Three new appointees are due to join Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors for the first time at the board’s Aug. 28-29 meetings after being named to three-year terms by Gov. Terry McAuliffe this summer.

The new appointees are Greta Harris, of Richmond, Virginia, president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition; L. Chris Petersen, of McLean, Virginia, partner at Morris, Manning & Martin LLC; and Jeff Veatch, of Alexandria, co-founder of Apex Systems Inc. McAuliffe also reappointed Dennis Treacy, of Hanover, Virginia, president of the Smithfield Foundation.

Greta Harris

Greta Harris is president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition, the Richmond region’s largest nonprofit community development corporation. Previously, she was vice president for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national nonprofit community and economic development corporation. Before serving in that role, Harris was the corporation's senior program director for Virginia. The corporation's Virgina unit supported local organizations in developing more than $250 million in real estate in Central Virginia.

Harris was appointed to the Virginia Tech Foundation board in 2016. She also serves on the board of the Virginia Housing Alliance and has served on the boards of the City of Richmond’s Economic Development Authority, the Federal Reserve Bank’s Board of Governors’ Consumer Advisory Council, the Virginia Housing Coalition, the Richmond Community Development Alliance, and Seven Hills School.

Harris is a member of Leadership Metro Richmond’s Class of 1995. She was named the Virginia Tech Black Alumni Association’s 2016 Philanthropist of the Year and was recognized as a 2014 Outstanding Virginian by Equality Virginia. Harris earned a bachelor’s in architecture from Virginia Tech and a master’s in architecture and urban design from Columbia University.

L. Chris Petersen

L. Chris Petersen is a partner in the law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. His practice concentrates in legal and compliance services relating to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, privacy, state small-group and individual insurance reform regulation, and the interaction between state and federal law.

Petersen also advises clients on legal matters pertaining to minimum standards for supplemental and individual insurance products, association business, managed care, as well as other compliance issues. He also assists his clients before state insurance departments and provides representation before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Congress, and federal agencies. Petersen chairs his firm’s privacy group.

He previously served as the vice president of the state affairs/legal department of the Health Insurance Association of America. Petersen has spoken extensively on insurance reform matters, and has testified before Congress on insurance reform and privacy issues. He is a member of the Virginia Bar Association. Petersen serves on the board of directors of the Professional Insurance Marketing Association and received their President's Distinguished Service Award. He served on McAuliffe’s governor-elect transition team. Petersen is treasurer of Common Good VA, McAuliffe’s political action committee. He also serves as president of Northam for Governor Inc. Petersen has a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his juris doctor degree from Georgetown University.

Jeff Veatch

Jeff Veatch is a successful entrepreneur, businessman, community leader, and philanthropist.  He co-founded Apex Systems, which is now a billion-dollar business primarily in the field of information-technology staff augmentation.

Apex Systems has more than 1,200 full time employees, over 60 offices, and employs close to 30,000 consultants a year. Apex Systems is now a division of the largest publicly traded information-technology staffing and services firm in America.

Over the course of his career, Veatch has been recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young and selected to the Philanthropic 50 by Washington Life magazine. He is a member of the board for On Assignment, served as a founding member of an effort to bring the Olympics to the Washington D.C. region, and holds board positions with Inova Health System, as well as other leadership and board positions in the community.

As an active philanthropic investor, he formed the Veatch Charitable Fund, which focuses on education, healthcare, and the community. Veatch, along with other Apex Systems founders, named the Apex Systems Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship within Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. He earned a bachelor's in finance from Virginia Tech.

 

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