flash’s beer distribution throughout the East Coast. (
VirginiaBusiness.com)
Lipton employees in Suffolk voted in August to form a union in response to what they called unjust working conditions and treatment. The employees demanded an end to the invol- untary overtime practices, along with better health care, sick leave and other workplace policies. The workers will negotiate their first union contract with Unilever, Lipton’s parent company. The contract proposal will then be presented to the entire workforce for a vote. The agreement will be effective once ratified by the majority of the employees. (The Suffolk News-Herald)
Virginia Beach-based Sanyal Biotechnology was selected as a top university startup by the National Council of Entrepre- neurial Tech Transfer, a Wash-
14 OCTOBER 2016
he City of Norfolk and O ld Dominion
Center is one of several resources that CEI offers new and exist- ing businesses. Other programs include the Hampton Roads Veter- ans Business Outreach Center, the Women’s Business Center, the Technology Applica- tions Center and GOV2COM, which helps government contractors diversify into commercial mar- kets. Companies at the Innovation Center will have access to CEI’s programs. Overall, the Inno- vation Center hopes to work with high growth potential companies that can boost the local economy, Kaszubowski says. The companies can range from startups in the early stages of development to more established businesses trying to tackle new markets.
The Innovation Center has been a useful resource for
ington, D.C.-based organization consisting of startup officers from research universities. Sanyal, begun at Virginia Common- wealth University, is one of 18 startups from across the country selected to give a presentation before Congress at the council’s DemoDay on Sept. 20, which allowed Sanyal the opportunity to present to investors, says Sanyal CEO Rebecca Caffrey. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) announced that the Virginia Beach Department of Eco- nomic Development has once again been recognized as an Accredited Economic Develop- ment Organization (AEDO) — one of 50 in the world. Originally accredited in January 2005, the organization has been reaccred- ited three times since. The AEDO program is a peer review process
Rocket Science LLC, a mobile applications developer begun by ODU students. The company, which now is renting office space at the center, began opera- tions about two years ago. Rocket Science initially operated out of the ODU’s Strome Entrepreneurial Center, which offers students free co-working space. The company found- ers had to find a new location once they graduated from the university. Franck Tchouam-
bou, Rocket Science’s co-founder and chief operating officer, says the Strome Entrepre- neurial Center and the Innovation Center have helped the company generate business leads. Christopher
Shelton, the Innovation Center’s managing director, and Nancy Grden, executive director of the Strome Entrepreneurial Center,
that measures economic devel- opment organizations against commonly held standards in the profession. (News release)
PEOPLE
The Newport News Shipbuild- ing division of Huntington Ingalls Industries has promoted Jen- nifer Dunn to vice
president, communications. She was director, communications. (News release)
Virginia Beach-based Marathon Consulting LLC recently added five consultants. Dan Herbert, Charlie Church, and Jonathan Hudson joined as information technology consultants. Tim Christian and Walter Cohn joined as senior business technology consultants. (News release)
have been great men- tors, he says. Shelton, who co-founded Cure Coffeehouse & Bras- serie in Norfolk, is helping Rocket Science learn the ropes of the restaurant business so it can market an applica- tion it’s developing for restaurateurs. So far, things are
going well for Rocket Science, which has three full-time employ- ees and five contractors. From June through August, the company generated $100,000 in revenue. “We’ve been expanding very quickly,” Tchouambou says.
That type of
growth is exactly what the Innovation Center is trying to promote. “What I really focus on is … creating a place, and more importantly, a program that helps companies go from where they are to where they need to be,” Kaszubowski says.
Jason McKenzie and Nicole Wood-Sabo have been promoted to members of McPhillips, Roberts and Deans, PLC, Norfolk. McKenzie has more than 12 years of public accounting experience. Wood- Sabo has over 17 years of public accounting experience. (News release)
Charles W. “Wick” Moorman, the retired chairman, CEO and president of Norfolk Southern Corp., has been named president and CEO of Amtrak. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Virginia Beach-based Davis Ad Agency has promoted Sarah Nicosia to vice president and general manager of its Virginia Beach office. Nicosia joined the agency in 2001 as an account executive. She later was named director of account services. (
VirginiaBusiness.com)
Photo by Mark Rhodes
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88