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Virginia Business 20th Anniversary
Agents
of Change, Pt. 4
Virginians who transformed
their industries in the past 20 years
Part
1: Batten
| Bohan | Bray | Capps | Case
Part
2: Cerf/Kahn
| Davenport | Fairbank | Goode | Goodwin
Part
3: Halpin
| Hunt | Lightsey | Luter | Minor
Part
4: Sharp
| Taubman | Tavenner | Thompson | James and Robert
Ukrop
by Lisa Antonelli Bacon and
Donna
C. Gregory
for Virginia Business
March 2006
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.
 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.  Richard L. Sharp, Richmond
Chairman of CarMax Inc. and
Former chairman and CEO of Circuit City Stores Inc.
Under Richard Sharp, Circuit City grew from a company
with 50 stores and $500 million in sales to become one
of the nation’s largest electronics retailers.
Sharp joined Circuit City as executive vice president
in 1982. In less than two years, he was named president
and became CEO in 1986. The company focused on “category
killer” superstores providing shoppers with a wide
selection of consumer electronics products. Circuit City’s
sales now top $11 billion.
In 1993, Sharp re-invented the
used-car business by starting CarMax, a no-hassle
chain of used-car superstores. Today,
Richmond-based CarMax has grown into the country’s
largest retailer for used cars, operating 67 superstores
in 31 markets generating revenues of more than $6 billion.
Sharp tried to revolutionize another industry in the
late 1990s with the introduction of the Divx, video disk
system. The product, however, failed to catch on and
was dropped in 1999. He has had better luck recently
with Crocs, a new footwear company that raised millions
in its February initial public offering.
Sharp retired as Circuit City’s
CEO in 2000 and stepped down as chairman in 2002.
He remains chairman
of CarMax. Sharp is a member of the Greater Richmond
Business Hall of Fame.  Nicholas F. Taubman, Roanoke
Former chairman and CEO
Advance Auto Parts
After taking over as president and CEO of Advance Auto
Parts in 1969, Nicholas Taubman took the company his
father founded in 1932 and turned it into one of the
country’s leading auto parts chains. The company
took off in the 1980s by supplying the growing “do
it yourself” market. In 1982, Taubman instituted
Advance’s PDQ system (“Parts Delivered Quickly”),
a delivery system which now provides customers with access
to 250,000 car parts within 24 hours.
By the late 1990s, Advance had expanded from eight states
to 38, quadrupling its number of stores. Since 2000,
the company has been aggressive in making acquisitions,
adding 80 more stores between July and September of last
year alone. Advance also has also begun using Internet
tools and publications to reach the online market. Now
there are nearly 3,000 stores and more than 41,000 employees.
Taubman resigned from the board late last year to accept
an appointment as U.S. ambassador to Romania.
 Marilyn Tavenner, Richmond
Virginia
secretary of health and human resources
When Martinsville native Marilyn Tavenner graduated from
Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s nursing program in
1972, she could have never imagined that one day she’d
by tapped by Virginia’s governor to serve as secretary
of health and human resources. After all, it was a time
when women were expected to make the rounds of hospital
rooms, not boardrooms.
But Tavenner changed that, becoming one of the few women
in the health care industry to climb the corporate ladder
from staff nurse to high-ranking executive.
During her lengthy career with
HCA, the nation’s
largest health-care company, Tavenner rose through the
ranks, holding positions as staff nurse, nursing supervisor,
assistant director of nursing and director of nursing
before being named CEO of Johnston-Willis Hospital in
1993. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree
in health administration from the Medical College of
Virginia. Later, she was promoted to president of HCA’s
Richmond market and president of the health-care system’s
Central Atlantic Division where she oversaw 20 hospitals
and four ambulatory-surgery centers.
Tavenner was group president
of HCA’s Outpatient
Services before being appointed to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s
cabinet.
 Warren
Thompson, Herndon
Chairman and president
Thompson
Hospitality Corp.
Warren Thompson began his hospitality career as an assistant
manager at a Roy Rogers restaurant. Today, he leads Thompson
Hospitality, the largest minority-owned food service
company in the country.
Thompson made the leap from employee
to entrepreneur in 1992 when he purchased 31 Bob’s Big Boy restaurants
from Marriott Corp. He quickly sold off unprofitable
restaurants and began converting others to Shoney’s
restaurants.
A year later, Thompson Hospitality
shifted focus to contract food service. In 1995
Morgan State University
signed
on as a customer, beginning the company’s close
association with historically black colleges and universities.
In addition to preparing meals for students, the company
sends its executives into the classroom to talk about
entrepreneurship.
Another milestone came in 1997 when Thompson Hospitality
formed a joint venture partnership with Compass Group,
the largest contract services company in the United States,
to offer services to major corporations. Thompson Hospitality
and Compass Group today operate more than 600 dining
centers together.
Thompson Hospitality now has
2,500 employees. It was named a “Top 10 Growth Company” by
Black Enterprise magazine in 2001. The company
operates in
40 states and four foreign countries and reports annual
revenues of more than $150 million.
Thompson was named the state’s
Outstanding Young Virginian in 1994 and Entrepreneur
of the Year by the
National Black MBA Association in 1997.
  James E. Ukrop and
Robert S. Ukrop (right),
Richmond
Chairman, and president and CEO, respectively,
of Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc.
Jim and Bobby Ukrop built a supermarket empire based
on their father’s neighborhood grocery and the
things he taught them about the importance of family,
commitment to community, and just plain clean living.
Now all 28 stores follow those tenets: The Ukrops don’t
sell booze. Their stores are closed on Sundays.
Despite
those restrictions, Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc.
is the dominant grocery chain in Richmond, with 40 percent
of the market.
The company enriches the community through its Golden
Gift program, capital gifts, event sponsorships and
discounts to nonprofits.
Being good guys doesn’t necessarily build an empire,
but being forward-thinking can. The Ukrop brothers have
always been industry leaders. Ukrop’s stores, for
example, were among the first in the country to use customer
cards giving shoppers automatic discounts at the checkout
counter. And when grocery stores were just beginning
to realize the benefits of having a banking presence
on-site, Ukrop’s was creating its own First Market
Bank for its stores.
In recent years, Ukrop’s
has expanded its footprint beyond Richmond to Williamsburg
and Fredericksburg
and has plans for a store in Roanoke.
Agents
of Change, Pt. 4
Virginians who transformed
their industries in the past 20 years
Part
1: Batten |
Bohan | Bray | Capps | Case
Part
2: Cerf/Kahn
| Davenport | Fairbank | Goode | Goodwin
Part
3: Halpin |
Hunt | Lightsey | Luter | Minor
Part 4: Sharp
| Taubman | Tavenner | Thompson | James and Robert
Ukrop
|
