RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today issued a proclamation designating May as Business Appreciation Month in Virginia. Throughout the month, the Governor and members of his administration will visit companies and attend events in each region of the Commonwealth to highlight the diversity and importance of Virginia’s robust business community. “Virginia’s diverse roster of world-class businesses play a constant role in strengthening our economy by driving growth and innovation, investing in our communities, and creating jobs and opportunity for Virginians,” said Governor Northam. “Business Appreciation Month is a great time to celebrate companies, large and small, that call Virginia home and the many ways that they are shaping a more prosperous Commonwealth.” Last week, Governor Northam announced that that Virginia has secured more than $15.8 billion of capital investment since he took office in January 2018, representing over 300 economic development projects in every region of the Commonwealth and the creation of more than 48,000 jobs. Read today’s editorial in The Roanoke Times from Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball highlighting these milestones and the administration’s efforts to provide a competitive business environment in Virginia. “Virginia is a great place to do business and companies all over the world have recognized that,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “The Commonwealth’s stable business climate, strong workforce, and desirable quality of life are just a few of the factors that have made it possible for the Governor to secure over $15.8 billion in new capital investment in the first 16 months of his administration.” The Commonwealth of Virginia consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top states to do business with a wide range of thriving industries including agriculture, forestry, tourism, information technology, advanced manufacturing, and unmanned systems. “As Virginia’s largest private-sector industry, agriculture and forestry are thrilled to play a part in Business Appreciation Month,” said Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Bettina Ring. “Our agriculture and forestry sectors in the Commonwealth are as diverse as Virginia itself, and from traditional farming and forestry operations, to value-added processing, to award-winning wineries and craft beverage production, agritourism operations, and everything in between, we are excited to showcase these industries and the businesses that make them successful.” Read the full proclamation below:  By virtue of the authority vested by the Constitution of Virginia in the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, there is hereby officially recognized: BUSINESS APPRECIATION MONTH WHEREAS, Virginia businesses play essential roles in strengthening our Commonwealth through their innovation, creation, and expansion; and WHEREAS, Virginia businesses are the foundation of sustainable communities across the Commonwealth; and WHEREAS, Virginia businesses provide more than 3.1 million jobs to our residents throughout the Commonwealth and offer a variety of products and services to customers around the globe; and WHEREAS, Virginia’s businesses operate in diverse sectors including cybersecurity, defense, advanced manufacturing, energy, life sciences, tourism, agribusiness, and information technology; and WHEREAS, Virginia is currently home to more than 37 Fortune 1,000 firms and 67 firms with annual revenues of $500 million or more; and WHEREAS, more than ninety-seven percent of Virginia companies are small businesses; and WHEREAS, the Commonwealth recognizes the accomplishments of Virginia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium size businesses, and major employers that contribute greatly to building and sustaining a new Virginia economy; NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ralph S. Northam, do hereby recognize May 2019 as BUSINESS APPRECIATION MONTH in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens. Full Release

Six entrepreneurs will receive funding for innovative resilience-building solutions RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today announced $1.5 million in funding for six business winners of the first-ever RISE Coastal Community Resilience Challenge. The winners will each receive between $160,000 and $310,000 to develop innovative products, services, and workforce development programs to help coastal communities adapt to climate change. These approaches will be demonstrated in the Hampton Roads region with the goal of building economically viable businesses and solutions that are scalable to other communities. “The Commonwealth is well-positioned to create and implement innovative adaptive concepts that will ensure the viability and economic vitality of coastal areas for future generations,” said Governor Northam. “As we continue to look at new ways to address the growing challenge of extreme weather events and sea level rise, these six businesses will be leading the charge to develop, test, and demonstrate cutting-edge products and tangible solutions to improve the resilience of our coastal communities and mitigate the growing risks to Virginians, especially in our Hampton Roads region.” In 2017, Virginia was awarded $120.5 million through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) for innovative solutions to combat sea level rise in the Hampton Roads region. Of the award, HUD allocated $5.25 million to support the development of the nation’s first-of-its-kind resilience innovation hub called RISE, a Norfolk-based non-profit organization that provides businesses the resources to develop and grow resilience-building solutions for coastal communities. RISE’s first initiative has been their signature Coastal Community Resilience Challenge, which was funded with $1.5 million through the Resilience Innovation Fund. “Massive infrastructure projects take years and billions of dollars,” said RISE Executive Director Dr. Paul Robinson. “By developing the Hampton Roads region as a hub of resilience innovation for entrepreneurs, we can accelerate investment in affordable and scalable solutions and establish Hampton Roads as ground zero for the resilience economy.” “Building strong entrepreneurial ecosystems is a key part of our economic plan, and this competition is yet another way we are encouraging growth and success for our small businesses,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “In addition to the groundbreaking work these six winners will be doing, we are excited that two of the winning companies will be relocating from out of state to Hampton Roads for this innovative work.” The 2018 RISE Coastal Community Resilience Challenge topics were identified by more than 60 municipal, national, and international stakeholders and resilience experts during a Challenge Design Workshop organized by RISE and MIT Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with support of the City of Norfolk Resilience Office and sponsorship from Old Dominion University. RISE will work alongside the winners to facilitate access to real-world infrastructure, data, experts and mentors—with the aim of scaling proven solutions nationally and internationally. “As Virginia plans to be resilient with rising seas, recurrent flooding, and more intense and extreme storms, we need an all hands on deck approach to protecting the Commonwealth,” said Secretary of Natural Resources and Chief Resilience Officer of Virginia Matthew Strickler. “I am pleased to see private industry working together with state and federal government to tackle this existential threat to Virginia.” Last November, Governor Northam issued groundbreaking Executive Order Twenty-Four laying out a series of actions the Commonwealth will undertake to bolster Virginia’s resilience to sea level rise and natural hazards and limit the impact of flooding, extreme weather events, and wildfires. This executive order is among the most comprehensive actions undertaken by any state to improve resilience and protect people and property from natural catastrophes. Most significantly, the executive order directs the development of a “Coastal Resilience Master Plan” to protect our coastline from sea level rise and extreme weather. “Robust economic development opportunities related to coastal adaptation needs provide a critical path forward as we develop our Coastal Resilience Master Plan to protect and adapt Virginia’s coast,” said Admiral Ann Phillips, Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection. “Thanks to the hard work and success of RISE, these six entrepreneurs bring creative solutions across a range of today’s needs for our coastal communities, which will help make us more resilient as we prepare for our climate-changed future.” “This initial challenge revealed the promise of our competition model for identifying innovative solutions and growing resilience-focused businesses,” said RISE Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Katerina Oskarsson. “We are currently preparing to open the next Challenge Competition cycle in the summer.” RISE will work with the six small businesses, selected from a pool of 51 applicants, to grow their businesses in a “living laboratory” environment across the Hampton Roads region. For more information on the winners and the next competition cycle, visit www.riseresilience.org. Coastal Community Resilience Challenge Winners: Business Name Project Description Building Resilience Solution Building Resilience Solutions will pilot alternative flood resilience retrofit methods for older and historic structures under various flooding conditions. Constructis Energy Constructis Energy will pilot patent-pending technology that harnesses kinetic energy from traffic to provide power to emergency services, traffic signals and pumps that clear flooded roadways. GROW Oyster Reefs GROW Oyster Reefs will demonstrate a novel concept of oyster reef restoration which will improve the overall water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and reduce effects of flooding by creating an organic seawall. InfraSGA InfraSGA will pilot innovative urban retrofit bio-retention systems that will reduce stormwater flooding while decreasing the design, construction, and operation and maintenance costs. Landscape Resilience Partnership Landscape Resilience Partnership will accelerate the adoption of green infrastructure by growing its workforce training program. This will ensure that Hampton Roads has a well-trained network of skilled workers to design, install and maintain nature-based solutions. Resilient Enterprise Solutions Resilience Enterprise Solutions will offer financing, insurance and home-raising as a single source offering while also establishing a Home Raising Training Academy in Hampton Roads.