Barry E. DuVal is an American politician from Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. He was elected to the City Council of Newport News, Virginia

Newport News, Virginia

Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...

 in 1988, and in 1990 was elected mayor. He served in that role until 1996. He has also served as the President and CEO of the Hampton Roads Partnership, a group that brings together the cities and counties of the Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

 area with local universities and businesses in order to promote the region's economic interests. His service in this field led then-Governor Jim Gilmore

Jim Gilmore

James Stuart "Jim" Gilmore III is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia, former 68th Governor of Virginia, and a member of the Republican Party. A native Virginian, Gilmore studied at the University of Virginia, and then served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence agent...

to appoint DuVal to be his Secretary of Commerce and Trade, a position he held from 1998 until 2001.