C. Michael Ferraro of Chantilly has been appointed by the Virginia General Assembly to the state committee studying workforce development and training resources throughout the Commonwealth. Ferraro is president and CEO of Training Solutions Inc., a professional development, training and executive coaching firm in Fairfax County. Ferraro, 47, founded Training Solutions Inc. in 1995. The firm has been recognized as “Small Business of the Year” by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and as “Outstanding Small Business” by the Fairfax County Small and Minority Business Advisory Council.
MS Grand Inc., a Korean-owned international supermarket, donated $2,000 to the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation, Inc., on July 6 as part of the second anniversary celebration of the Annandale Grand Mart store, located on Little River Turnpike. The George Mason Regional Library plans to use the gift to underwrite a Korean New Year celebration in 2006.
Van Metre Companies, a privately-held creator of communities, hosted a celebration to honor 50 years of successes on June 16 at Fairfax Square Apartments, located in Fairfax. Fairfax Square is Van Metre's first mixed-use project, built in the 1960s. It was the setting where Van Metre Companies marked a half-century tradition of creating high-quality homes, apartments, office buildings and shopping centers in the area.
Key political leaders were in attendance to help Van Metre Companies celebrate this milestone, including Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Sharon Bulova and Virginia State Senators Richard L. Saslaw and Russ Potts.
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) has awarded two human resources contracts to YRCI, a HR and Contracts Management firm located in Centreville. One contract will provide support to the AOC's Employee Benefits and Service Branch through a retirement counseling program.
The second contract provides support to the AOC's Employee Relations Branch (ERB) in the automated processing of personnel actions or entering other data into the National Finance Center (NFC) system.
Gov. Mark R. Warner announced appointments to several university Boards of Visitors, as well as the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Board of Trustees for the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center. Warner appointed George Nolen of Centreville, alumnus of the university, and president and CEO of Siemens Corporation to the Board of Visitors at Longwood University.
Dan Carraher, a hospitality industry veteran, has been named Director of Sales and Marketing for Westfields Marriott in Chantilly. Carraher brings to the property 23 years of leadership experience in sales and strategic relationship management with Marriott.
A veteran of the hospitality industry, Carraher began his career in 1982, at the Newport Beach Marriott as a catering services manager. He went on to serve as the director of catering at the Irvine Marriott, during which he doubled the catering sales revenue and earned a promotion to the director of sales. After performing to that capacity at three other Marriott resort properties, he worked as the area director of sales for the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront and the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards for three years before he joined Westfields Marriott.