Our Executive Leadership Team

• Ida is one of Virginia’s longest serving and most respected African American female attorneys.
• Attorney McPherson was appointed by Republican Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell in 2010 to serve as the Director of the Virginia Department of Minority Business Enterprise, which later became the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. In addition to her senior executive level Program Management duties as the Director of this important state agency, she was also responsible for administering special financing programs for Virginia small businesses that totaled $8.5 billion annually in state funded grants and loans as the head of the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority.
• In her appointed statewide leadership position as an Advisor to the Governor, she was responsible for managing the State’s Small, Women-owned and Minority owned (SWaM) Certification Program. In this key role for the Governor, she also successfully secured an annual average of $2.8 billion in state government procurement contracts that were awarded to certified Small, Women-owned and Minority owned businesses.
• She was also appointed by Republican Virginia Governor James Gilmore to serve on The Virginia Manufactured Housing Board
• Ida is an Honors Cum Laude Graduate of the prestigious Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., where she earned a Juris Doctor Degree.
• She is also a Past President of the Virginia Association of Black Women Attorneys, which positioned her to be able to establish a network of high-level contacts throughout the Commonwealth that will benefit our clients.
• Born and raised in Suffolk, Virginia, Ida is a highly skilled attorney, and her concentration is in business, government affairs and contract law.

Rich Williams has over 30 years of combined experience as a distinguished appointed leader in state and federal government and as a business executive. He has served as a gubernatorial appointee in the administrations of three Governors of Virginia, as the appointed State Director for a United States Senator and as a Senior Advisor to the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In these leadership roles, Rich was responsible for developing and maintaining positive relationships with members of the General Assembly and with private sector business leaders and community leaders throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

• He also served as the Acting Director and as Deputy Director of the Virginia Lottery, which is a state agency that currently oversees over $3 billion in revenue that benefits Virginia’s public schools throughout the Commonwealth. In his leadership role with the Virginia Lottery, he also developed and managed this major state agency’s guidelines that focused on achieving the goals of the Governor’s Small, Women and Minority (SWaM) Business Plan and he significantly increased the Virginia Lottery’s annual procurement spend with certified Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned companies.
• As a Special Advisor to the Governor, he also served as the Governor’s Liaison for regular regional meetings between leaders of the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Washington D.C. In this role in the Office of the Governor, he also promoted efforts of Regional Tourism, Transportation related issues and restoration of The Chesapeake Bay. He also collaborated with various constituent groups throughout Virginia to promote diverse gubernatorial appointments and public policy initiatives including working with communities to secure more resources for crime reduction, after school programs and healthcare services for children in need.
• He is also an experienced business development consultant who has provided consulting services to numerous major companies and organizations.
• He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in American Government from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which is one of our nation’s most prestigious academic universities.He resides in the Richmond area community of Glen Allen with his wife Karen.