Economic development group hires new director for defense group

Earlier this year, the Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development assumed control of the Defense Affairs Committee, a group created under the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Now the CVPED has hired Miles Davis II as the new director. His last position was in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and has over 20 years of experience in national security. Davis spent 12 of them at the National Ground Intelligence Center.

“We are very excited to have Miles join our team,” said Helen Cauthen, president of the CVPED. “The transition of DAC to CVPED is now complete, and we look forward to expanding the geographic reach and impact of DAC across the entire CVPED region.”

In 2023 a Weldon Cooper Center study commissioned by the Chamber concluded that the defense industry has an annual impact of $1.2 billion a year as I reported at the time.

“We’re not manufacturing tanks, we’re not doing weapons systems,” said Lettie Bien, the program manager for the DAC at the time. “We’re not doing weapons systems. This is mostly intelligence, research and development.”

Albemarle County has bet big on the future of the industry by purchasing over 450 acres of land around Rivanna Station where NGIC and other agencies operate. The ultimate goal is to create a campus for innovation in the intelligence sector.

Supporting the defense industry is Goal #1 of the recently adopted Economic Development Strategic Plan.

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