11-04-2025
Virginia's billionaire club grows
Virginia is now home to a whopping 10 members of the billionaires club, according to Forbes' annual list.
Why it matters: That's two more billionaires than the state had last year.
Driving the news: Bob Pender, co-founder of Arlington-based liquefied natural gas company Venture Global Inc, is one of two new-to-the-list Virginia-dwelling billionaires.
Pender is a Falls Church resident worth around $9.1 billion. He and his co-founder took their company public in January (good timing), Washington Business Journal reports.
He's joined as a Forbes list first-timer by Sheila Johnson, Salamander Collection CEO (and BET cable channel co-founder), who's been called "America's first Black female billionaire," per WBJ.
Johnson's worth an even $1 billion and lives in The Plains, a little town about an hour west of D.C.
Follow the money: The Plains is also home to the state's richest resident and the 34th wealthiest person on the planet, Jacqueline Mars.
Mars has topped Virginia's list for more than a decade thanks to a family fortune built on Snickers, Twix and Milky Way.
She has an estimated net worth this year of $42.6 billion.
Other Virginia billionaires include:
Pamela Mars, Jacqueline's niece, who lives in Alexandria and is worth $10.7 billion. That makes her the second-wealthiest person in Virginia.
Winifred J. Marquart, a Virginia Beach resident and heir to the S. C. Johnson company, which owns Pledge, Windex and Ziploc bags, $4.7 billion.
Daniel D'Aniello, co-founder of the private equity firm Carlyle Group and Vienna resident, $4.4 billion.
William Conway Jr., co-founder of Carlyle Group and McLean resident, $3.9 billion.
Steve Case, co-founder of the investment firm Revolution and AOL before that. He lives in McLean and is worth $2.4 billion.
Richard Fairbank, chairman and CEO of Capital One. He's also in McLean and is worth $1.3 billion.
Craig Abod, founder and owner of Carahsoft, a Reston-based technology company. He lives in Great Falls and is worth $1.1 billion.
