| Tracking the leaders
Our list shows who’s up, who’s
down and why business leaders are optimistic about 2004
Virginia Business
February 2004
Eventually
it all comes down to the hard numbers. A struggling
company can’t hide its troubles for very long,
and a thriving one can always back up its claims. The
proof can be found in this year’s List of Leaders,
which tracks the state’s biggest companies in
16 sectors and shows who’s on the rise and who
isn’t.
One of the strongest showings is by Atlanta-based Turner
Construction, which has offices in Arlington County
and a year ago was barely edged out for the top spot
by Newport News-based W.M. Jordan Co. This year Turner
tops the list by a wide margin, with $540 million work
in place in Virginia. Among its projects are the new
Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria
and the Janelia Farm Research Project, a biomedicine
research center, in Loudoun County.
Some top performers have disappeared. Reston-based government
contractor DynCorp was snapped up a year ago by El Segundo,
Calif.-based Computer Sciences Corp., for an estimated
$950 million. DynCorp’s expertise in homeland
security is what drove the deal, but it cost Virginia
its third-largest private company.
Of course there are some giants that will never be moved
from the top spot, it seems. Privately held Mars Inc.
of McLean, with $16 billion in revenues, dwarfs second-place
Booz Allen Hamilton’s $2.2 billion. And among
law firms, Richmond’s Hunton & Williams remains
the state’s biggest firm, with 370 lawyers based
in Virginia. Likewise for BB&T Insurance Services,
based in Waynesboro, which returns as the state’s
biggest insurance brokerage by a wide margin.
—
The Editors
Virginia
Business - February 2004
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