Research on a company is incomplete without a look at its top managers — their background, their expertise, their connections. A review of a company’s leadership is even more critical when someone new takes the helm. Take a look at these Virginia companies, which all have seen a recent change in leadership:

Mechanicsville-based AMF Bowling (NYSE, PIN: $8.06) has seen its stock fluctuate between $3.50 and $28.36 in the past year. But the company, 51 percent owned by the investment firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co., hopes a new slate of executives will help grow the business here and overseas. Stepping into the lead pair of bowling shoes is Roland Smith, formerly president and CEO of the Triarc Restaurant Group, who’s credited with putting the meat back into the Arby’s brand. He joined the company in April.

AMF is the kingpin of the industry, with 545 bowling centers worldwide. It also makes and markets bowling products and billiard tables and owns the Michael Jordan Golf Co. Under Smith, AMF notes, Arby’s restaurants nearly tripled operating profits from 1996 to 1998. Smith also was credited with building the restaurant chain’s same-store sales. He was recruited to AMF following the November resignation of CEO Douglas J. Stanard; CFO Stephen Hare was acting CEO for six months.

Smith, whose wife is a native Richmonder, isn’t the only new blood. AMF has racked up a full range of outside retail expertise. AMF also recruited John Watkins, former COO of Food Lion Inc., as president of the bowling operations, and the company brought in new regional vice presidents from such companies as McDonald’s, 7-Eleven, Staples and Lady Foot Locker.

Christiansburg-based FNB Bank (Nasdaq, FNBP: $23.75) only had $15.7 million in deposits when Sam Tollison took over in 1971. Now the bank has $347 million in deposits — enough to make it the commonwealth’s fourth-largest independent bank. Tollison is credited with the bank’s growth, giving loans to entrepreneurs and taking risks that bigger banks might avoid. He also has won praise for modernizing the bank while maintaining its community focus. The company’s new four-story, $4.9 million headquarters — a behemoth in this mostly rural area — has been called a testament to its commitment to the region and to remaining independent.

After a banking career spanning more than four decades, Tollison retired to spend more time with his family. Danny Hardy has taken the helm, but the transition has been deliberate. Tollison was head of the holding company through December and remained on the board through May, when Hardy was promoted to president and CEO of the holding company.

Tollison leaves a healthy bank, with a balanced mix of residential mortgages, consumer loans, commercial loans and commercial mortgages. A subsidiary, FNB Financial Services, sells title insurance and annuities. FNB Corp. intends to grow via both acquisitions and internal expansion. As the new CEO, Hardy is expected to keep the bank on course.

The change in management at the Arlington-based energy consulting firm Hagler Bailly (Nasdaq, HBIX: $9.25) — named by Business Week magazine in 1998 as a hot company, based on sales growth — is an accelerated step in its merger agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based Putnam Hayes & Bartlett. In April, William E. Dickenson, CEO of Putnam Hayes, was appointed president and CEO of the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, PHB Hagler Bailly. He succeeds Henri-Claude Bailly, Hagler Bailly’s CEO since its founding in 1980. The company went public in July 1997.

Riding a company through its initial public offering must be tiresome. Bailly isn’t alone in stepping aside shortly after a career capstone IPO. At Richmond-based Trigon Healthcare (NYSE, TGH: $37.13), Norwood H. Davis Jr. announced he was stepping down after 31 years with the company, 18 of those as CEO. The company went public in January 1997. Taking his place is Thomas G. Snead Jr., Trigon’s president and COO since 1997. Davis will continue as chairman until April 2000.