Virginia Business Magazine: Agents of Change, Pt. 3

Editor’s Note: In looking back over the past 20 years, Virginia Business tried to select 20 individuals (or business partners) who have had a transforming effect on their industry or their regional economy. We looked for visionaries who built their companies into industry leaders or whose creativity led to innovative startups. The field was limited to Virginians involved in business, not politics or education. This list, however, is not intended to be the last word. We invite you to make your own nominations, which will be posted to our Web site.

Gerald T. Halpin, McLean
Founder, president and CEO
WEST*GROUP Management
Since Gerald Halpin founded WEST*GROUP more than 40 years ago, industry observers figure he’s had his hand in the development, redevelopment or construction of more than 13 million square feet of office, retail, residential, resort and industrial space. In addition to that, through WEST*GROUP’s affiliations, he has founded and served as president of more than 100 corporations and partnerships in real estate development in the Washington area.

Halpin has always been a little ahead of his time. In 1962, along with two partners, he brought to the Washington area the concept of the mixed-use, master-planned office park when he bought 125 acres of Northern Virginia farmland and turned it into Tysons Corner. Currently in the works is MetroWest, a transit-oriented, mixed-use development that Fairfax County officials hope to replicate around rail stops as Metrorail service extends through Tysons Corner. An octogenarian, Halpin is still a presence in the WEST*GROUP offices and continues to drive the company’s vision.

Rodney P. Hunt, McLean
P resident and CEO
RS Information Systems Inc.
Since its founding in 1992, RS Information Systems Inc. (RSIS) has become the largest minority-owned company in the Washington, D.C.-Virginia region, the 15th largest African-American service company in the nation and the country’s 36th largest federal IT contractor. The company had revenue of more than $360 million last year.

The growth has come under the leadership of co-founder Rodney P. Hunt. RSIS focuses on providing information technology, systems engineering, telecommunications and scientific services, and solutions to government agencies.

Hunt was named the 2005 Minority Small Business Champion of the Year for the Washington area by the Small Business Administration. He helps other minority-owned businesses through mentoring and partnerships. Hunt also is the founder of Virginia Pride Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting sports, academics and community service among young men and women.

In 2004, Hunt was named Executive of the Year by the Professional Services Council and Washington Technology. He also has been named to Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100, a list of 100 leaders who have had a substantial impact on the government IT community.

Martin Lightsey, Staunton
Chairman
Specialty Blades Inc.
During his 16 years as an engineer and director for American Safety Razor in Staunton, Martin Lightsey saw the increasing need industries and manufacturers had for custom-designed, razor-sharp blades, something ASR’s technology couldn’t produce. When the CEO of ASR told him the company wasn’t poised to start a new business venture, Lightsey decided to try it on his own.

In 1985, Lightsey, then 43, rented a former dairy barn in downtown Staunton and created Specialty Blades Inc., which used computer technology to create blanks that would be used to make custom-designed blades. It took Lightsey 18 months to sell his first custom-made blade and five years to earn a profit.

Since then, the company has rapidly expanded to an 80-employee business that brings in about $15 million in revenue a year. It plans to build a 28,000-square-foot addition next to its Staunton facility to house a growing surgical division, IncisionTech, which should create 25 jobs. The company also opened a sales office in China three years ago.

Lightsey stepped down as CEO of the company three years ago but remains chairman. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 for Virginia in the Business Products category.

Joseph W. Luter III, Smithfield
Chairman and CEO,
Smithfield Foods Inc.
While Joseph W. Luter III ran the family business, it maintained its generations-long reputation for high-quality pork products. But when Luter sold Smithfield Foods for $20 million in 1970, everything changed. Bloated with acquisitions and choking on debt, Smithfield responded to banks’ demands for a management change by bringing back Luter. He trimmed the fat, selling businesses acquired since his departure, paid down debt and cut costs. In 1981, with the company on steadier legs, Luter started buying out the competition. By 1995, he had doubled the company’s size.

He refashioned Smithfield Foods into a fully-integrated pork operation, raising its own hogs. Responding to consumer concerns about nutrition and low fat, Luter sought out a new breed of leaner pigs and bought the exclusive U.S. and Mexican rights. Smithfield’s Lean Generation Pork revolutionized the industry.

Now the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, with operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Smithfield had more than $11.8 billion in revenue in 2005. Meanwhile, Luter has aggressively expanded into beef operations as well.

Luter’s Smithfield-Luter Foundation committed $5 million to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, the largest contribution in the school’s history, to establish the Joseph W. Luter III School of Business and a $1 million leadership scholarship program.

G. Gilmer Minor III, Richmond
Chairman
Owens & Minor Inc.
Under G. Gilmer Minor III’s leadership, Owens & Minor Inc. evolved from a traditional “box mover” into one of the nation’s leading distributors of medical and surgical supplies.

Minor accomplished this largely through his attention to emerging technologies. Since succeeding his father in 1981, Minor increased sales at this Fortune 500 company from $205 million to more than $4.8 billion.

As the fourth member of his family to head the company, Minor has spent his entire business career at Owens & Minor, working his way up through sales, operations and management roles before earning the title of CEO in 1984 and chairman of the board 10 years later.

In 2001, Minor was named Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist of the Year and was later inducted into the Greater Richmond Business Hall of Fame. In 2004, he received the Virginia Region Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award and the B’nai B’rith National Healthcare Award.

Virginia Business Online | Contact Us | Webmaster

VirginiaBusiness.com is part of the GatewayVa network.

© 2007, Media General Operations Inc., publisher of Virginia Business.
Use of this website is subject to certain terms and conditions