Five Virginia businesses – BandyWorks, Morgan Lumber Company, Inc., ParknPool Corporation, Solid Stone Fabrics, Inc., and Marstel-Day, LLC – have won the coveted Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards from a field of 106 applicants. Winners receive full scholarship funding to send one member of their firm to a top-ranked Executive Education program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

The Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards Competition, sponsored by Darden’s Tayloe Murphy Center, spotlights successful businesses that are beating the odds in Virginia – businesses located in economically challenged communities but which can demonstrate economic growth, job creation and community leadership over the past five years. This year’s winning businesses performed with excellence in each category and were announced last night at a dinner in U. Va.’s Rotunda.

Remarkably, from 2005 through 2008, winners demonstrated an average annual profit growth rate of 122 percent, compared to the state average of just 22 percent, and average annual employment growth rates of 114 percent, compared to Virginia’s 1.6 percent.

“Our hope is that these awards help underscore that there are innovative firms across the Commonwealth that create great products and services, jobs and wealth in their communities,” said Executive Director of the Tayloe Murphy Center Gregory B. Fairchild, who is an associate professor of business administration at Darden.

Winners also earned high marks for solidly supporting their communities, for example, Petersburg-based BandyWorks, which specializes in Internet-based software applications for a wide range of public and private organizations, strengthens its hometown by co-sponsoring wine festivals and charity golf events as well as working directly with local officials to promote economic development and revitalization initiatives.

Red Oak’s Morgan Lumber Company, Inc.,a producer of high quality southern pine lumber and the parent of Sunrise Shavings, LLC, and Morgan Lumber Sales, Inc., has endowed two scholarships at Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources. Preference is given to local applicants.

ParknPool Corporation, a woman- and veteran-owned business located in Lexington, and which supplies commercial site amenities and restaurant furnishings to other businesses, is deeply committed to developing an internal culture of personal growth. To that end, the business routinely provides employees access to life coaches, motivational speakers and health experts.

Martinsville’s Solid Stone Fabrics, Inc.,which manufactures (in the U.S.) and sources stretch fabrics from all over the world and operates a cut and sew department as well as a custom digital printing facility, annually donates funds to the local high school to make sure every young man who graduates has a dress shirt and tie to wear for the occasion.

“These firms are evidence that even in areas characterized as the Commonwealth’s most challenging, there are entrepreneurial firms that add uncommon value,” Fairchild noted.

This year’s Chairman’s Award winner is Marstel-Day, LLC, an environmental consulting firm in Fredericksburg whose trademark work is in conservation planning, land use sustainability, water resource analyses and encroachment management. This special award is chosen by the chairman of the judges’ panel, the Honorable Tayloe Murphy Jr., the son and namesake of the man for whom the Tayloe Murphy Center was named.

Mr. Murphy Jr. served as Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources from 2002 to 2006 and, while a member of the General Assembly from 1982 to 2000, was instrumental in passing the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and the Water Quality Improvement Act. In announcing his choice, Mr. Murphy said, “Marstel-Day stood out for me because of my own background in conservation. The exploitation of our natural resources is harmful to the economy whereas the preservation and wise use of those resources promotes economic growth. The work they are doing at Marstel-Day is good for the economy and good for the health of our environment.”

Other judges for this year’s Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards Competition are: Susian Brooks, director, Darden Executive Education; Darden graduate Michael Gurau (MBA ’92), who is president of CEI Community Ventures as well as founder and president of Clear Innovation Partners; Jane Henderson, president and CEO of Virginia Community Capital; and Darden graduate Mark Kilduff (MBA ’66), an economic development consultant in New Kent County, Virginia.

Founded in 1954, the Darden School of Business is a professional school that improves society by developing principled leaders in the world of practical affairs.

For more information, contact communication@darden.virginia.edu.