Victor Hoskins, President and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority was named in the Power 100 for the fourth time by Washington Business Journal within its Commercial Real Estate category, which includes 27 icons in real estate, economic development and construction.

“I am honored to be named among the Power 100 from Washington Business Journal for the fourth time,” said Victor Hoskins, President and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “It is humbling to be included in the Commercial Real Estate Builders and Dealmakers category among real estate trailblazers such as Christopher Clemente, Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Cos., Jodie McLean, CEO, Edens; and Robert Moser, CEO, Clark Construction Group – and along with fellow economic development leaders, including Buddy Rizer, Executive Director, Loudoun County Economic Development, and Bill Tompkins, CEO, Montgomery County Economic Development Corp.”

“In addition, it is incredible to share this honor with many of the leaders across the Greater Washington area that I have had the distinct pleasure to work with to strengthen our regional economy: Deryl McKissack, President and CEO, McKissack & McKissack; Jair Lynch, President and CEO, Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners; Linda Rabbitt, Founder and chairman, Rand Construction; Ernie Drew Jarvis, Vice chairman, Savills North America; Matt Kelly, CEO, JBG Smith Properties; Monty Hoffman, Founder and chairman, Hoffman & Associates; Toby Bozzuto, CEO, The Bozzuto Group; Emeka Moneme, President, Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District; and Kimberly Driggins, Executive director, Washington Housing Conservancy,” Hoskins added.

According to the Washington Business Journal:

“Victor Hoskins heads the economic development activities of powerhouse Fairfax County — home to 10 Fortune 500 companies and another seven in the Fortune 1000, plus 120 businesses on the most recent Inc. 5000 list. Prior to joining the Fairfax EDA in 2019, he served in top economic development roles in D.C., Prince George’s and Arlington, where he played a key part in landing Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters. He oversees 36 employees, offices in five international business hubs and an annual budget topping $9 million.”

Here is the list of all of leaders at Fairfax County-based companies and organizations that ranked in all of the categories in the Washington Business Journal’s 2023 Power 100:

• Stephanie Berkowitz, President and CEO, Northern Virginia Family Service
• Christopher Clemente, Chairman and CEO,  Comstock Holding Cos.
• Mark Ein, Chairman, Kastle Systems
• Amy Gilliland, President, General Dynamics Information Technology
• Victor Hoskins, President and CEO, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority
• Dr. J. Stephen Jones, President and CEO, Inova Health System
• Michele Kang, CEO, Cognosante
• Anne Kress, President, Northern Virginia Community College
• Arvind Manocha, CEO, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
• Kim Roy, CEO, Hitt Contracting Inc
• Chris Nassetta, CEO, Hilton Worldwide
• Andy Nvarette, Executive Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer, Capital One Financial
• Horacio Rozanski, President and CEO, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Warren Thompson, President, Thompson Hospitality Group
• Kathy Warden, President and CEO, Northrop Grumman
• Gregory Washington, President, George Mason University

Weekly Business News Digest

Modern urban core: A central piece of the Scotts Run development near the McLean Metro station is now in place, FFXnow reported. Distinguished by a tall, glass-box front, the 28-story Heming has wrapped up construction after more than three years, bringing 410 new apartments and 38,000 square feet of retail space to 1800 Chain Bridge Road in Tysons, developer Skanska announced. With site work underway since August 2020, the project required 1.1 million hours of labor, 2,700 tons of steel rebar and 37,000 cubic yards of concrete, according to the construction firm. “We are excited to deliver this stunning project thanks to the unwavering commitment and meticulous work of our construction team,” Dale Kopnitsky, general manager and executive vice president of Skanska’s D.C. building operations, said in a press release. “As the communities of Tysons and McLean continue to grow, Skanska is honored to be part of the team transforming Scotts Run into a modern urban core.”

Space debris-tracking: Menlo Park, Calif.-based SRI International selected Reston-based Leidos and Scout Space, which is based in the Fairfax County area of Alexandria, as subcontractors for a space debris-tracking project funded by the U.S. intelligence community, SpaceNews reported. SRI is one of four companies that won contracts from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity to attempt to track tiny debris objects in orbit that currently are undetectable by ground-based sensors. The project, known as Space Debris Identification and Tracking (SINTRA), is expected to be completed in four years. IARPA wants to identify technologies and methods to successfully track debris objects smaller than 10 centimeters long, or about the size of a credit card. “Small debris is an unaddressed and growing threat,” said Lin van Nieuwstadt, a senior engineer at SRI and principal investigator.

Autonomous docking: Falls Church-area based Northrop Grumman will drop plans to develop its own commercial space station and instead assist a competing effort led by Denver, Colorado-based Voyager Space, the companies announced Oct. 4, SpaceNews reported. Under the new partnership, the companies will cooperate on the development of fully autonomous docking systems for Northrop’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft, allowing it to dock with Voyager’s Starlab space station. “This collaboration is a major step forward for the Starlab program,” said Dylan Taylor, chairman and chief executive of Voyager Space, in a statement. “Northrop Grumman’s technical capability and proven success in cargo resupply services will play a pivotal role as we accelerate Starlab’s development.”

Multi-launch agreement: Tysons-based satellite operator Intelsat has signed an agreement with Relativity Space for multiple launches of that company’s Terran R reusable launch vehicle under development, according to SpaceNews. The two companies announced Oct. 11 they had signed a multi-year, multi-launch agreement for Terran R launches of Intelsat satellites starting no earlier than 2026, the year Relativity currently projects Terran R making its debut. The companies did not disclose the number of launches included in the agreement or the time span of the agreement.

Big push: Tysons-based Booz Allen Hamilton is making a big push to bring a new set of AI capabilities to U.S. military and federal government clients. Booz Allen told Axios it is aiming for between $500 million and $700 million in AI contracts with the government in fiscal 2024. The contractor is already the largest provider of AI-related services to the federal government, according to Deltek data. The company said it already has nearly 200 active AI contracts with the federal government and military, including three of the largest AI vehicles within the Department of Defense. Booz Allen announced this week a new focused and scaled portfolio of AI offerings to federal clients that it says can help clients quickly achieve mission objectives, save on costs and enterprise at scale, reported Washington Business Journal in subscriber content.

Agricultural supply chain link: Tysons-based Helios has closed a $1.85 million pre-seed funding round led by Los Angeles-based Supply Change Capital, with participation from Boston’s January Ventures, reported Citybiz. The company, which is building tools to monitor agricultural supply chains, also announced the launch of Cersi, an AI tool with a ChatGPT-style conversational feature. Claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, Cersi uses a large knowledge database on climate, economy, currencies and political risks, besides monitoring half a million news articles daily, to answer questions. “Cersi brings something truly unique to the agricultural supply chain space — the ability to ask key questions about your own supply chains and receive insights in seconds,” said Francisco Martin-Rayo, co-founder and CEO of Helios. “On average, we’re seeing the teams that use Cersi increase their productivity by 40 percent.”

Educational acquisition: Reston-based Ellucian, an education technology solutions provider, agreed to acquire Tribal Group plc, a UK-based enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software and services provider to the education sector. “Tribal is in clear alignment with Ellucian’s strategy, purpose and values, and this is an exciting opportunity to expand our combined reach as we power tertiary education so institutions can empower student success,” said Laura Ipsen, CEO, Ellucian.  Citybiz has more.

New bridge span: Tysons-based Bridge Core Federal, a provider of visual intelligence, cybersecurity, and other technical services to the federal government, said it has acquired Bethesda, Md.-based teKnoluxion, a provider of software and systems engineering services to defense and intelligence clients. Bridge Core is backed by private equity firm NewSpring Holdings. teKnoluxion specializes in hybrid cloud engineering and cloud development. Bridge Core said the move will bolster the tools and services it can offer to the intelligence community. Potomac Tech Wire carried the release.

Funding round: GuidePoint Security, a Herndon-based cybersecurity company, announced that it has closed on a funding round led by Audax Private Equity. The amount of the funding was not released. Founded in 2011, GuidePoint works with both federal agencies and private companies. The company said the new investment will allow it to expand globally. “As the complexity of the cybersecurity landscape becomes more pronounced — with ever-evolving threats, thousands of products, and continued resource challenges — demand for our services and solutions has never been higher,” said Michael Volk, Chairman and CEO of GuidePoint Security. Yahoo Finance picked up the release.

Contract Wins

Science Applications International Corp. (Reston) won a five-year, $115.7 million to help operate and optimize the Internal Revenue Service’s Unisys mainframe and server environment. GovConWire

Logistics Management Institute (LMI) (Tysons) won a $98 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for modeling and simulation software to analyze warfighting missions in space. SpaceNews

Amentum (Chantilly) secured a five-year, $51.2 million contract from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to support the Department of Defense’s biothreat reduction projects in Africa. ExecutiveBiz

Northrop Grumman (Falls Church area) will further develop its guided 57mm ammunition and test it for qualification under a contract — of an unspecified amount — with the U.S. Navy. ExecutiveGov