Activation Capital, the state authority that manages the VA Bio+Tech campus in downtown Richmond, named Michael Steele, a veteran of the medical technology industry, as its new CEO.

Steele replaces Chandra Briggman, who left in a dispute last summer. Since her departure, interim CEO Robert Ward has led the authority.

For three years, Steele was a vice president for Biocartis, a molecular diagnostics company. Before that, he was a vice president for five other medical and diagnostic testing companies for 20 years. He also ran his own consulting business.

A Virginia native, Steele earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from James Madison University.

Briggman left in 2024 after members of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration felt dissatisfied with her performance, a state delegat

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