Carol Merchant Kirby

As owner and former chairman of the board of Merchant's Incorporated, Carol Merchant Kirby brings to the table a wealth of knowledge. Her leadership of the largest independent tire and automotive service business in the Mid-Atlantic region, and one of the largest nationally, enabled the corporation to place 59th in the top 500 women-owned businesses in the United States by Working Woman Magazine in June 2001.

In addition to guiding Merchant's Incorporated to success, she created the concept and developed the Hopkins Candy Factory in Manassas, a 1890s Virginia Historic Landmark building, as a Center for the Arts; lobbied city council to introduce concepts, professional study, and historic preservation building plan for first-floor visual exhibitions and third-floor theater for plays and musical concerts.

She is also the founder and charter president of the Virginia Main Street Program for downtown revitalization in Old Town Manassas and has been a board member of Historic Manassas Incorporated since 1986. President of the Manassas Dance Company, she has been a charter board member of Manassas Performing Arts Inc. since its founding in 1983.

Carol Merchant Kirby earned bachelor of arts degrees in English and Government at the University of West Florida.