giant Leidos, a Fortune 500 company. This integrated office
campus will allow Leidos to continue expanding its high-tech
presence in North Central West Virginia and grow from 140
current employees to up to 250 employees.
The custom-designed building’s features include expansive
windows, exposed steel beams, polished concrete floors, a pool
table and even a caffeine bar, while outside amenities include
a walking trail, spacious patio and basketball court. Leidos
worked hand in hand with the WestRidge development team
to create the campus to be a recruitment tool for millennial
talent needed to support its recently awarded long-term fed-
eral contracts, including a $364 million engineering contract
with Morgantown’s National Energy Technology Laboratory
and a $100 million project with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s operation facility in Fairmont.
United Bank Receives ABA Foundation
Community Commitment Award for Volunteerism
The six banks recognized by the ABA Foundation
for community service includes United Bank.
honors graduate of Marietta College and attended Tsing Hua
University in Beijing. Among other duties, he will be responsible
for recruiting new aeronautical and non-aeronautical busi-
nesses to the airport and its John D. Rockefeller IV Science
& Technology Park.
West Virginia American Water Concludes
2018 Construction Projects with $67 Million Invested
In late December, West Virginia American Water announced
the completion of its 2018 construction season, totalling $67
million in water and wastewater system improvements. The
company spent $23.2 million of its 2018 capital investments
replacing 146,000 feet—more than 27 miles—of aging water
mains through its Distribution System Improvement Charge
and another $27.4 million to replace aging fire hydrants,
water service lines and water meters. The company also in-
vested $12.5 million to upgrade water treatment process-
es, equipment, security and technology to comply with the
latest drinking water standards and enhance system reliability
and resilience.
West Virginia American Water customers can see how the
company put their water bills to work on the company’s In-
frastructure Upgrade Map. This web-based user-friendly map
provides public transparency to how the company is investing
in water main replacement projects throughout its service area.
West Virginia Airbnb Hosts Earned $10 Million
in 2018 Amid Continued Hotel Growth
United Bank’s employee volunteer program was recently
recognized as one of the strongest in the nation with the Com-
munity Commitment Award.
The award, presented by the American Bankers Association
(ABA) Foundation, specifically recognized United’s Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA) Action Committee during the ABA’s
annual convention in New York City.
In 2017, United created a bank-wide infrastructure to con-
nect employees to high-impact volunteer opportunities, aligning
its community efforts with common goals to move the needle
on key challenges facing the communities it serves. In its first
year, the committee increased employee service participation
by over 40 percent and reached 31,444 total volunteer hours.
“The CRA Action Committee demonstrates United Bank’s
strong and passionate commitment to bettering the lives of
its customers and local community,” says Rob Nichols, ABA
president and CEO.
Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport Authority
Names New Business Development Manager
The Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport Authority has
hired Jack Brossart as its business development manager. Bros-
sart’s prior experience includes four years at Johns Hopkins in
Baltimore managing multimillion-dollar budgets for financial
units within the university and health system.
Brossart is an active member of the aviation community
as a private pilot working on his instrument rating. He is an
94
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality
company, recently announced that its West Virginia host
community earned a combined $10 million in supplemental
income while welcoming approximately 90,000 guest arrivals
to the state in 2018. This comes as West Virginians increas-
ingly embrace the home sharing platform as an opportunity
to earn supplemental income. There are now more than 900
West Virginia hosts who share their homes via Airbnb, typi-
cally earning about $7,300 annually in supplemental income.
The home sharing community provides significant value
through expanded lodging capacity for West Virginia com-
munities when hotels sell out during big events. These include
Morgantown during college football weekends, the Snowshoe
region during ski season and Charleston during the legislative
session.
Airbnb also introduced Experiences to West Virginia in
2018, offering handcrafted activities led by local experts in
cities like Berkeley Springs and Green Spring. Airbnb Experi-
ences is creating new economic opportunities for West Virginia
residents by allowing them to unlock their talents and interests
and make money from them, catering to the hundreds of mil-
lions of people who use Airbnb’s platform to discover unique
and authentic travel experiences.
Defense in Depth Expands with One-of-a-Kind
Active Threat Training Division
Morgantown-based company Defense in Depth has launched
a new division—Active Threat Solutions (ATS)—that offers
training and resources to companies, churches, schools and
individuals who need to learn how to identify a dangerous
active threat situation and react accordingly. Presently, the