Three Northern Virginia Billionaires Make 2014 Forbes 400 Richest List

The annual Forbes 400 list is out and there aren’t too many surprises — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Oracle’s Larry Ellison are at the top of the country’s billionaire heap.

According to Forbes, which has been compiling the list since 1982, the stock market is the reason why the rich “just keep getting richer.” Forbes reports that in order to make the magazine’s Top 400 list, one’s net worth had to be $1.55 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2013. Given the level of the bottom rung of the list, Forbes reports that 113 billionaires “didn’t make the cut.” The aggregate wealth of the Top 400 list stands at a commanding $2.3 trillion.

In Virginia, four billionaires did make the cut — including three in Northern Virginia: one who lives in McLean, one formerly from McLean who now lives in The Plains (but whose company is headquartered in McLean), and one from Vienna.

Here are the Virginia billionaires:

#19 Jacqueline Mars, 74, formerly of McLean, now a resident of The Plains, net worth $22.2 billion; Jacqueline Mars and her two brothers, Forrest Jr. and John, own the secretive ($33 billion) candy maker Mars, headquartered in McLean. All three siblings serve on its board of directors, but the family has no role in day-to-day operations, according to Forbes.

#195 Daniel D’Aniello, 68, of Vienna, net worth $3 billion; Forbes notes in its article that “D’Aniello has come a long way from his beginnings in Butler, Pa., helping his single mother pay the bills by bagging groceries. Today he chairs the $200 billion (assets) Carlyle Group, and runs the firm’s day-to-day operations.”

#195 William Conway, Jr., 65, of McLean, net worth $3 billion; Conway ties for #195 with D’Aniello on the list. Both work at the same private equity firm. Forbes notes that “Conway is part of the triumvirate running the $200 billion (assets) private equity firm Carlyle Group.”

#230 Winnie Johnson-Marquart, 55, of Virginia Beach, net worth $2.7 billion; Johnson-Marquart is the president of the Johnson Family Foundation and an heir to the SC Johnson family fortune. The privately-held company is best-known for brands such as Ziploc, Glade, Drano and Pledge and has estimated sales of over $9 billion, according to Forbes.

The full Forbes story, can be found here.

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