through fi re. Johnson, the ex-wife
of BET co-founder Robert Johnson,
may predate Oprah Winfrey as the
fi rst black female billionaire, but
she’s “seen fi re and she’s seen rain,”
as the song goes – at least before the
sale of BET to Viacom in 2001 for
roughly $3 billion dollars. These days
she’s as involved in the arts as she
once was in television production –
she donated $2.5 million to the Hill
School’s performing arts program
and sits on the board at Parsons
School of Design. Then there are
the other prerequisites to being a
billionaire, including her own sports
team (Washington Mystics), donating
to political causes and establishing a
charitable foundation that donated
$5 million to the University of
Virginia for the Sheila C. Johnson
Center of Human Services. Looks
like this former media player has all
the bases covered
ROBERT KOGOD
Robert Kogod married into the
Charles E. Smith real estate family
and was soon building Crystal
City. A generous philanthropist, he
once handed $25 million to the
Smithsonian Institution. None of
those museums bear his name, but
we do fi nd the Robert and Arlene
Kogod Theatre at the University of
Maryland, the Kogod Center for the
Arts at Sidwell Friends School, the
The Kogod School of Business at
American University, and the Robert
and Arlene Kogod Program on Aging
at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
|
THEODORE LERNER, MARK
LERNER, EDWARD COHEN AND
ROBERT TANENBAUM
Avoiding the spotlight has paid
off handsomely for Ted Lerner,
whose company, Lerner Enterprises
has built in excess of 22,000 homes
and 6,000 apartments, plus some 20
million square feet of retail and other
commerical space (like White Flint and
Tysons Corner). And in 2006 he and
his family came up the winner as the
new owners of the Washington baseball
franchise. A hard-nosed businessman –
he once fi red his own brother – Lerner
is known as a micromanager. In 2003,
the Annette M. and Theodore N.
Lerner Family Foundation dispensed
$2.5 million. Still in the game? You
better believe it.
DAVID RUBENSTEIN, DANIEL
AKERSON, FRANK CARLUCCI,
WILLIAM CONWAY AND DANIEL
D’ANIELLO
The Carlyle Group: they’re all
smarter and richer than you are. A
global private equities fi rm with $56
billion of assets under management,
none of these fi nancial brains are
being left out in the cold. It’s grown
considerably under the direction of
co-founder and managing director
Rubenstein, a former Carter
administration aid, who tends to have
a fi nger in nearly every pie in the bake
shop. He’s also a fi xture on the boards
of numerous schools, companies and
foundations, as anyone who gets
an average return of 25 percent per
year on investments can afford to be.
|
But he gives from the heart as well
as the wallet; Rubenstein has given
millions to his alma mater, Duke
University, funded the Princeton
Project on National Security and,
most recently, gave $5 million to Johns
Hopkins to support the building of a
new outpatient facility for children
and young adults: The David M.
Rubinstein Child Health Building.
Conway has the credentials in
spades. A graduate of Dartmouth
College and the University of Chicago
Graduate School of Business, it’s no
surprise that this level of education
would lead to smart career choices
and, in the new age of cellular
communications, nothing’s hotter than
being chairman of Nextel, CFO of
MCI and co-lead independent director
of the board of directors of Sprint-
Nextel. He¹s been all three. Prior to
being king of cell phones, Conway
served the First National Bank of
Chicago in various capacities and
founded The Carlyle Group.
Carlucci has a killer intellect, he’s
a member of RAND, the war on
terror’s metaphorical brain, and was
defense secretary during the 9/11
attacks. As chairman emeritus of the
Carlyle Group and the American
Academy of Diplomacy, Carlucci’s a
businessman with brains to spare.
D’Aniello, who also graduated
from Harvard Business School (see
a pattern?), went on to be a fi nancial
officer at Pepsico and TWA and
then vice president for Finance
and Development at Marriott
Corporation. He’s got the chops and
|
business acumen to sit at the table
with these brainy fellows.
Akerson, co-head of the group’s
U.S. Buyout Fund, played a major role
in the evolution and development of
the U.S. telecommunications industry,
serving as chairman and CEO of
MCI, General Instrument and XO
Communications, Inc. A Naval
Academy graduate, Akerson now
gives back by serving as a director of
the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation
and sits on the boards of American
Express and United Components,
which Carlyle purchased for $800
million in 2003.
B.F.“FRANK” SAUL II AND
B.F.“FRANK” SAUL III
The son and grandson of
Washington mortgage lenders, 1969
saw Frank Saul opening a bank – in
a trailer. Today, Chevy Chase Bank
is the area’s largest locally-owned
bank, crossing Maryland and Virginia.
Chances are you’ve stood in the
holdings of the B.F. Saul Real Estate
Investment Trust: numerous hotels
and office buildings throughout
Washington and the Mid-Atlantic. His
generosity stretches from recipients
of Catholic Charities to helping
Providence Hospital in Northeast
D.C. build a new nursing home.
$750 MILLION TO $10 BILLION
A. JAMES CLARK
In the lineup of area general
contractors, Clark Construction Group,
Inc. is a fi rst world power. Recently
|
