Followups
Virginia Business
December 2005
Betsy Duke has joined TowneBank in Hampton Roads as
a senior executive vice president and COO. The appointment
follows Duke’s year as the first chairwoman of
the American Bankers Association, the country’s
largest bank trade association. Duke’s tenure was
the subject of a profile in the September
issue. At that
time, she was an executive vice president at Wachovia
Bank in Virginia Beach. In her new job, Duke will lead
the bank’s administrative management group and
have oversight responsibility for corporate finance,
technology, general operations, risk management and regulatory
matters.
Micron Technology announced in early November the completion
of the initial phase of an upgrade of its fabrication
facilities in Manassas, from 200-millimeter to a 300-millimeter
process technology. The $1.2 billion upgrade will create
860 jobs. Micron was featured in the November
issue in
a group of stories examining the effect of state taxes
on manufacturing.
FLYi Inc., the Dulles-based parent
of low-fare airline Independence Air, has filed petitions
for reorganization
under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Meanwhile,
JetBlue has announced plans to begin serving Richmond
next spring. Both airlines were featured in February’s
issue about efforts to improve service to Virginia’s
airports.
Freddie
Mac is reducing its profit
for the first half of 2005. The $220 million drop— from $1.6 billion
to $1.4 billion — is due to faulty accounting
software, which the company says overstated the amount
of interest
earned on some mortgage-backed securities Freddic Mac
bought for investment purposes. The error follows efforts
by the mortgage finance giant to strengthen internal
controls following a multi-billion accounting scandal
in 2003. The company was the subject of a profile in
the September
issue.
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