A Chatham native and a 1960 graduate of Hargrave, Ben attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, graduating from the Pamplin College of Business in 1964 with a BA in business. Ben helped grow his father’s company, Davenport Energy, once a small oil jobbership, into a multifaceted company providing quality petroleum products to a customer base throughout southside Virginia and North Carolina. The company, where Ben is Chair, has seven regional offices serving more than 21,000 customers. Ben is also Chair of First Piedmont Corporation, a full-service waste management company with services in Virginia and North Carolina. In addition to his business interests, Ben is involved in a variety of activities. He is a board member of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries; the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation; American National Bank and Trust; Boxley Materials; the Danville Regional Foundation; the Future of the Piedmont Foundation; and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, which was created in 2004 with Virginia Tech as an academic partner. Ben has served on the Pamplin Advisory Council, the Virginia Tech Foundation Board, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Policy Advisory Board, and participated in the Hokies for Higher Education initiative. Through his exceptional generosity to Virginia Tech, he was made a member of the Ut Prosim Society President’s Circle.
