Fredericksburg, VA: On Wednesday, November 14th, Dr. Edward DeVilliers received the 2018 Veteran Owned Business of the Year Award at the Veterans Business Bootcamp event held by the Stafford County Economic Development Office.
The Veteran Owned Business Award was established in 2013 at the University of Mary Washington Center for Economic Development to recognize entrepreneurs who served our country through military service, established a successful enterprise, pay it forward through their trade, and have a commitment to the community.
“Marines take special pride in developing leadership traits, such as judgement, dependability, integrity, decisiveness, initiative and loyalty,” said Susan Ball, the Director of the Fredericksburg Small Business Development Center. “[Dr. Ed DeVilliers] learned those lessons well and applied them to establish and grow a great technology solutions company.”
Dr. Edward DeVilliers joined the Marine Corps and held positons such as field artillery and Data Systems Officer. He earned his Masters of Science in Chemistry from the Naval Post Graduate School and went on to receive his PH.D. in Systems engineering from the George Washington University. In 2012, Dr. DeVilliers founded his own company, DeVilliers Technology Solutions LLC. It supports engineering to assess enterprise level data analysis and optimization.
In giving back to the community, Dr. DeVilliers provides support in local schools by preparing high school children for programming competitions, conducting stem-oriented field trips to the National Mathematics Museum in New York and NASA Langley Museum in Hampton Roads.
“I have met many fine business people in this area and in the Innovation Roundtable Director Brian Baker invited me to join,” said Dr. Edward DeVilliers. “I have worked closely with the professionals of the CED. Getting this award reaffirms for me their confidence in me and my company’s hard work. People like Brian Baker and Susan Ball have really taught us how to translate our innovation ideas and goals into reality.”
Dr. Edward DeVilliers is now in consideration for the Virginia Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year award given by the Virginia Small Business Development Centers. Those who earn that honor are recognized on an urn at the state capitol.
UMW Center for Economic Development
The University of Mary Washington Center for Economic Development is in the College of Business, an AACSB accredited business school. The Center for Economic Development operates the UMW Small Business Development Center, the EagleWorks Business Incubation Center, the Government Contracting Assistance Center, and StartUpUMW. The Center is located at the Eagle Village Executive Offices. Learn more at https://economicdevelopment.umw.edu/.