Forbes unveiled its annual roundup this week of America’s 400 richest citizens, and while the list is headlined by the astronomically wealthy likes of Elon Musk (net worth of $263.2 billion), Jeff Bezos ($141.4 billion), and Bill Gates ($103 billion), it also features five billionaires that call the Commonwealth home.
Leading the pack of Virginia’s financial elite is Jacqueline Mars, a resident of The Plains and one-third owner of the Mars candy company, whose net worth topped out a $35.7 billion this year, or about $4 billion more than her net worth in 2021.
Jacqueline’s niece and heir to the savory Mars empire, Pamela Mars-Wright, came in as the second-richest Virginian with a net worth of $8.9 billion.
Up next, Virginia Beach resident Winifred J. Marquart, the great-great-granddaughter of S.C. Johnson, touts a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Vienna home owner Daniel D’Aniello, the co-founder and chairman of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, came in with a net worth of $3.3 billion, a number that fell from his $4.6 billion net worth in 2021.
Rounding out Virginia’s richest with a net worth of $2.9 billion is William Conway, Jr., a McLean resident who founded the Carlyle Group alongside D’Aniello. Like his Carlyle counterpart, Conway’s worth dipped from 2021, when it sat at $4 billion.
The decreases in individual net worth among the aforementioned billionaires was not unique to Virginians. In total, the value of the 400 richest Americans was down approximately $500 billion from last year, the most substantial losses since the Great Recession, the Forbes report said.
At the head of the loss category was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who fell to No. 11 this year after landing at No. 3 in 2021. Zuckerberg has reportedly lost a staggering $76.8 billion since Sept. 2021, more than half of his previous fortune.
Feature image, Lesia/stock.adobe.com
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