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The Hall

The Hall

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The West Virginia Business Hall of Fame posthumously honored coal industry billionaire and philanthropist Chris Cline and three other state business leaders who have led widespread growth.

The 2019 class includes Bill Bayless (pictured right), CEO of American Campus Communities Inc.; Judy K. Sheppard (left), CEO of Professional Services of America, Inc.; and Leo A. Vecellio, Jr. (center), chairman, president and CEO of Vecellio Group, Inc.

“Bill, Judy, Leo and Chris have made substantial impacts in their own respective business sectors, each getting their first involvement in business right here in West Virginia,” said W. Marston “Marty” Becker, chairman of the Hall of Fame Committee.

They were honored in August at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. go.wvu.edu/2019bizhall

Get Hyped

How did a global megacompany decide to invest in the Mountain State in developing the transportation of the future? Well, we have the Chambers College, Vantage Ventures and its Executive Director Sarah Biller to thank for helping land Virgin Hyperloop. The company announced it would build a certification center spanning nearly 800 acres in Tucker and Grant counties. When completed, the Virgin Hyperloop system expects to carry passengers in pods through a vacuum tube at speeds breaking 600 mph. Read more about it in an upcoming feature story in 2021 in WVU Magazine. 

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Front of the House

Frank DeMarco, teaching associate professor of hospitality and tourism, recently received the Excellence in Tourism Education Award from the West Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association. 

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Fans Arrive Like Butterflies

Large, one-off events such as music concerts can create economic impacts not seen from professional sports, suggests rockin’ research by Joshua Hall, chair and professor of economics. Hall and Justin Parker, a 2020 Ph.D. economics graduate, found that Pearl Jam’s Seattle “Home Shows” in August 2018 generated $58 million in additional hotel revenue and $9 million in hotel tax revenue. That dwarfs Seattle Mariners baseball games ($140,000 in additional hotel revenue on game days). Their research was published in the Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights.

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Frank Fumich: Mountain Man

Chambers College alumnus Frank Fumich no longer lives in West Virginia, but he’s still called to the mountains – specifically, Mount Everest. 

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Virtual Globetrotting

While COVID-19 has forced us to pivot the way we work and play, the Robbins Center for Global Business and Strategy is no exception. In fact, two virtual activities alone in October saw more than 250 students involved in international lecture, case analyses and culture sessions in Hong Kong and Bahrain. “Framed in this way, that's very promising international reach between WVU and these two international partners,” said David Dawley, executive director of the Robbins Center. 

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