2019 West Virginia Business
Hall of Fame Inductees to be
Honored in August
The West Virginia Business Hall of
Fame is inducting three new members
in 2019: Bill Bayless, CEO of American
Campus Communities Inc.; Judy Shep-
pard, CEO of Professional Services of
America, Inc.; and Leo Vecellio Jr., chair-
man, president and CEO of Vecellio
Group, Inc. The inductees will be hon-
ored at a ceremony at The Greenbrier in
August that will kick off the West Virginia
Business Summit and Annual Meeting.
“Bill Bayless, Judy Sheppard and Leo
Vecellio all got their first involvement in
business right here in West Virginia,” says
Marston Becker, chairman of the hall of
fame committee. “Bill discovered what
he wanted to do while he was a student
at West Virginia University (WVU), Judy
founded a business in West Virginia, and
Leo helped manage and expand a family
business that was founded in this state.
They have all been remarkably successful,
and the result is that their businesses reach
far beyond our state borders.”
The business hall of fame was launched
in 2001 by WVU’s John Chambers College
of Business and Economics to recognize
business leaders who have strong ties to
West Virginia and have made a signifi-
cant impact across the business landscape
of their local communities, the state, the
nation and around the world.
West Virginia American Water
Names Burton as President
American Water has named Robert
Burton president of West Virginia Amer-
ican Water.
Burton has 22 years of utility manage-
ment experience and most recently served
as the senior director of operations for
Pennsylvania American Water. In that
role, Burton led operations that provide
reliable water and wastewater service to
more than 865,000 people in the com-
pany’s central, northeast and southeast
divisions, overseeing more than 50 water
systems, 10 wastewater systems, 500
employees and 200 municipalities.
“We are pleased that Robert has taken
on this new role at American Water, as he
brings decades of experience and knowl-
edge to this position,” says Jeffrey McIn-
tyre, senior vice president of American
Water’s Mid-Atlantic Division. “I look
forward to the leadership he will bring to
West Virginia American Water based on
his demonstrated success in financial and
utility management, employee engage-
ment, customer relations and continuous
improvement in both regulated utility and
contract operations.”
West Virginia Northern Community
College Receives Grant to Fund
Mobile Computer Labs for Students
WesBanco’s Anthony Habbit
with WVNCC students using
the Chromebooks.
Spolaor to the company’s first-ever chief
scientist position.
Spolaor will continue to support TMC’s
NASA Independent Verification and Vali-
dation (IV&V) contract on the independent
test capability team and will now also
focus on algorithmic statistical analysis,
machine learning techniques and big data
predictive analytics with applications on
advanced IV&V such as fault analysis,
fault management and anomaly detection.
Spolar received his Ph.D. in astrophysics
in 2010 from the Centre for Astrophysics
and Supercomputing in Melbourne, Aus-
tralia. Before joining TMC, he worked at
the National Science Foundation-funded
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
in New Mexico as a software engineer.
Newsweek Names WVU Medicine
Among World’s Best Hospitals
West Virginia Northern Community
College (WVNCC) has received a grant for
almost $14,000 from the Martha Parlin
Trust, which is overseen by WesBanco
Bank, Inc., to fund two mobile computer
labs for the Academic Support Center on
its Wheeling campus. The mobile com-
puter labs consist of 25 Chromebooks
each that can be transported anywhere
on campus for use in classrooms or labs.
This is the second donation by the
trust to WVNCC. The college received
two mobile computer labs last year, and,
due to their popularity and a campus
expansion, there was a great need for
additional carts. WVNCC now has 100
Chromebooks available to faculty, staff
and students.
“These mobile computer labs have
already expanded our ability to provide
accessible technology and instruction to
hundreds of students,” says Academic
Support Center Director CJ Farnsworth.
“Feedback from students and instructors
has been overwhelmingly positive, citing
the user-friendly nature of the Chrome-
books, as well as the impact these resources
have on the ability of instructors to meet
the diverse needs of students today.”
TMC Technologies Promotes
Spolaor to Chief Scientist
TMC Technologies of West Virginia
(TMC) is proud to announce the promo-
tion of Senior Systems Engineer Dr. Max
WVU Medicine has been recognized
by Newsweek as part of its inaugural
list of the World’s Best Hospitals. The
2019 ranking lists the best hospitals in 11
countries based on standard of living, life
expectancy, population size, number of
hospitals and data availability. This ranking
comes on the heels of last year’s U.S. News
& World Report ranking of four WVU
Medicine hospitals as part of its 2018-
2019 Best Hospitals in the United States.
“Our strategy is to provide the best
quality and most comprehensive care to the
people of West Virginia so they never
have to leave the state to receive the care
they need,” says Albert Wright Jr., presi-
dent and CEO of WVU Medicine, West
Virginia University Health System and
West Virginia University Hospitals. “We
have been making great progress in this
over the past few years, and to have our
health system recognized by Newsweek
as one of the best in the world validates
our strategy.”
Diehl Hired as New
Airport Executive
The Eastern West Virginia Regional
Airport Authority has hired Nicolas Diehl
as its new executive director. Diehl brings
with him a wealth of knowledge in mar-
keting and development, including 10
years with the West Virginia Department
of Commerce. He most recently served
as the executive director of the Jefferson
County Development Authority.
“We are very pleased to have Nic join
us in moving the airport forward,” says
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