4 Virginia Billionaires Make Forbes 400 List For 2017

Forbes magazine has released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and four billionaires from Virginia made the list — the same quartet who earned spots on the rankings a year ago. Forbes noted that the price of admission to the list jumped nearly 18 percent to $2 billion. There were 26 billionaires on the 2016 list who fell off, and 22 newcomers made the list for the first time.

Bill Gates leads the pack as the richest American in 2017, followed closely by another Seattle-area billionaire, Jeff Bezos. Though the Amazon CEO came in at second place on the Forbes 400 list released Tuesday, Bezos did for a brief few hours have the distinction of being richer than Gates over the summer thanks to a surge in Amazon stock. (SIGN UP: Subscribe to a Virginia Patch News Alert and Newsletter. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Also See: The 10 States With The Most Millionaires

One of the notable losers on the list was President Donald Trump, Forbes says. According to Forbes, Trump’s fortune fell $600 million to $3.1 billion. Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross fell off the list altogether when he filed disclosure forms showing he had a net worth of less than $1 billion. Another notable bumped from the exclusive list is Kevin Plank of Maryland, founder and CEO of sport apparel maker Under Armour, whose net worth has slumped from $3 billion a year ago to $1.7 billion.

Here is where Virginia’s billionaires land on the list.

• No. 16 Jacqueline Mars: Worth $25.5 billion. Jacqueline, John and Forrest Jr. (who died in July 2016 at age 84) inherited Mars, Inc., headquartered in McLean, in 1999 when their father, Forrest Sr., passed away. Mars is known for candy (3 Musketeers, M&Ms, MilkyWay, etc.) but has many other brands outside the sweets area, including pet food and gum.
• No. 186: Winnie Johnson-Marquart: Worth $3.8 billion; Johnson-Marquart, of Virginia Beach, is president of the Johnson Family Foundation and an heir to the SC Johnson family fortune. The foundation focuses on the environment and issues such as early education and infant mortality. The SC Johnson Co. is best known for brands such as Ziploc, Glade, Drano and Pledge. Her brother, Fisk, leads the company; her sister Helen Johnson-Liepold runs Johnson Financial and Johnson Outdoors.
• No. 278 William Conway Jr.: Worth $2.9 billion; Conway, of McLean, is one of three billionaires who founded and control the $178 billion private equity firm Carlyle Group. He serves as co-CEO along with David Rubenstein. Daniel D'Aniello is chairman. They took the firm public in 2012; Conway previously worked for MCI Communications as CFO.
• No. 278 Daniel D'Aniello: Worth $2.9 billion; D'Aniello, of Vienna, is one of the co-founders of the $178 billion private equity firm Carlyele Group. Today he runs the day to day operations of the firm. Forbes notes D'Aniello's humble beginnings, growing up in Butler, Pa., working to help his single mom by bagging groceries. He attended Syracuse University on a scholarship and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard. D'Aniello has made charitable gifts to several universities including his alma mater.

According to Forbes, these are the 10 richest Americans in 2017:

Bill Gates, net worth $89 billion, Microsoft (1)

Jeff Bezos, net worth $81.5 billion, Amazon (2)

Warren Buffett, net worth $78 billion, Berkshire Hathaway (3)

Mark Zuckerberg, net worth $71 billion, Facebook (4)

Larry Ellison, net worth $59 billion, software (5)

Charles Koch, net worth $48.5 billion, diversified (6)

David Koch, net worth $48.5 billion, diversified (6)

Michael Bloomberg, net worth $46.8 billion, Bloomberg LP (8)

Larry Page, net worth $44.6 billion, Google (9)

Sergey Brin, net worth $43.4 billion, Google (10)

>>> Click here to see the full list.

To come up with the rankings of the 400 richest Americans, Forbes journalists started with a list of about 600 people considered strong candidates. Forbes looked at public records, news stories and when possible interviewed the candidates in person or via phone. All types of assets were taken into account, and Forbes also factored in debt.

»Photo: Jacqueline B. Mars arrives for the formal Artist's Dinner honoring the recipients of the 39th Annual Kennedy Center Honors hosted by United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, December 3, 2016. (Photo by Ron Sachs - Pool via Getty Images)