interest in all of these companies
that make for a smooth ride on the
electronic highway, not to mention
his stake in Lincoln Holdings, which
owns the Washington Capitals and
Mystics. At this year’s Sundance
Film Festival, he debuted his fi lm
Nanking, and sold the rights for
$2 million to Fortissimo Films. Of
the $425 million estimated to be
weighing down his pockets these
days, the Georgetown-educated
tycoon and his wife, Lynne, give
back a goodly portion through the
Leonsis Family Foundation, which
helps underprivileged children.
ELEANOR MERRILL
A promotion is usually an occasion
for champagne uncorking and hearty
back-slaps; however, Ellie Merrill’s
ascent to the top of the Washingtonian
masthead was a somber affair. All of
Washington mourned last year when
authorities had found the sailboat of
her entrepreneurial husband, publisher
Phillip Merrill, sans captain. Phillip
Merrill had added the magazine to
his holdings for $3.6 million decades
earlier and led it to profi tability in the
neighborhood of $75 million, should
he have wished to resell. An early
stock buyer in The Washington Post and
owner of the Annapolis Capital, Merrill
had also been a political powerhouse;
he worked at the State Department
during the Kennedy/Johnson years
and was president of the Export-
Import Bank and senior U.S. offi cial
to NATO under Bush senior. Wife
Ellie was no slouch either – she was a
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congressional liaison offi cer for Latin
America at the U.S. Department of
State, and served as press secretary to
Sen. Kenneth B. Keating (R-New
York). In the wake of the tragedy, Ellie
Merrill will use her capable hands at
work while remaining active in the
philanthropic realm; a trustee of Ford’s
Theater and the Shakespeare Theater
as well as a member of the community
boards of the Kennedy Center, Merrill
keeps busy by giving back.
MAGALEN OHRSTROM
Magalen Ohrstrom Bryant
oversees the inheritances from her
father, the founder of Johnson &
Johnson. The reclusive Ohrstrom
family owns shares in Dover Corp.
and Carlisle Cos. in New York, as
well as Winchester, Va.-based plastics
maker O’Sullivan Corp. An active
environmentalist, she’s president of the
board of the Environmental Resources
Trust, a Washington group dedicated
to preserving the global environment.
Her brother George, who died three
years ago, and with whom she comanaged
the family holdings, was a
classmate of former president George
H.W. Bush at Greenwich Country
Day School in Connecticut and an
investor in the current President
Bush’s Texas oil business.
GEORGE PEDERSEN
9/11, as we’ve all heard ad
nauseum, changed America forever;
the resulting sense of hyper-paranoia
gave birth not only to long lines
at the airport but to a brave new |
industry of security and government
watch-doggery, which meant big
business for George Pedersen and
ManTech, Inc. Occupying the
somewhat Orwellian role of being
cyber-McGruff, ManTech is a leading
provider of technologies for “missioncritical”
national security programs
for the intelligence community, the
Department of Defense and other
federal customers. Pedersen cofounded
the company in 1968, but the
red-alert levels of terror in the post
9/11 period are what propelled the
company to go public in 2001 with
an IPO of $115 million. Pedersen,
who acknowledges that his “only real
hobby in life” is the business, won’t be
bored anytime soon – during 2003,
ManTech Inc. and its 6,000 employees
won several federal contracts with a
total estimated value in excess of $1
billion. Now that’s taking a bite out
of crime.
ABE POLLIN
The man who brought back
downtown Washington owns 51
percent of the Wizards, currently
valued at about $400 million. The
well-liked one-time developer also
owns all or most of the Verizon
Center. He bought the Capitals
franchise for $1 million and turned
it over for approximately $85 million
to Ted Leonsis and his partners at
Lincoln Holdings. An avid tennis
player, Pollin holds the record as the
longest running team owner in the
NBA. He also holds some sort of
record for being the only man with |
enough backbone (and chutzpah) to
fi re Michael Jordan. He’s estimated
to be worth about $250 million, but
“Money Bags,” and “Our Banker” say
that his real estate holdings make him
worth much, much more..
ROBERT ROSENTHAL
This dealer of wheels in a town
of wheeler-dealers opened his first
Chevy sales lot when the big car was
king, a coy glance over a frosty sodafountain
malted was a fi rst date and
Mister Sandman sent us a dream.
From 1954 to today, Rosenthal’s star
has risen from that lone Arlington
metal-moving shop to a constellation
chain of 19 dealerships doing $1
billion in annual sales. In later years,
following the Crazy Ed’s Cars credo
of “Everything must go!”, the car
czar sold off some of his automotive
lots for real estate development. An
eye for aesthetics as well for a great
bargain, Rosenthal uses some of his
car cash to sit pretty on the National
Gallery of Art Trust Council.
MICHAEL SAYLOR
Co-founder, chairman and CEO
of MicroStrategy, Saylor’s $318 million
fortune is down by several billion from
his heyday (rumor has it he lost $2
billion during one transatlantic fl ight
because he kept his money invested in
stock of the company he believes in).
Known for his over-the-big-top persona
and fabulous parties, he is actually a
thoughtful, soft spoken eccentric with
big aspirations, like starting an online
university for the masses featuring Bill |
