Washington Life Magazine - June 2017

T h e

W e a lt h

&

p h i l a n t h r o p y

I s s u e

special report

Wealth List $200 MILLION TO $82 BILLION WHO HAS IT ... how they got it ... AND WHO GIVES IT AWAY

CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER PARTY ROUND-UP book talk david callahan on charitable giving inside homes adrienne arsht’s palatial residence

+

nuptials of note jonathan capehart and nick schmit’s power wedding the dish FABIO TRABOCCHI’S QUARTET OF RESTAURANTS the new manners jeremiah tower on dining etiquette real estate news luxury listings from $10-20 million

&

top WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS ON COVERING president TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS

pa rt i pa es! rt Pa ie rt s! ie s!

the

67 41

18 '328)287 JUNE 2017

EDITOR'S LETTER ..........................................

FEATURES SPECIAL REPORT THE WEALTH LIST ...

BOOK TALK 'The Givers' by David Callahan .......

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT Children's National Medical Center Healing Garden Dedication with Melania Trump ..........

WASHINGTON SOCIAL DIARY EMBASSY ROW JustYour Normal Week in Washington .......................

Kennedy Center Spring Gala...................................

HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMAC Social Dynamics in the Hamptons.............................

National Museum of Women in the Arts Gala..............

OVER THE MOON

FYIDC INSIDER'S GUIDE ........................................

THE DISH The Trabocchi Tasting Trail .................

POLLYWOOD WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER ROUNDTABLE .............................

NUPTIALS OF NOTE Jonathan Capehart and Nick

'North Wales' Goes on the Market ............................

St. Jude Gourmet Gala ..........................................

Jarvis Real Estate Anniversary Party ..........................

PenFed 'Night of Heroes' Gala ................................

Rock the Stacks....................................................

WeWork Creator Awards ........................................

Chance for Life ....................................................

Schmit's Washington Wedding..............................

YOA Orchestra of the Americas Gala ........................

THE SHOW MUST GO ON:White House Correspondents' Weekend Parties ............................

THEARC Wacky and Whimsical Tea .......................

LIFESTYLES FASHION Fair Lady ........................................

WOMEN'S WATCHES Stay Gold ..................

THE NEW MANNERS Jeremiah Tower on Dining Etiquette ..........................

21

Inova Lobster Extravaganza ....................................

Innocents at Risk Gala ..........................................

Parties, Parties, Parties! ...........................................

14

HOME LIFE INSIDE HOMES Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht's Regal Residence ...........

REAL ESTATE NEWS ...................................

OPEN HOUSE ..............................................

IN MEMORIUM Trish Vradenburg .......................

ON THE COVER: Wealth Portraits and Trish Vradenburg TOP FROM LEFT: White House Correspondents Roundtable (Photo by Tony Powell); Adrienne Arsht in her home (Photo by Tony Powell); Melania Trump at Children's National Medical Center Healing Garden (Photo by Tony Powell), Nick Schmit and Jonathan Capehart (Photo by Tony Powell), Appetizer at Fiola Mare (Photo by Tony Brown)

6

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

T H E I N S I D E R’S G U I D E TO P OW E R , P H I L A N T H R O PY, A N D SO C I E T Y S I N C E 1 9 9 1

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Nancy Reynolds Bagley EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Virginia Coyne SENIOR EDITOR

Kevin Chaffee DEPUTY EDITOR

Erica Moody ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Catherine Trifiletti CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Roland Flamini COPY EDITOR

Evan Berkowitz COLUMNISTS AND CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Janet Donovan, Steve Houk,Vicky Moon, Stacey Grazier Pfarr and Donna Shor ART DIRECTOR

Matt Rippetoe PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Tony Powell CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Joy Asico,Tony Brown, Ben Droz, Alfredo Flores,Vithaya Phongsavan, Kyle Samperton, Erin Schaff and Jay Snap

PUBLISHER & CEO

Soroush Richard Shehabi SALES AND MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE

John Arundel BOOKKEEPER

Michelle Frazer WEB TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT

Eddie Saleh,Triposs Mihail Iliev LEGAL

Mason Hammond Drake, Akerman, LLP EDITORIAL INTERNS

Weng Cheong and Emily Rosenkoetter

FOUNDER

Vicki Bagley CREATIVE DIRECTOR EMERITUS (*)

J.C. Suarès CHAIRMAN, EXECUTIVE BOARD

Gerry Byrne Washington Life magazine publishes ten times a year. Issues are distributed in February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, November, and December and are hand-delivered on a rotating basis to over 150,000 homes throughout D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland. Additional copies are available at various upscale retailers, hotels, select newstands, and Whole Foods stores in the area. For a complete listing, please consult our website at www.washingtonlife.com. You can also subscribe online at www.washingtonlife.com or send a check for $79.95 (one year) to: Washington Life Magazine, 2301 Tracy Place NW, Washington D.C., 20008. BPA audited. Email us at info@washingtonlife.com with press releases, tips, and editorial comments. Copyright ©2011 by Washington Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content or photos in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States. We will not be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. *deceased

EDITOR’S LETTER

UNIMAGINABLE WEALTH

W

e knew we had a daunting task ahead when we decided to produce another list of the national capital region’s wealthiest residents. Certainly much had changed since the last time we compiled one in June 2008, just as the Great Recession was taking hold. The recovery has been strong, especially for those at the apex — the one-hundredth of one-percent — who are the focus of this year’s formidable numbers-crunching and fact-checking effort.

For one thing, there are more billionaires than ever before. Forbes magazine lists 11 in the region but that does not include the influx of super-moneyed Cabinet members brought in by President Donald Trump, nor Trump himself (as his exact net worth remains a closely guarded secret). By our count, there are 26 billionaires in our midst.

Mere multi-millionaires are also numerous, especially real estate developers who have played a large role in the area’s rapid growth.

Sports entrepreneurs are also noted, as are high-tech innovators, and those representing the military industrial complex and its never ending pursuit of new and more effective weaponry.

Philanthropy has come back strongly after the economic setback as well although it is still recovering. The cultural arena has been lavishly endowed, ranging from a major expansion of the Kennedy Center to the Smithsonian Institutions’ brand new National African American Museum of History and Culture. The less advantaged have also been the recipients of benefactors’ largesse, especially from younger donors, as have environmental causes.

To understand further how philanthropy is changing, we talked to David Callahan, author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age” whose book takes a look at how this new donor class is changing the country with their charitable giving.

Businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht gives us a glimpse inside the 13,000-square-foot Greek Revival mansion she’s made her hub here in Washington. Arsht, who formerly served as chairman of TotalBank, which she and her late husband owned, has used her wealth to endow the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center in Miami to the tune of $30 million, a theater program at the

10

Kennedy Center and the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience at the Atlantic Council.

Just in time for warmer weather, Children’s National Medical Center unveiled its new outdoor Healing Garden for patients. The outdoor space was dedicated to the first ladies of the United States and Melania Trump was there to extend her best wishes for the garden’s success and we have the exclusive photos.

The wealth issue was also a perfect opportunity to highlight stunning timepieces from local jewelers. And with summer approaching, we were definitely ready to push those neutral clothes to the back of the closet and have some fun with bold colors, patterns and textures. Glen Echo Park served as the ideal backdrop for our playful fashion editorial this month, complete with all things summer – candy, carousel and bumper cars.

As Washington continues to develop into a world class food destination it seemed fitting to highlight Fabio Trabocchi, a chef and restaurateur who is boldly experimenting with new concepts without abandoning his traditional fine dining roots. We’re sure you will enjoy his four stellar restaurants as much as we did.

As the social season comes to a close, we’ve included party coverage of some very special WL-sponsored events like the National Museum of Women in the Art’s 30th Anniversary Gala, PenFed Foundation’s Night of Heroes and Inova Hospital Center’s Lobster Fest, as well as the Kennedy Center Spring Gala and tribute to John Lennon.

Nancy R. Bagley Editor in Chief Readers wishing to contact Nancy Bagley can email her at nbagley@washingtonlife.com

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

FYIDC The Insider’s Guide to Washington

BY ERICA MOODY

JUNE

AL FRANKEN BOOK TALK Whether you love him for his politics or from “Saturday Night Live,” there’s no question that Sen. Al Franken is multifaceted. The intriguing comic-turned-politician spills all in his new book “Giant of the Senate” and will share his career highlights with his signature humor at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. June 6, $35, Doors 6 p.m., Show 7 p.m.

CAPITAL PRIDE Miley Cyrus will headline the Capital Pride concert this year, joining an impressive lineup that includes the Pointer Sisters. Every year the nonprofit Capital Pride Alliance hosts a celebration of the District’s LGBTA community with a weekend of events including a concert, festival and one of the largest gay pride parades in the country. June 8-11, FREE admission, capitalpride.org.

FATHER’S DAY AT MOUNT VERNON Take dad to Mount Vernon for a memorable Father’s Day weekend where “George Washington” himself will discuss his role as “Father to the First Family.”

There will be dining specials at Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant and costumed demonstrations at George Washington’s Distillery and Gristmill. 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, June 17-18, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tickets start at $9 for kids, $18 for adults and $16 for seniors, mountvernon.org.

5-6

MCO N CONFERENCE “GIRLS” star Allison Williams will headline MCON’s second event in Washington geared towards millennials and covering the topics of social justice, planet and identity to over 1,000 attendees. Other speakers include Voto Latino’s Maria Teresa Kumar, Demos president Heather McGhee and &pizza’s Michael Lastoria. Newseum,Washington, D.C., mcon.events.

7

DI N E-N-DASH

Chef José Andrés and friends plan to shut down some of the District’s best restaurants for a night to give patrons the chance to try 30 restaurants in one night and featuring four hours of endless food and drink. The chefs will offer their favorite sips and bites for the occasion to benefit World Central Kitchen. VIP tickets include a pre-reception and after-party access plus additional exclusive dishes. General Admission $125;VIP $400; dinendash.info.

12

W IL L ON THE HILL

The Shakespeare Theater Company’s 15th annual Will on the Hill benefit is a must-attend bipartisan event. Each spring the company invites members of Congress and Washington influencers to perform an original play infused with comedic references to contemporary politics.VIP tickets include a cocktail reception with cast members and a buffet dinner following the show. Sidney Harman Hall; cocktail reception 6:30 p.m.; performance 7:30 p.m.; $50 general admission; for VIP tickets call 202.547.3230 or email WillontheHill@ShakespeareTheatre.org.

SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL

AUGUST WILSON AT ROUND HOUSE THEATRE The late great playwright August Wilson will be celebrated with a production of his autobiographical play, “How I Learned What I Learned” at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre. Todd Kreidler directs the show that chronicles Wilson’s growth from struggling writer to success story. June 7July 2,Tickets start at $10, roundhousetheatre.org.

12

Schroeder Stribling and Oprah Winfrey at N Street Village 10th Annual Empowerment Luncheon (Photo by Tony Powell)

15

N S TREET VILLAGE EMPOWERMENT LUNCHEON

The 11th annual N Street Village Empowerment Luncheon will celebrate women who matter to the community with a program titled Voices of the Village 2017. Last year’s event had over 600 guests in attendance to hear Oprah Winfrey speak about the importance of supporting women in need. The Ritz-Carlton, Washington D.C.; 12 p.m.; $150; sponsorships start at $2,500; contact Stuart Allen at sallen@nstreetvillage.org or call 202.939.2085.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

CO U RT E SY P H OTOS

Circus Arts is the theme of the 50th annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which takes place over two weekends every summer. The free event includes educational programming and the opportunity to meet and talk with circus families and performers as well as see the gravity-defying work of aerialists and acrobats. National Mall, June 29-July 4 and July 6-9.

FYIDC | THE DISH

THE TRABOCCHI TASTING TRAIL Eat your way through chef and restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi’s dining empire

BY C AT H E R I N E T R I F I L E T T I

|

PHOTOS BY TONY BROWN

T

here is a distinct thread that underlies all four of Fabio and Maria Trabocchi’s restaurants – a cohesion governed by unfaltering commitment to quality. Constantly changing menus signify their dedication to the freshest seasonal ingredients and, even at less costly iterations, thoughtful preparations and photogenic presentations draw on Fabio’s fine dining background. “Each restaurant tells a story about who we are and where we come from,” he says, “They must have a soul, and that soul comes from the real story of our lives and cultural heritage.”

STAY TUNED Come October the Trabocchis’ roster will expand to the new Wharf development with Spanish seafood eatery Del Mar (“of the sea” and Maria’s middle name) that pays homage to her Mallorcan roots.

Tairagai clam in its shell topped with spring vegetables and chard-ramp ponzu

Beet stained goat cheese tortellini with spring peas, asparagus and sage

FIOLA MARE

SFOGLINA

3050 K St NW | (202) 628-0065 | antipasti $20-$36 The Georgetown waterfront gem draws an A-list crowd looking to get a seafood fix while enjoying views of the Potomac River. Nautical finishes and an extensive outdoor patio space are underlaid by Mediterranean sensibilities.

Meticulously plated dishes of superb sustainable seafood comprise a changing menu that gives nod to the Italian coastal communities where Fabio trained.

4445 Connecticut Ave NW | (202) 450-1312 | pasta $22-$25 The Trabocchis’ latest venture pronounced [sfoal-YEE-nah], named after Italian female artisans who have preserved the tradition of hand rolling

and shaping pasta, has breathed new life into the Van Ness neighborhood. Well portioned bowls of differing noodle varieties offer upscale and creative riffs on classics like cheese tortellini (Above).

Traditional A5 Wagyu served with vegetable and roasted garlic ash, baby turnips, radish, spring onions, ramps, baby beets & asparagus

Nonna’s Pastry Cart (including tiramisu, Gran Marnier-soaked Gianduja cake, double chocolate fudge sandwiches & fresh strawberries tossed with mint)

FIOLA

CASA LUCA

601 Pennsylvania Ave NW | (202) 628-2888 | 3, 4 and 5 course menus $95-$135 The first of the Trabocchi eateries serves elevated Italian fare via prix-fixe menus with an impressive wine list to match. Newly-appointed chef Ed Scarpone (an alumnus of Daniel Boulud’s restaurant empire) brought along a covetable Rolodex including Japanese cattle ranchers whose beef is so prized that each cut of meat comes with the cow’s birth certificate.

14

1099 New York Ave NW | (202) 628.1099 | dessert $8-$12 Named after Maria and Fabio’s son Luca, the Penn Quarter osteria emphasizes the family values at the core of the Trabocchis’ DNA. Rustic Italian, Spanish and American favorites inspired by the family’s personal cooking traditions make up the well-rounded menu. Shareable entrees ensure a supreme communal dining experience.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

POLLYWOOD The Nexus of Politics﹐ Hollywood﹐ Media and Diplomacy | White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Gen. James Mattis, Katherine Bradley and Richard Branson at the Bradleys’ White House Correspondents’ welcome dinner. (Photo by Tony Powell)

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

17

Left to Right: White House correspondents Jim Acosta, Ashley Parker, Tara Palmeri, Kevin Corke and Jeff Mason pose atop the W Hotel Washington, D.C.

32 8,) 6)'36( FIVE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS SPEAK CANDIDLY ABOUT COVERING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP.

B Y V I R G I N I A C OY N E | P H O T O G R A P H E D B Y T O N Y P O W E L L AT T H E W H OT E L WA S H I N G T O N D C

%

month before President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and allegations of his campaign’s connections with Russia dominated the headlines, Washington Life gathered five White House correspondents at the W Hotel Washington, D.C. to reflect on what it has been like to cover the president’s first 100 days in office. Among them, CNN’s Jim Acosta, who famously battled with Trump during the then-president-elect’s first news conference; Kevin Corke, a Fox News correspondent now covering his third administration; the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker, whose face had just gone viral after her reaction to Sean Spicer’ s Holocaust comments became a meme on Twitter; Jeff Mason of Reuters, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association; and Politico’s Tara Palmeri, who once

18

covered Donald Trump for the New York Post and had recently been publicly attacked by Spicer, who called her “an idiot with no real sources.” The reporters spoke frankly on everything from the impact of social media to their access to the Oval Office. As we go to print with this story, the president has finished his first trip abroad, which he called “a home run.” The trip removed him from the dogged reporting back home related to the Russia investigation. “The thing that’s exhilarating — other than the return of what feels like a real newspaper war — is that each one of these stories is like a piece of the puzzle,” Parker said of her colleagues’ coverage. “When they’re read and considered in concert — a great Washington Post scoop, a CNN nugget, a New York Times detail — a more full picture emerges.” >>

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

WASHINGTON LIFE I want to start with a ques-

tion directed to Jim. During that first and only news conference Mr. Trump had as presidentelect, before the inauguration, he came out essentially declaring war on the news media, particularly singling out CNN and calling you fake news. What was that like?

JIM ACOSTA I think it was a continuation

of his war against the news media. We saw it during the campaign. He referred to us as the “disgusting news media, the dishonest news media.” We were called liars and crooks and thieves and scum. And so it was not surprising that during that first and only news conference that he had during the transition, he was going to go after us. If you go through the transcript from that news conference it’s rather stunning, one after another attacking the news media, attacking us at CNN, referring to us and what we were reporting as “fake news” and when the president-elect was going around the room calling on people, my attitude was well, why is he skipping over us? Why is he not calling on us? He’s attacking us but he’s not calling on us.

So, that’s why I butted in there and insisted on getting a question and that’s when we had the confrontation.

despicable media.”

KEVIN CORKE It’s also fair to say if you did any reasonable deconstruction of the media analysis of his candidacy from start to finish, all the way up until and through election day, it has been adversarial to a degree that I don’t think I’ve seen toward any other candidate in my lifetime. Because this is a unique environment in a Twitter world, picking a fight with someone who can’t punch you back directly is a win for him. Now, here’s the downside: you pick a fight, they are going to come after you.

´%(,1*

DW D 7UXPS UDOO\ LV VRUW RI OLNH JRLQJ WKURXJK \RXU XQÀOWHUHG 7ZLWWHU PHQWLRQV µ ³-LP $FRVWD Isn’t it true that reporters are being attacked by the public more than ever via social media since the ascension of President Trump? How do you take that criticism?

KEVIN CORKE I’ve certainly been threatened

How striking is it to have a president come out and attack the news media? He did it consistently during the campaign, but this was a formal news conference as a president-elect.

JEFF MASON It’s clearly part of Trump as a can-

didate and President Trump’s style. So, I think it has taken some time to get used to that for reporters who didn’t necessarily cover the campaign; but it’s our job as reporters to continue regardless of what kind of criticism or rhetoric is used by the person we’re covering or the people we’re covering.

ASHLEY PARKER The media is always a really easy and natural punch line for politicians.That was true when I covered Mitt Romney, when I covered Jeb Bush. Democrats do it. Republicans do it. It’s part of the job. But with Trump, what was interesting is he sort of ... professionalized it. In these huge auditoriums he would attack the media and get the crowd in a call and response [attacking the media, too.] We basically became, intentionally on his end, part of the Donald Trump show...about the “disgusting,

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

by people on Twitter and online. The problem is you don’t know if this is just some guy in a basement popping off because he has direct access to someone he sees on television or if it’s someone who really means it.That’s the frightening part about the job in 2017. I never felt that way when I was covering the Bush administration. This is a different landscape.

TARA PALMERI There’s an actual function on Twitter where you can filter out your tweets so you don’t get any alerts for random bot driven nastiness. Then you can’t even see if someone mentioned you.

KEVIN CORKE Teach me that filter, please! [laughter] JIM ACOSTA I did it myself. It’s a game changer.

KEVIN CORKE I get hammered. It’s unbelievable.

JIM ACOSTA Being at a Trump rally is sort of like going through your unfiltered Twitter mentions. [laughter] Do you feel as if you are given enough access

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

at the White House? Are more conservative outlets such as Breitbart given more?

KEVIN CORKE For me it’s been unique, and not

like my first two experiences where we would be considered the opposition. I covered Bush when I was at NBC and they had this jousting back and forth with NBC. I was at Fox covering Obama and they had this jousting with Obama. It’s different now at Fox when I’m covering Trump in the sense there’s better access than I would get if I were at CNN or maybe at some other organization. From a coverage perspective, it’s been easier compared to my last two [tours].

JEFF MASON Our job at the Correspondents’ Association is to advocate for journalists, for their ability to do their jobs. And that means getting to go into the Oval Office when the president is meeting with a foreign leader, traveling on Air Force One, getting to see bill signings, getting to witness governing. And we’ve had a lot of those opportunities ... in many cases more than the Obama administration. I think it’s important for the public to know that despite some significant tensions, we’ve had for the most part a pretty good ability to see, watch and record this president as he governs.

ASHLEY PARKER. This is also a White House where sometimes you’re there and the press secretary or someone will pull you into the Oval Office to speak with Trump on the record or on background to get a sense of his thinking. This is the first White House I’ve covered but my sense is that did not happen with Obama.

KEVIN CORKE It’s extraordinary. I never saw that under Obama or Bush and that should tell you plenty about ... a president who is so media savvy that he understands — and I think his team is beginning to understand more broadly — that it can be a net positive if you can utilize the tool and don’t simply see them as the opposition.

JIM ACOSTA I’ll be a little bit of a contrarian here though. Yes he’s offered access to us and we’ve had press conferences here and there but don’t forget during the transition [there was] only one news conference and during the beginning months of this administration he was holding joint news conferences with foreign leaders where he was only taking questions from friendly news media.

19

SPECIAL FEATURE | WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS

But that was not on camera, right?

KEVIN CORKE Definitely not on camera.You do make a good point about decorum though.

One of the things that I don’t like as a professional is I want the briefing to be above the fray. I’d like to think of us as the old Senate and not the House. And we’ve kind of lost that. I can’t remember someone doing like this [shakes head back and forth] or having someone else say “don’t shake your head.’ I’ve never seen that.

JIM ACOSTA But nobody messes with April.

Don’t mess with April. Don’t make Holocaust comparisons and don’t mess with April Ryan.

Those should be the two rules of the briefing room.

Correspondents share their experiences covering the White House with WL Executive Editor Virginia Coyne (center) over breakfast at Pinea Restaurant at the W Hotel Washington, D.C. What is your relationship like with Sean Spicer, who also routinely reprimands and calls out the media?

JEFF MASON We’ve worked very hard to build

a constructive relationship with this White House and in particular with the press team, and I think we have a constructive relationship.

We’re able to go to them with concerns that we have and they come to us with concerns that they have.

The briefings are very contentious. They’ve become must-see TV. People are streaming them live in the office. Is the combativeness for show?

TARA PALMERI People didn’t used to watch the

briefing every single day. How often did you see a briefing with Josh Earnest on TV? JIM ACOSTA That was not must-see TV. TARA PALMERI Then, people would genuinely ask questions they needed for their stories, but now it’s like, “Yeah, let’s also throw punches and show how tough we are.”

He can’t be out there every day sparring with us, so Sean might as well do that on his behalf.

KEVIN CORKE I found Sean to be someone who is genuine. The White House wanted a political pugilist ... I mean, he doesn’t sit there and take the slings and arrows and sort of let you get it all out like Josh [Earnest] for example.

Josh was very patient I thought [nods around the table.] He would let you go on. Sean’s not like that. He throws a quick jab and he’s ready to move on. That’s good from our perspective in that I know I’m in for a fight and I’m OK with that.

But what happened to decorum? For example, that whole episode where Sean Spicer told April Ryan to stop shaking her head. That was quite striking.

TARA PALMERI I’ve been the victim of his per-

sonal attacks. Not during the briefing. I don’t get questions, but I think most of us have been the victims of his attacks.

Can you give me an example?

So, are you saying there’s some showmanship now that reporters know they are being watched on TV? TARA PALMERI I’m sure there is. On the other

hand, there is showmanship from Spicer as well.

And he knows his boss is watching.

JIM ACOSTA I think the combativeness that you see from Sean is an extension of the combativeness that you get from the president and I think the president wants and encourages that.

He wants to see it play out in the briefing room.

20

TARA PALMERI It’s been documented. I don’t

really want to talk about it per se, but I think that sometimes he just takes it too far. Have any of you in prior administrations been called names by press secretaries on the record?

KEVIN CORKE They would swear at me off the record.

JIM ACOSTA Jay [Carney] and Josh [Earnest] would call the booth and let you know what they thought.

KEVIN CORKE Josh F-bombed me.

We’ve also never had a president before who tweets so often and at strange hours — 6 a.m., 11 p.m., 3 a.m. ... How does that change how you cover the White House?

ASHLEY PARKER At the Post ... we have a position that feels very Trump-specific that started during the campaign called the “hot seat,” which is basically the firehouse seat. Donald Trump’s tweets become your alarm clock when you are on the hot seat.You wake up at 6:03 a.m. when President Trump wakes up and starts tweeting and you’re handling all of that incoming traffic, all of the tweets, all of the news that gets made on the morning shows.

JIM ACOSTA Never did I think that we would ever cover a president who tweeted about Arnold Schwarzenegger [laughter all around].

I think that sums up where we are right now when it comes to the president and social media. He is this unpredictable guy who is just going to do what he wants. And you know it makes it fun to cover. One of the things that you hear time and again as a reporter is “Why do you guys cover his tweets? You shouldn’t give so much attention to his tweets.” I mean, the tweets are kind of a window into his soul. I can’t imagine not covering them.

JEFF MASON It’s also our responsibility to cover the news and President Trump makes news in those tweets. He tweets about North Korea; he tweets about health care. That is not only a window into his soul but also a window into his thinking, the thinking of the decision maker.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

YGL WEDDINGS

NUPTIALS OF NOTE Jonathan Capehart and Nick Schmit expedited their Washington wedding to take place while President Obama was still in office.

BY ERICA MOODY

After the ceremony, guests joined the couple for an elegant dinner at The Jefferson Hotel.

Nick Schmit and Jonathan Capehart

JONATHAN CAPEHART & NICK SCHMIT MARRIED JANUARY 7, 2017

I

P H OTOS BY TO N Y P OW E L L

t was a Facebook friend request that led to love for Jonathan Capehart and Nick Schmit.

When mutual friend Jed Hastings suggested that the Washington Post opinion writer connect with the Obama Administration’s former assistant chief of protocol, it only took a few messages before they took the leap to meet over dinner at Buck’s Fishing & Camping in upper Northwest Washington, D.C. Their relationship grew steadily over the next six years. When Nick took Jonathan home to North Dakota to meet his extended family of 70 people, they knew things were getting serious.

Jonathan loves Nick because he’s “an old soul with a dry sense of humor.� Nick loves Jonathan’s “integrity, loyalty and kindness� as well as his “constant sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness.�

Jonathan has former Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett to thank for nudging

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

him to propose. After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Jarrett would ask Jonathan persistently, “When are you getting married?� At a friend’s party in January 2016, she told him what President Obama would tell young, straight men on his staff who were in long-term relationships. “He would ask them two questions: ‘Do you love her?’ and ‘Do you know for a fact that she wants to marry you?’ If the answer to both is yes then you have to marry her.’� That advice took hold while Jonathan was planning an Italian vacation later that year. Over the next four months, he plotted a surprise move to coincide with their trip. He placed a handwritten proposal and a Cartier box containing the engagement ring on a railing of the roof terrace of their Airbnb overlooking Positano and the Mediterranean.

The plan was to marry at Meridian House in Fall 2017, but after the presidential election, the couple advanced the date to wed while Obama was still in the White House.

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Eric Holder, Sharon Malone, Tamron Hall and Valerie Jarrett

The intimate ceremony for 40 was followed by dinner with close friends and family, both held at The Jefferson Hotel. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who helped pave the way for marriage equality, officiated, and at one point was so moved that he borrowed Jonathan’s Hermès handkerchief to wipe away tears.

Special touches included a custom-made leather box by local company Book Arts to hold the weddings bands. It was passed around to all guests assembled in the Book Room at The Jefferson, giving everyone a chance to touch the rings before the couple were joined in marriage.

For the honeymoon, Schmit says they are planning “something far, far away with limited internet access and surrounded by lots of water.�

DETAILS Attire: Navy blue tuxedos from Suit Supply Catering: The Jefferson Hotel s 1IPUPHSBQIFS Tony Powell 'MPXFST MultiFlor s $PMPST Cream, green and blue hydrangea

21

POLLYWOOD

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ WEEKEND

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Parties surrounding the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner persisted — even in the absence of President Donald Trump.

T H U R S DAY A P R I L

BYTES & BYLINES [DTR MODERN GALLERIES] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Paul Quinn and Tom Quinn

Ted Johnson, Nikki Schwab and Neil Grace

Christine Warnke and Rep. Brendan Boyle

Jenn Haber, Rebecca Cooper, Elizabeth Thorp, Brendan Scanlon and Michelle Jaconi

The party at the intimate two-floor Georgetown art gallery linked journalists to tech savvy Washingtonians in an atmosphere that was more relaxed (and significantly more cozy) than last year’s fete at the Spanish ambassador’s residence. Guests sipped on gin cocktails from One Eight Distilling and chatted with co-hosts Susanna Quinn (Veluxe), Eric Kuhn (Layer 3 TV), Allen Gannett (TrackMaven) and Democratic strategist John McCarthy.

SPOTTED PARTYGOERS MARVELING AT COSPONSOR CORAVIN’S INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS YOU TO POUR A GLASS OF WINE WITHOUT REMOVING THE CORK

Eric Kuhn, Susanna Quinn, Allen Gannett and John McCarthy

WOMEN IN JOURNALISM AWARDS [GLORIA DITTUS RESIDENCE] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Jane Mayer and Cokie Roberts

Gloria Story Dittus, founder of public relations firm Story Partners, annually transforms her Kalorama home into a gathering of female journalists to be toasted. In its fourth year, the event co-hosted by Cathy Merrill Williams, recognized Cokie Roberts as distinguished journalist of the year, Mary Katharine Ham (CNN) as a rising star, Mary Louise Kelly (NPR) for her broadcasting work and Jane Mayer (New Yorker) for her success in print journalism.

SPOTTED GLORIA DITTUS ALL SMILES MANNING THE BAR

Gloria Dittus and Laura Cox Kaplan

Mary Kathryn Steel, Kiki Burger and Anna Palmer

Sarah Lindner, Marisa Kashino, Rebecca McFarland and Susan Farkas

INDEPENDENT JOURNAL REVIEW’S ‘GOLDEN AGE OF JOURNALISM’ [CARNEGIE LIBRARY GALLERIES]

Sara Kenigsberg, Michael Moroney and Miranda Green

P H OTO S BY E R I N S C H A F F

More than just a cocktail party, this 500 person event kicked off the weekend with a “Great Gatsby” -style blow out. Due to the popularity of its yearbook last year, the IJR team put a different spin on “The Labrador” with the help of comedian Dave Jorgenson, making it look like Donald Trump’s own copy with Trump-style notes scribbled throughout, including a big star around Sean Hannity.

Ashley Forrester and Tom Forrest

22

Katelyn Rieley and Benny Johnson

Andrew Behringer and Alex Skatell

SPOTTED IJR FOUNDER ALEX SKATELL POSING WITH A REAL BALD EAGLE

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

F R I DAY A P R I L

Queen Noor, Sally Quinn, Mary Haft, Sen. Mark Warner and Margaret Carlson

George Condon, Jack DeGioia and Bill Burns

Christopher and Jennifer Isham

Michael Isikoff and Robyn Bash

ATLANTIC MEDIA’S ‘NIGHT BEFORE’ CELEBRATION [DAVID AND KATHERINE BRADLEY RESIDENCE] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

The exclusive annual dinner at the Bradley residence (David Bradley owns Atlantic Media) draws high profile figures from all walks of Washington life to kickoff the White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. You can be sure that intimate conversations across the lavishly decorated tables were about more than just the warm weather.

SPOTTED SIR RICHARD BRANSON CHATTING WITH DEFENSE SECRETARY JAMES MATTIS+ THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED BRANSON TOOK AN AFTER DINNER STROLL OVER TO THE NEIGHBORING OBAMA RESIDENCE FOR A NIGHTCAP/

Wendi McLendon-Covey

Rep. Ed Royce, Maria Royce, Gen. James Mattis and David Bradley

D.C. Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss and Alyssa Milano

John Coale and MSNBC’s Greta Van Susteren

CREATIVE COALITION’S ‘RIGHT TO BEAR ARTS’ BENEFIT DINNER [FLAVIO RESTAURANT] P H OTO S BY E R I N S C H A F F

Creative Coalition president and “Madam Secretary” actor Tim Daly and Coalition CEO Robin Bronk gathered celebrities including Alyssa Milano, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Matt Walsh together to tout the group’s message in support of the arts. Guests held up “Right to Bear Arts” t-shirts on the red carpet before sitting down to a three-course meal with cocktails from Maestro Dobel Tequila, beers from Blue Moon brewing and wines from Line 39. Co-sponsored by Hollywood on the Potomac, it was no wonder that the party had plenty of guests from both locales; notable Washingtonians included Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman.

Mica Nour and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

SPOTTED ALYSSA MILANO SIGNING A LOITERING FAN’S OLD PHOTO OF HER THAT HE CASUALLY PULLED FROM A FEDEX ENVELOPE!

23

POLLYWOOD

HOLLYWOOD ON TH E POTOMAC

REALCLEARPOLITICS’ ‘TOAST TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT’ [NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Elbow room is a valuable commodity throughout the busy weekend and RealClearPolitics’ party had plenty to spare at the National Restaurant Association (NRA)’s two-story space where “buns, not guns” predominated. Co-hosted by the Distilled Spirits Council and the Beer Institute, the event offered whiskey and beer tasting tables; bites included mini tacos and empanadas plus sweets galore in a separate dessert room.

Craig Maasaz, Carl Cannon, Jim McGreevy and Steve Danon

Allie Wright and Adam Falkoff

SPOTTED THIRSTY PARTYGOERS SAMPLING MACALLAN AND A BEER WITH 2 ALCOHOL BY VOLUME

Francesca Chambers, Jesse Rodriguez, Tommy Hanson and Lisa Leonard

Jeff Ballou and Emily Goodin

Ali Larter and Hayes MacArthur Billy Bob Thornton and Dana Bash

Padma Lakshmi and Kal Penn

Jake and Jennifer Tapper with Symone Sanders

UNITED TALENT AGENCY’S ‘FIRST AMENDMENT AND EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM’ EVENT [FIOLA MARE] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Maria Trabocchi personally welcomed guests to a late night see-andbe-seen event featuring a good showing of Washington A-Listers and a few of Hollywood’s, too. United Talent Agency’s Jay Sures and Dan Abrams worked the crowd as guests noshed on giant oysters, jumbo shrimp, calamari and artisan pizza.

Desiree Clinton, Nolan Gould and Dorothy Stein

24

Kimball Stroud and Matthew Modine

SPOTTED ALI LARTER MINGLING WITH HUSBAND HAYES MACARTHUR ON THE OUTDOOR DECK+ BILLY BOB THORNTON MAKING GOOD ON HIS WISH TO CHAT WITH DANA BASH+ MATTHEW MODINE HOLDING COURT AT THE BAR

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

MOTHER NATURE NETWORK’S WHCD JAM [HAMILTON LIVE] P H O T O S B Y J OY A S I C O

Billy Bob Thornton headlined the annual White House Correspondents “Jam at the Hamilton” hosted by the Mother Nature Network and emceed by CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. A more casual event than most (the invitation called for attire anywhere between “blue jeans and black-tie”), most found the beckoning dance floor hard to resist and with the Rolling Stones’ Chuck Leavell hitting the keys, who could blame them? Journalist-led bands included the New York Times’ Carl Hulse and The Native Makers and the Wall Street Journal’s Mike Siconolfi and Six Stars.

Maria Teresa Kumar, Rashida Jones, Jonathan Capehart, Maria Cardona and Cenk Uygur

SPOTTED KIKI BURGER CHEERING ON HUSBAND TIM WHILE PERFORMING WITH HIS BAND SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE 4LED BY WASHINGTON POST’S TOM TOLES6

Kley Sippel and Anastasia Dellaccio

Brad Bosserman Meredith Mica Nour andand Rep. SuzanneMcPhillips Bonamici

Chuck Leavell

Anchyi Wei and Michael Clements

VOTO LATINO ‘OUR VOICES: UPLIFTING DIVERSITY IN MEDIA’ EVENT & WEWORK NEW MEDIA RECEPTION [WEWORK WHITE HOUSE] P H OTO S BY A L F R E D O F LO R E S

The night started with a panel titled “Shaking Up The Newsroom” moderated by Voto Latino’s Maria Teresa Kumar and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. Guests continued the conversation over drinks at WeWork’s lively New Media Party.

Brooke Baldwin, Emily Murphy and Paul Kain

Billy Bob Thornton

SPOTTED A PANEL OF GUESTS INCLUDING JONATHAN CAPEHART7 MARIA CARDONA AND RASHIDA JONES DISCUSSING THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY IN MEDIA 4IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA7 BEHIND THE CAMERA7 AND IN THE BOARDROOM6

S AT U R DAY A P R I L

SAMANTHA BEE’S ‘FULL FRONTAL’ TAPING & AFTER PARTY [DAR CONSTITUTION HALL / W POV LOUNGE] P H OTO S BY E R I N S C H A F F

Despite the heat on the red (actually purple) carpet, there were worthwhile conversations to be had. Asked for advice on Trump’s next 100 days, Sam Bee was heard saying “the exact opposite.” Comedian and SNL alum Ana Gasteyer would like to see Trump “Listen! Ask and listen and be curious.” CNN’s Brianna Keilar thinks the weekend served as a reminder for her and fellow journalists that “to have a duty to the truth, you have a duty to communicate to Americans in real time how things affect them and what’s really going on. At the afterparty, revelers enjoyed a gorgeous sunset while diving into burgers, crabcake sandwiches and specialty cocktails on the W’s rooftop. Once the liquor set in, it was only fitting for partygoers to drunk-dial their legislators courtesy of digital advocacy group Phone2Action. The organization reported on Twitter that a sober Rep. Scott Holcomb (D-Conn.) took the opportunity to dial himself, making for an epic photo opp. The party, co-hosted by Vulture and New York Magazine, persisted well into the night with two sets from musical legend Elvis Costello and a late night dancefest with DJ duo Pozzo (fog machines and all).

SPOTTED GASTEYER JOKING IN RESPONSE TO ALL THE SERIOUS QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS “MY DRESS IS BCBG!”+ ALI LARTER SPORTING PLANNED PARENTHOOD COLORS PINK AND WHITE+ WILL FERRELL7 ROPED OFF AND SURROUNDED BY SECURITY7 DIDN’T STOP REBECCA COOPER FROM GIVING HIM PROPS FOR HIS “PEARL THE LANDLORD” BIT+ WOMAN OF THE HOUR SAM BEE WORKING THE CROWD WITH A LARGE SECURITY GUARD IN TOW

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Elvis Costello and Samantha Bee (Courtesy of Getty Images)

Brianna Keilar

Tegan and Sara with Mike Rubens

Ana Gasteyer

Van Jones

25

POLLYWOOD

HOLLYWOOD ON TH E POTOMAC

Peter Alexander and Jim Acosta

David Bradley Franco Nuschese and WHCA President Jeff Mason

Madeleine Albright

Heather and Ryan Zimmerman

WHCD PRE-PARTIES [WASHINGTON HILTON]

April Ryan

Marty Baron, Fred Ryan and Bob Woodward

P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer

Barbie Allbritton, British Amb. Sir Kim Darroch and Lady Darroch

Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan with Richard Powell and Emily Shippee

Susan DiMarco and Jeh Johnson

Angie Goff and Chris Matthews

Buffy Cafritz and Rep. Debbie Dingell

Alyse Nelson and Kelley McCormick

Alan Ruck

Trish Yan and Jonathan Taylor

Kate Goodall and Stephanie Ruhle

David Corn and Susan Page

Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Maria Teresa Kumar

Laura and Valerie Jarrett

GARDEN BRUNCH

Susan Farkas and Howard Fineman

MSNBC President Phil Griffin

[CONSTANCE MILSTEIN’S RESIDENCE] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Sally, Charlie and Mark Ein

Tammy Haddad, Jeff Zeleny, Hilary Rosen and Don Lemon

26

The annual brunch, co-hosted by Mark and Sally Ein, Tammy Haddad, Fred Humphries, Kelley McCormick, Connie Milstein, Franco Nuschese, Hilary Rosen (looking chic in a navy jumpsuit) and Kevin Sheekey was a bunch of question marks until about a week before the event when the invitations finally went out. This year’s brunch was decidedly low-key under a tent in Milstein’s backyard instead of Ein’s Georgetown property. The heavy security was more likely for Milstein’s collection of Picassos than any high profile guests. Quiche cups wrapped in bacon, a donut wall by Dog Tag Bakery and plush white carpeting were among the attractions.

SPOTTED VALERIE JARRETT AS THE GUEST OF HER DAUGHTER LAURA7 WHO RECENTLY SWITCHED CAREERS FROM LAWYER TO CNN JOURNALIST+ MARK AND SALLY EIN’S ADORABLE AND FASHIONABLY-SUITED SON CHARLIE WORKING THE RED CARPET CAMERAS IN A BLUE SEERSUCKER ENSEMBLE AND BOW TIE/

MSNBC AFTERPARTY [ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Kasie Hunt, Thomas Roberts, Chris Jansing and Patrick Abner

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

S U N DAY A P R I L

Spike Mendelsohn, Sylva Senat and Mike Isabella Chris and Gia Cillizza with Kate Andersen Brower and Brooke Brower

Allison Gulice and Matt Dornic

Wolf Blitzer

THOMSON REUTERS BRUNCH

CNN’S HANGOVER BRUNCH

[HAY ADAMS ROOF]

[LONGVIEW GALLERY]

P H OTO S BY TO N Y B R OW N

P H OTO S BY E R I N S C H A F F

The CNN team (we’re looking at you Matt Dornic, Emily Kuhn, Lauren Pratapas and Richard Hudock) nailed the Sunday scene with a circus-themed bash that boasted “the greatest shows on earth.” Too many pleasantries to count, including but not limited to build your own bloody bar complete with bacon and stuffed olives; sword swallower; skeeball; life-size Connect Four; a ferris wheel offering rosé gummy bears and delectable flavored popcorn named after show hosts, i.e. Blitzer’s Blazin’ Buffalo.

SPOTTED DON LEMON KEEPING IT CASUAL IN A WHITE TEE SHIRT7 SHORTS AND LOAFERS PLAYING SHUFFLE BOARD+ WOLF BLITZER SNAPPING PHOTOS OF HIS BILLBOARD7 THEN HAPPILY POSING WITH FANS IN FRONT OF IT+ CNN PRESIDENT JEFF ZUCKER

Adrienne Watson and Adrienne Elrod

Diane Zeleny and Paul Johnson

Mark and Sarah Helton

Mary Davis and Justice Anthony Kennedy

Photo Credit

Robert Allbritton, Kelley Paul, Rep. Rand Paul and Elena Allbritton

Mariella Traeger, Maria Trabocchi and Tina Tchen

POLITICO BRUNCH Rep.Tom Udall and Tony Podesta

[ROBERT AND ELENA ALLBRITTON RESIDENCE] P H OTO S BY TO N Y P OW E L L

Those unfazed by the morning’s hot temperatures, stayed late into the afternoon sipping mojitos at this exclusive annual brunch. The Havana-themed event came complete with festive cocktails, a roast pig, Cuban cigar rolling station and an old T Bird for guests to pose in front of in the driveway.

Cuban-themed bar and buffet

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

SPOTTED SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY7 SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN DAVID SKORTON7 MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER AND JOURNALISTS NORAH O’DONNELL AND APRIL RYAN

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Bret Baier, Judy Woodruff, Amy Baier and Charlie Rose

27

SPECIAL report

the wealth list

The washington life

Wealth List T

he Trump administration has brought millions of dollars flowing into Washington and its environs in the shape of super-wealthy cabinet officers and White House staffers. But it’s fair to say that, except for a few lucrative real estate deals, the nation’s capital has taken the influx in its stride. There are, after all, 26 billionaires in the metropolitan area, so what’s a few more?

The relatively large number of billionaires here is part of the narrative for the past two decades of phenomenal economic growth. Thus this wealth compilation of about 60 names is merely the icing on a very rich cake. With the cutoff set at $200 million, the list is designed as a profile of local wealth: who has it, and how they spend it to help others.

Broadly speaking, Washington’s wealth rests on four pillars: real estate development, what President Eisenhower called “the military-industrial complex,” technological innovation and sports franchise.

A group of real estate and development entrepreneurs – most of them family dynasties – aggressively moved into rural areas and transformed them into commercial centers, offices and homes. Prominent among them is Theodore Lerner, principal owner of Lerner Enterprises and developer of Tysons Corner.

The rapid growth of the high-tech industry in the area also had a dramatic impact on the area’s economy, in part because of the demand of sophisticated technology in the weapons industry. Washington’s version of Silicon Valley did well in the sectors of defense and homeland security despite what was regarded as a period of limited spending under President Obama, but President Trump’s election promises boom years as the administration lavishes more cash on defense and homeland security.

When it comes to sports, the high-profile organization is leading conglomerate Monumental Sport and Entertainment, owners of the NBA Washington Wizards,

the Washington Capitals, the WNBA Mystics, and operators of the Verizon Center. Philanthropic giving in Washington ranges from the Washington National Opera to the CIA foundation that supports the families of agents who die in the cause of duty. After a marked decline during the 2008 financial crisis, charity giving has since edged slowly back.

Adrienne Arsht, herself a well known philanthropist, calls David Rubenstein, chairman of the Carlyle Group, “sui generous” – a play on words justified by Rubenstein’s remarkable philanthropic record. In recent years, among many other gifts, Rubenstein had acquired an original copy of the Magna Carta for $22 million and given it to the National Archives and donated a total of $44 million to the Smithsonian Institution for various projects and programs.

Philanthropy is woven into the fabric of America’s industrial history. The creation of massive industrial fortunes at the turn of the 19th century led to intense public focus on the responsibilities of great wealth, producing some of the great charitable foundations which continue to function well after their original benefactors have passed on.

Rubenstein and others in his wealth bracket are not waiting until their death for their philanthropy to have an effect. They are very much alive and involved in how their money is spent. “They want to see rapid change occur in their lifetimes,” says David Callahan, director of Inside Philanthropy, an organization that monitors giving. As selfmade wealth grows, new differences emerge between the philanthropy of inherited money and the first generation wealthy. David Rubenstein thinks the newly wealthy tend to be more philanthropic (translation: give more away). “I don’t know whether that’s because of guilt or gratitude, or a sense that they can do it again,” he said.

But generous and wealthy as he unquestionably is, even Rubenstein is at the less affluent scale of the new wave of billionaire philanthropists like Mark Zuckerberg. The era of big philanthropy may only have just begun.>>

$10 BILLION TO $82 BILLION

Jeff BeZos, 53 Worth: $82 billion The founder of Amazon. com, now the world ’s second richest man, and owner of the Washington Post – not to mention t he l a r g e s t hou s e i n Washington, D.C. – got off to a slow start in charity giving, but seems to be making up for it. The Bezos Family Foundation run by his parents has given millions in grants for education. In addition, Bezos and his novelist wife, MacKenzie, have their own line of giving and have, among other major initiatives, founded a center for brain research at Princeton University, their alma mater. Though he has owned the Post since 2013, it was only last year that he established what his company calls a “pied à terre” in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, so it’s perhaps somewhat early for him to acquire a philanthropic profile in the nation’s capital – although some would say that acquiring the Post could be seen as a philanthropic act.

Jacqueline ‘Jacquie’ Mars, 77 Worth: $27.5 billion Mar s ow ns a th ird of t he hu g e M a r s I nc., mistakenly called a candy company but w idely diversif ied. She and her brother John contribute through the Mars Foundation and also as individua ls but the fam ily remains private about its philanthropy and details are generally sparse. Some two years ago, Jacquie Mars contributed $10 million to the Kennedy Center for its education programs.

The Washington National Opera, of which she is chairman, acknowledges her “major support” – unspecif ied, but obviously not just a generous supply of the company’s high-end M&Ms – and will salute her with a gala in June. An equestrian who lives in Virginia horse country, Mars is also a board member of the U.S. Equestrian Team, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives.

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

John Franklin Mars, 81 Worth: $26.6 billion He is Jacqueline’s brother, and like her, owner of a third of Mars Inc. with sibling Forrest (now deceased).

He donated $2 million to Yale University to establish an endowed chair in ethics, politics and economics.

The Mars Foundation, with both surviving sister and brother on its board (Forrest E. Mars having died in 2016), supports environmental programs such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and has made substantial gifts to address food industry security. John Franklin Mars and his wife Adrienne are noted supporters of the Smithsonian Institution.

They also contributed $10 million towards the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. John’s son Frank is president of Mars Symbioscience, the company’s health and science segment.

Edward Cohen and Robert Tanenbaum, are also principals in Lerner Enterprises, the largest private real developer in the D.C. area that turned what was rural Fairfax County into the regional retail destination Tysons Corner Center. The family returned Major League Baseball to the nation’s capital when they bought the Washington Nationals in 2006. Lerner philanthropy functions through two foundations, the Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Foundation and the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, which together give about $3 million a year to local charities concentrating on children, education and Jewish causes. Among them is a new Diabetes Care Complex at the Children’s National Medical Center. Lerner has made avoiding personal publicity a lifelong mission. “I have a different approach to real estate development than Donald Trump, and I’m fine with that,” he noted shortly before Trump announced he was running for president.

$5 BILLION TO $9.9 BILLION

$1 BILLION TO $3.99 BILLION

Betsy DeVos, 59 Worth: $5.1 billion A mong the gem s i n Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s nomination hearing was her belief that a school in Wyoming needed a gun to protect itself from grizzly bears. American education, however, has no protection against DeVos, who has for years used her extraordinary wealth (her father made billions selling auto parts; her husband is an heir to the Amway fortune) to advance charter schools at the expense of the U.S. public school system. In 2015, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation typically gave more than $3 million for charter and other independent schools in their home state of Michigan.

Stephen j. Bisciotti, 57 Worth: $3.8 billion At 23, Bisciotti, along with his cousin Jim Davis, founded The Allegis Group, which quickly became the world’s largest provider of skilled workers for aerospace and technology companies (2016 revenue: $11 billion).

By 2004, Bisciotti had acquired the Baltimore Ravens, winners of the 2013 Super Bowl. Bisciotti lives in Millersville, Md., and the main activity of the publicity shy Stephen & Renee Bisciotti Foundation focuses on education, human services and Roman Catholic organizations in Baltimore.

(Bisciotti is a trustee of the Catholic Charities of Baltimore). In 2016, he and the Ravens team each donated $50,000 to Haitian relief.

Theodore ‘TED’ Lerner, 91 & annette lerner Worth: $5.4 billion The Washington Post recently called Lerner the head of “one of the most powerful dynasties in Washington.”

That’s because son Mark, and Ted’s two sons-in-law,

Steven Case, 58 & jean case Worth: $1.37 billion Hardly anyone remembers Quant um Computer Services, the company Steve Case helped found in 1985.

Since 1991 it’s been known as America Online and then simply AOL, with Case as its CEO. Together

| washingtonlife.com

29

SPECIAL FEATURE

the wealth list

WHAT INHERITANCE? GIVING IT ALL AWAY IN THE NEW GILDED AGE

A

merica’s first so-called Gilded Age was in the early 20th Century, when the emerging, self-made captains of industry began their family dynasties, built palatial homes and married off their daughters to impoverished European aristocrats and rescued them from poverty.

Thanks to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and financier Warren Buffett, the second Gilded Age that some think is around the corner is not likely to create new dynasties.

Instead, the wealth will be channeled towards philanthropy on an unprecedented scale, even as the new rich honor a pledge to give away the large part of their money, either in their life times or in their wills.

What do Gates – and his wife Melinda – and Buffett have to do with this? In 2010, the world’s richest man and the then second-richest considered the persistent levels of global poverty, the ever widening gulf between the two percent “haves” and the “have nots,” and no doubt the residual resentment that attaches to this inequality, and came up with the Giving Pledge.

Gates and Buffett invited other billionaires around the world to make a commitment to give away most of their net worth. While not a binding commitment, those who make the pledge are listed publicly on the Pledge’s inevitable web site, presumably making it harder to have a change of heart. As of this year, a diverse group of 158 entrepreneurs and business

30

leaders have signed the Giving Pledge.

They have backgrounds in technology, medicine, biotech, real estate and farming, and they come from 16 countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Washingtonians who have pledged include Steve Case and his wife Jean, Robert and Arlene Kogod and Roger and Vicki Sant – all of them already philanthropists on a significant scale. But the total number of billionaires in the world is 1,810 (540 in the United States) with a net worth of $6.5 trillion, so there is a long way to go.

The Giving Pledge has an educational dimension. Once a year, Buffett and Gates organize seminars for pledgers on how to be philanthropic. Held privately at an exclusive resort, these seminars offer sessions on such topics as stepping in to support medical research when government funds are reduced or canceled, and how technology and other tools can be used to improve performance in failing schools.

Inevitably, the Giving Pledge has its critics, some of them among the holders of inherited wealth. But Buffett’s message is that the days of bequeathing fortunes to children and other family members are over. “I really don’t think that, as a society, we want to confer blessings on generation after generation who contribute nothing to society, simply because somebody in the far distant past happened to amass a great sum of wealth,” he told TV host Charlie Rose in a recent interview.

with his wife Jean, the Case Foundation’s philanthropy is all about health, education, and technology, but also the search for methods of making the giving process broader, more efficient and more effective. Meanwhile, Case’s hedge fund, Revolution, created in 2005, lives up to its name in seeking “to build disruptive, innovative companies that offer consumers more choice, convenience and control in their lives.” In the District, for example, Revolution invested $22 million into Sweetgreen, the innovative fast casual food chain, and backed the on-line marketplace LivingSocial. With President Obama’s support, Case helped push through a bill that allowed start-ups and nonprofits to engage in Internet crowdfunding.

The Case Foundation is becoming more active overseas and Case recently joined Al Gore and Richard Branson in backing a solar energy start-up in Kenya.

Willian Conway, 67, & Daniel D’Aniello, 70 Worth: $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion Conway and D’Aniello belong to the triumvirate that founded and runs the Carlyle Group with co-CEO David Rubenstein. The hugely successful District-based asset management firm owns 250 companies and boasts of more than $160 billion in assets. A few years ago, Conway, the company’s other coCEO, announced that he wanted to give away $1 billion to the Washington D.C. community.

Conway has so far donated $30 million for nurse training programs at several District universities, $10 million for Catholic schools in Washington and $10 million to Catholic Charities. Daniel D’Aniello has given $20 million to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think-tank – a distinct departure from the politics of his two partners. The foundation he started with his wife Gayle focuses on what he calls the “five pillars” of giving – faith-based giving (including assisting aging priests and nuns), educational programs, free enterprise, the performing arts and mental health research.

D’Aniello is a patron of the Wolf Trap National Park for Performing Arts and the Washington National Opera.

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

| washingtonlife.com

Kenneth Feld, 69 & carole feld Worth: $2.5 billion In May, Feld Entertainment, of which Ken Feld is CEO, closed the 146-year-old Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, blaming poor ticket sales, high rail costs and costly battles with animal rights activists that had forced the end of elephant acts – and many people didn’t want to see a show without elephants. By then, though, the circus accounted for only 15 percent of Feld Entertainment’s revenue, which in 2016 totaled $2.7 billion. The privately owned family company also produces Disney on Ice, Disney Live! And Feld Motor Sports. A decade ago, Feld and his four daughters formed the Feld Family Foundation, which has a theatrical bent, donating to the Signature Theater, the New York Actor’s Fund and the Theater Development Fund. In Washington, the Feld Foundation donated $1.2 million over six years to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. But the largest beneficiary so far has been Feld’s alma mater, Boston University – $10 million.

Donald Graham, 71 Worth: $1.1 billion When Washington Post publisher Donald Graham agreed to sell the paper to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for $250 million in 2013 his argument was that the city’s distinguished but financially ailing daily hadn’t made a profit for the past seven years. The Post had been in the family since Graham’s grandfather Eugene Meyer had acquired it in the 1920s, and Graham himself had followed his father, and after his father’s suicide, his formidable mother Kay Graham as publisher.

The Post’s finest hour was unquestionably its reporting on the Watergate scandal, but overall it had maintained a quality level of reporting, particularly from overseas. Still, facing the challenges of the digital age it had lost ground and revenue, failing to recover, even after several buyouts to reduce its huge staff. Graham can only watch from the sidelines as the paper

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

edges slowly towards recovery, supplementing the print edition with some of the online services that had undermined its position in the first place. Now chairman of the Graham Holdings Company, Graham oversees the philanthropic work of The DreamUS, which he founded in 2013 and which has grown into the nation’s largest college access program. To date, DreamUS, has helped 13,000 students enroll in college, providing scholarships totaling more than $33 million.

Randal J. Kirk, 64 Worth: $3.4 billion A lawyer turned biotech investor – the New York Times called him a “biotech evangelist,” – Kirk is chairman and CEO of Intrexon, a life sciences conglomerate using advanced forms of genetic tweaking to produce sometimes controversial products, including a genetically modified salmon and a modified species of anti-Zika mosquito. This is the friendly Aedes mosquito which has been successfully tested in Brazil against the Zika mosquito. Kirk’s philanthropy tends to go through his alma mater Radford University, to which he has given more than $1 million, and to a research partnership with the University of Virginia.

Robert P. kogod, 84 & Arlene kogod Worth: $1 billion After attending American U n i v e r s i t y, Kogod joined Charles E. Smith Companies, one of the largest commercial and residential landlords in the D.C. area and married the boss’s daughter, Arlene. Kogod is best known for spearheading the development of Crystal City in northern Virginia. His philanthropy includes support for American University, home of the Kogod School of Business. The Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family Foundation has focused strongly on Jewish causes, both in Washington and in Israel including a $12 million gift (with the Smiths) to the Hebrew Home of Greater Washigton. B’nai B’rith International, the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center and the American Jewish Committee were

| washingtonlife.com

also among the Foundation’s beneficiaries.

The Kogods also support the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Theodore ‘Ted’ Leonsis, 60 & lynn leonsis Worth: $1 billion Leonsis is the single most i n f luent i a l f i g u re i n local sports. As founder, chair man, major it y owner and chief executive off icer of Monumental Sports & Entertainment he owns and runs the Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards in the NBA, the Washington Mystics in the WNBA – and Washington’s Verizon Center, the Wizards’ home arena. A Leonsis regional sports service carries live local games from the AFL, WNBA and minor league hockey. A tightly knit group of friends share in a complicated pattern of part ownerships of some or all of these enterprises. The same group joins Leonsis in Venture Philanthropy Partners focusing on helping children and youth from low-income families in the District access quality education, health care and career training. Leonsis is also a prime mover in Best Buddies, DC Central Kitchen and other local causes.

Richard marriott, 78 & J.Willard ‘Bill’ Marriott, 85 Worth: $1.2 billion and $2.2 billion The late John Willard (aka J.W.) Marriott Sr. left his fortune and his business to his sons, Bill and Richard. In the course of the last decade they have expanded it, and with Marriott International’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for $12.2 billion in 2017 have made it the largest hotel chain in the world. The company now controls 30 different brands and 1.1 million rooms in more than 110 countries worldwide, or more than one out of every 15 hotel rooms in the world. Shortly after his 80th birthday in March 2012, Bill Marriott ceded his CEO position but remained an active chairman. The main conduit for Marriott

31

SPECIAL FEATURE

the wealth list

philanthropy is the J.Willard and Alice Marriott Foundation, which has given away about $20 million a year in apportioned donations to a long list of local and national charities ($600,000 to the Children’s Hospital Foundation, $400,000 to the Kennedy Center), but the Marriott also group puts additional emphasis on corporate effort to support local communities and environmental awareness.

Kevin Plank, 44 Worth: $1.8 billion Plank is chairman and CEO of Under Armour, America’s second largest sports clothing line manufacturer after Nike. He started it in 2006 in the basement of his grandmother’s house. A decade later, Under Armour was listed sixth on Forbes magazine’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, and Plank is now building a four million-square-foot headquarters in Port Covington, near Baltimore, as part of a development plan which will include shopping, hotels, offices and 9,000 residential units. A resident of Lutherville, Md., the former University of Maryland football player has given generously to his alma mater’s business school and athletic programs. And in 2015, St. John’s in Chevy Chase, where Plank attended high school, received $16 million from Plank’s Cupid Foundation to support academic, athletic and entrepreneurship programs.

Steven M. Rales, 66 & Mitchell ‘Mitch’ Rales, 61 Worth: $4.6 billion and $4 billion In 1969, the Rales brothers founded the Danaher Corp., which grew into a huge manufacturing conglomerate of more than three dozen companies with $20 billion in revenue and more than 65,000 employees. In 2016, the group was split into two companies: one retained the Danaher name, with businesses in diagnostics, water treatment and life sciences; the other, Fortive, grouped together the industrial operations. Mitch is also one of the country’s leading collectors of modern art and has poured $500 million into creating Glenstone, his private museum in Potomac, Md.,

32

which he continues to support to the tune of about $1 million annually. The Mitchell Rales Family Foundation has also supported the arts and education, including a $1 million donation to the National Gallery of Art. Steven Rales also owns the Indian Paintbrush movie company; its productions and co-productions include Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Wilbur Ross, 79 & hilary geary ross Worth: $2.5 billion Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross spent 24 years in the New York office of the banking firm of N.M. Rothschild & Sons before setting up his own firm specializing in buying failing industrial businesses and restructuring them. Ross’s first business contact with Trump was helping him to survive the bankruptcy of his two gambling casinos in Atlantic City. Despite his long-time support of the Democratic Party, Ross later supported Trump’s bid for the presidency. A graduate of Yale and the Harvard Business School he donated $10 million to Yale for construction of Evans Hall at Yale School of Management.

Ross was honored by the Irish Government for his “especially meritorious contribution to IrishAmerican Life” and received a decoration from Japan for, among other things, helping establish a $14 million relief fund for victims of the Tohoku earthquake/nuclear meltdown in 2011.

David Rubenstein, 67 & ALice rubenstein Worth: $2.6 billion The Washington Post recently called Rubenstein “the public face of D.C. philanthropy” while a less complimentary Financial Times writer described him as “a bit like Woody Allen but in a better suit.” Rubenstein has called himself a “patriotic philanthropist” and lives up to the label with major donations to historical institutions and the arts in Washington, D.C. His wife Alice spreads the wealth in Native American communities. He paid $22 million at

auction for an original copy of the Magna Carta and gave it to the National Archives. When an earthquake cracked the Washington Monument in 2011, Rubenstein donated $7.5 million towards its restoration. Rubenstein’s money went towards the creation of the Museum of African American History and Culture and the Kennedy Center expansion project ($50 million). Earlier in his career Rubenstein worked in the Carter White House, but the Carlyle Group steers clear of overt political involvement. The Group, Rubenstein once told an interviewer, is “cleaner than Caesar’s wife.”

Roger Sant, 86 & vicki sant Worth: $1.7 billion Si nce Rog er co founded Arlingtonbased Applied Energy Ser v ices i n 1981, the Sants have emerged as two of the biggest philanthropists in Washington.The environment is one of their support priorities: for example, the 24-year-old Summit Foundation, of which Roger is chairman emeritus and Vicki president, has ongoing conservation programs focusing on marine and coastal ecological issues facing the Mesoamerican Reef along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and northern Honduras.

Closer to home, the Foundation has since 1998 donated $13 million to solving the region’s problems, notably protecting the Anacostia River in Maryland and Washington D.C. The Sants have long been patrons of Washington’s cultural institutions: a $26.5 million donation to the National Gallery of Art made them the largest donors in the museum’s history. Roger is a regent emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution; Vicki is trustee emeritus of the National Gallery of Art, having been its chairman.

Bernard F. ‘Frank’ Saul II, 84 & Patricia saul Worth: $3.5 billion In February 2009, Frank Saul decided to sell – for $520 million – the bank he had added to the real estate empire he had inherited, and so Chevy Chase Bank became Capital One Financial

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

| washingtonlife.com

Corp. Saul remained chairman and CEO of the Saul Center, and of the B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust, comprising dozens of shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes. He and his wife Patricia are significant benefactors of Catholic organizations in the Washington area, including the Catholic University of America and the Washington Archdiocese, but the range of their philanthropy goes from the Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation to the National Gallery of Art and Blair House. The same year he sold the bank, media shy Saul quietly sold a club in Loudoun County with two golf courses. The buyer, however, was anything but media shy.

It was Donald Trump.

Rajendra ‘Raj’ Singh, 61 & neera singh Worth: $1.2 billion There were no phones in Singh’s home in Rajastan, India, but as an immigrant to the United States he and his wife Neera in 1983 founded LCC International Inc., one of the world’s largest telecommunications engineering firms, and later, Alexandria-based Telcom Ventures, a private investment firm specializing in communications technologies (the firm became Teligent). As philanthropists, the Singhs focus on higher education, including a professorship and an undergraduate scholarship at Johns Hopkins University, and support for the Wilmer Eye Institute in Bethesda. Raj, a longtime supporter of Johns Hopkins sits on the board of trustees of both its School of Medicine and the university, and is a member of the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering Board of Overseers. He also sits on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Daniel Snyder, 53 & tanya snyder Worth: $2.2 billion Snyder is one of those semipublic figures who basks in public unpopularity. He bought the Washington Redsk ins in 1999 for $800 million, and under

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

his ownership the team has never lost an opportunity to lose an opportunity. Rightly or wrongly, Snyder is identif ied with the Redskins’ continued failure to reach the Super Bowl (although the team has earned three division titles). The irony is that the Redskins are still worth more than $3 billion, thanks to league TV deals, sponsorship agreements and merchandising. For decades, though, the team’s name had been the subject of controversy.

Many find it offensive, but Snyder refuses to consider any change. One saving grace for the team, and for Snyder, is their philanthropic activism. Snyder has a family foundation but has also started the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation, which is active in District education and youth employment. For example, the foundation gives $200,000 a year to Youth for Tomorrow and other educational programs, and maintains football fields around the region.

Donald Trump, 70, Ivanka trump, 35 & Jared Kushner, 35 Worth: $3.5 billion and $700 million It’s the subject of a continued controversy, but the conventional wisdom is that, while Donald Trump is indeed the nation’s first billionaire president, many of the claims about his personal wealth are exaggerated. Forbes magazine’s 2017 billionaire list puts the sum at $3.5 billion, and rated him 220 spots down from his position in last year’s list, leaving him tied in 544th place among the world’s wealthiest. It’s not that Forbes has seen Trump’s tax returns or anything. Forbes blames the slippage of about $1 billion on the soft Manhattan real estate market where 40 percent of Trump’s fortune is tied up. Trump also gave $66 million to his campaign and $25 million to settle a lawsuit related to Trump University. The issue of his philanthropic giving won an enterprising Washington Post reporter the Pulitzer Prize, and the Trump camp has not rejected his allegations of imaginative book keeping.

Meanwhile, financial disclosures showed that Ivanka and Jared Kushner, Trump’s daughter and real estate entrepreneur son-in-law had a

| washingtonlife.com

combined worth of $700 million. Kushner has been the principal owner of his family’s real estate business since 2008, when his father was jailed for tax evasion. A year earlier, he made headlines when he acquired 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan for $1.8 billion. The other controversy in some quarters is to what extent the president and his family have followed past practice and separated themselves from their money for the duration of their respective times in the White House. But that’s another, more convoluted story. $750 Million - $999 Million

kingdon gould, jr., 93 & Kingdon Gould III, 69 Worth: $800 million The scions of an oldestabl ished proper t y bu si ne s s, t he G ou ld s made recent headlines by refusing to sell land adjacent to the new downtown Washington Convention Center, thereby delaying construction of a major hotel which the city considered essential to promote more convention business. In the end, a land swap resolved the impasse. Kingdon Gould, III is CEO of PMI Parking and developed Market Square on Pennsylvania Avenue, but still in the making after more than three decades is Konterra, a $3 billion, 2,200-acre mixed use development in Laurel, begun in 1981 but stalled for years waiting for infrastructure to catch up. Philanthropically the family operates under the radar, but recent projects of note include their firm’s continued support of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual free performances, a beloved Washington tradition, and $600,000 to the Chinese community church.

Sheila Johnson, 68 Worth: $750 million Johnson is second only to Oprah Winfrey among the wealthiest AfricanA mer ica n women. A n accompl ished v iol in ist, she taught the instrument both at Sidwell Friends School and privately

33

SPECIAL FEATURE

the wealth list

in the early days to help support the family.

In 1979, she and her then husband, Robert Johnson, launched Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first television station aimed at the African-American audience.

The Johnsons divorced in 2001, and a year later Johnson sold BET to Viacom for $3 billion. As the couple went their separate ways, Sheila launched Salamander Hospitality in 2005 of which she is CEO. The group includes Salamander Resort and Spa in the heart of Virginia horse and wine country, and luxury properties in Florida, New Orleans, and Charleston. S.C. She is the vice-president of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, with its ownership of four top franchises, and the Verizon Center.

She is a global ambassador of CARE, an international aid organization that f ights global povert y. The Sheila C. Johnson Foundation supports arts, education and youth. For example, the Universit y of Virginia is home to the Sheila C. Johnson School for Human Services, an outreach effort serving thousands of children and their families annually, established with a $5 million donation. Beneficiaries also include the Central Loudoun Little League and Street Soccer USA.

Joe Kampf, 73 Worth: $750 million A f ter found ing the highly successful Anteon International Corp. as a diversif ied gover nment technology contract f irm (its many developments for the military included an urban warfare simulator), Kampf sold it to General Dynamics in 2006 for $2.2 billion in cash. His own shares in Anteon brought him around $59 million.

With top Anteon executives he then launched CoVant, of which he is chairman and CEO. Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Hugh Shelton transferred from the old board of directors to the new acquisition. Anteon had been a aggressive acquirer, gobbling up on average one company a year. Kampf intended CoVant to continue that reputation as a private

34

equity firm focused on developing a portfolio of defense and intelligence firms. Among his other activities, Kampf was a board member of the Wolf Trap Foundation for Performing Arts until 2010.

Dwight Schar, 75 & Martha schar Worth: $950 million Schar’s story is nothing if not eventful. To supplement his income as a junior high school teacher, he sold real estate for Ryan Homes on weekends. In 1980, he started his own company, NVHomes; seven years later, in a hostile takeover bid, he acquired Ryan Homes, his former employer.

In 1992, he filed for bankruptcy, but a few years later he had recovered sufficiently to buy – along with two partners – a fifth of the Redskins from Dan Snyder for $200 million.

Reston-based NVHomes remains one of the area’s top home building companies. Schar is also a former f inance chairman of the Republican National Committee, owner of a large oceanfront estate in Palm Beach and – in some years – is included on Forbes Magazine’s list of billionaires. To say he is an active philanthropist is putting it mildly.

George Mason University, Ashland University – his own alma mater – plus his high school and Youth of Tomorrow, the charity for atrisk teens started by former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, have been among benef iciaries of considerable sums. The most significant, though, is the $50 million given to Inova Fairfax Hospital Foundation in 2016 to develop a cancer research institute that would bear his name and that of his wife Martha. $300 million to $749 million

Neil Cohen, 56 & Marcy cohen Worth: $350 million In 2005, shortly after CEO Neil Cohen’s firm District Photo i n Wa sh i ng ton t r a n sit ioned f rom a n analog film-developing lab to multiple state-of-theart digital labs, he sold its photo storage and

merchandising business, Snapfish, to HewlettPackard for a reported $300 million. A decade later, District Photo was able to buy back Snapfish as part of a plan for HP restructuring.

But meanwhile technology had moved on the Snapfish was now a web-based photo sharing and photo printing service. Cohen is also a part owner of the Monumental Sports and Entertainment, Washington’s multi-franchise ownership that includes the Verizon Center.

He’s also active in a wide range philanthropic organizations including Fight for Children.

Michelle Freeman, 57 Worth: $356 million M ichel le Freem a n i s president, ow ner a nd CEO of the Carl Freeman companies, a real estate conglomerate in Washington and Delaware. She took over the firm in 2006, following the death of her husband Joshua Freeman in a helicopter crash, at the same time assuming responsibility of her late father-in-law’s Carl M. Freeman Foundation and creating a second one in memory of her husband. Her first project for the latter opened in the summer of 2008 – the Freeman Stage at Bayside, an open-air performing arts venue, located near Fenwick Island, Del. Freeman divides her time between her native Delaware and the D.C. area. She is actively involved in the management and oversight of the Freeman family farm, a 500-acre property located in Gaithersburg, Md. She is also actively involved with the Landon School in Bethesda, where she serves on the board. She is a founding member of Venture Philanthropy Partners and is involved with the Washington National Opera. Freeman is also one of the 13 part owners of Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

Emanuel ‘Manny’ J. Friedman, 70 & kindy french Worth: $340 million The hedge fund manager made millions through his investment bank Friedman, Billings and Ramsey, which the Wall Street Journal reported earned “some of

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

| washingtonlife.com

the biggest profits from the U.S. government’s bailout of small banks following the 2008 financial crisis.” In 2005 he co-founded EJF Capital, an investment management firm based in Arlington, Va., which reportedly manages more than $7 billion. In March of this year, Friedman announced plans to list a fund in London “to invest in asset-backed securities and real estate assets put up for sale as a result of regulatory change in the financial sector,” according to Reuters. Friedman and his wife Simone founded the Emanuel J. Friedman Philanthropies to serve as an umbrella organization for their charitable giving. It disperses funds for pediatric health, Jewish causes and animal protections.

Catherine Hughes, 70 Worth: $460 million In 1987, seven years into her struggling ownership of Radio One, her accountant brought her the monthly balance sheet and she reminded him that he had forgotten to enter the bottom line in red.

There was no mistake. Today, Radio One has burgeoned into the country’s largest radio chain aimed at African-Americans, with 53 stations across 16 markets, with Hughes’ son, Albert Liggins III as its president and CEO. In 2015, revenue was $450.8 million. By then Hughes had started TV One in partnership with Comcast. She began her radio career at Howard University where she ran the then-new college radio station. In recognition of that formative experience, the Catherine Hughes and Albert Liggins II Foundation recently made a major gift to the university’s school of communications which now bears her name.

Robert L. ‘BOB’ Johnson, 71 Worth: $550 million Following the sale of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the cable network he launched in partnership with his wife in 1980, to Viacom for $1.1 billion, Johnson founded the Bethesda-based RLJ Companies in what he called his “second act.” Johnson is chairman of RLJ, which has investments

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

in hotel real estate, automobile dealerships, f inancial services, video lottery terminal gaming, and since 2014 the subscriptionbased Urban Movie Channel (UMC) aimed at the African-American audience. Johnson has long been an active philanthropist. In 2011, he partnered with Morgan Freeman to raise funds for hurricane preparedness in the Bahamas. He has also founded Clubcharity. com, a website where celebrities can auction off items for philanthropic causes. Johnson also created the $30 million Liberia Enterprise Development Fund that provides credit for Liberian entrepreneurs.

Jeong H. Kim, 57 & cindy kim Worth: $700 million A Korean-born immigrant who spoke little English when he arrived in the United States at 14, Kim has ended up a member of the board of three major American universities – Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, University of Maryland – in recognition of his considerable contribution to all three institutions, and also because he is one of Washington’s leading hi-tech entrepreneurs.

Kim started his first hi-tech company, Yurie Systems, in 1992, when he was 32, and sold it to Lucent Technologies for $1.1 billion. He is currently executive chairman of Kiswe Mobile Inc., his latest hi-tech venture, and president emeritus of Bell Labs. He is one of the founding partners of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a group that funds innovative programs for inner-city children. Kim is also part owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

Samuel Lehrman, 67 & Robert Lehrman, 66 Worth: $500 million The Lehrman brothers’ grandfather cofounded Giant Food, but Lehrman is no longer a name connected with Washington’s biggest supermarket chain. In 1994, the two Lehrman brothers and their sister Heidi (now deceased) sold their shares to the British Sainsbury chain for $325 million. Giant Food

| washingtonlife.com

itself was acquired by a Dutch supermarket conglomerate, Royal Ahold. Samuel, however, is still in the retail business as the founder and CEO of Lehrco, which owns grocery-anchored shopping centers. In 2015, Samuel sold his 20,000-square-foot mansion in Washington for $18 million. A couple of years earlier he had divorced from his socialite and philanthropist wife Susan. Robert, an investor and art collector administers the Jacob and Charlotte Lehrman Foundation set up by his parents.

Most recently, the foundation helped – among other organizations – the Washington National Symphony, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconiliation, the Audubon Naturalist Society and Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Bruce Levenson, 67 & Ed Peskowitz, 62 Worth: $500 million Levenson and Peskowitz are partners in the United Communications Group, a company they started in a basement in 1977 to supply business information. Today, Gaithersburg-based UCG is a multi-million-dollar operation with two million clients. Until 2015, Levenson, a lawyer, and Peskowitz, a former journalist, were also owners of the Atlanta Hawks basketball franchise, but sold it for $850 million when Levenson voluntarily revealed that he had, two years earlier, written an e-mail with racial overtones. Their wide ranging philanthropic activity includes supporting the Community Foundation of Washington and the Hoop Dreams Foundation.

Levenson was a founding donor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and contributes to other Jewish causes.

Linda McMahon, 68 Worth: $520 million Trump’s U.S. Small Business Administrator is used to the rough and tumble of both life and politics. Her husband Vince, a childhood sweetheart whom she married when she was 17, launched a wrestling organization that eventually burgeoned into the highly successful World Wrestling Entertainment, and Linda was

35

SPECIAL FEATURE

the wealth list

involved in the business from the start. She was the WWE’s CEO from 1997 until 2009, and even made an occasional appearance in the ring. In 2010, she ran for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut as a Republican, but lost after a bruising campaign.

These days, McMahon runs a mentoring company called Woman’s Leadership Live (“Expert business training for committed entrepreneurs.”)

Steven Mnuchin, 54 Worth: $300 million Treasury Secretary Mnuchin – he had been Trump’s campaign finance chairman – is one of the crowd of former Goldman Sachs employees who now have posts in the Trump administration. Mnuchin was a partner at Goldman Sachs for 17 years, leaving the firm in 2002. He then formed a movie production company which made Avatar and the X-Men films. In 2006, he and other investors, including long-time Democrat heavy supporter George Soros, bought the failed subprime mortgage lender IndyMac for $1.6 billion. Re-named OneWest, it was sold by Mnuchin to CIT Group for $3.4 billion six years later. When public interest groups opposed the merger alleging racial discrimination in granting mortgages and wrongful foreclosures, according to reports primarily in Politico, 14 recipients of grants from OneWest’s Foundation, which Mnuchin chaired, wrote letters to the Federal Reserve Board in support of the deal, praising the bank’s philanthropic activity. The Federal Reserve Board quoted the letters in allowing the merger.

While such support from charities is not unheard of, Politico said they opened Mnuchin up “to allegations that he used the foundation for his own personal benefit.” Despite the controversy surrounding OneWest, Mnuchin got through his nomination hearing without much difficulty.

Rex Tillerson, 64 Worth: $325 million Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state is the quintessential career man, having joined Exxon-Mobil straight out of college and risen through the ranks to

36

chairman and CEO. A Texas native, he holds over 2.6 million shares of Exxon-Mobil stock worth roughly $240 million, according to Forbes magazine. Since his appointment as CEO in 2016 his pay package has been sizeable – $90 million over the past three years alone.

An Eagle Scout, Tillerson has served as national president (2010-2012) and then on the Scouts’s executive board when the organization lifted the ban on openly gay membership. He is also director of the United Negro College Fund, and a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an inf luential, generally centrist think tank in Washington.

Magalen Ohrstrom Bryant, 88 Worth: $450 million This Virginia steeplechase owner-breeder who has also been a prominent environmentalist in Loudoun and Fauquier counties is the daughter of G.L. Ohrstrom Sr., founder of a New York investment firm that bore his name, and with her late brother inherited his fortune and his stable.

She owns “Locust Hill Farm” in Middleburg, Va., and was one of the first property owners in the area to place her land in a conservation trust. Her brother, George L. Ohrstrom Jr., ran the business for several years and founded Dover Corp., the Carlisle Companies and Roper Industries Inc. A string of wins maintains her reputation as a top owner-breeder. The Ohrstrom Foundation is a supporter of Shenandoah University (the school’s theater is named Ohrstrom Bryant) and of various environmental and charity programs.

Fred Malek, 80 & Marlene malek Worth: $500 million Malek has long been a member of the Republican Party establishment and a key GOP fundraiser. In business, he was successively a senior vicepresident at Marriott Hotels and a member of the Carlyle Group of investors before founding the Thayer Lodging Group, a private equity firm which today has $3 billion worth of hotel assets following the acquisition of Interstate Hotels, the largest independent hotel management company in the world, and hotel related ventures in China. A former U.S. Ranger

and Vietnam vet, his philanthropy has focused on the West Point Academy and the Czech community (he is the son of Czech immigrants).

He and his wife Marlene endowed a school of health professionals at Marymount University, her alma mater. A cancer survivor, he gave a sevenfigure gift to the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas.

George Pederson, 80 & marilyn pederson Worth: $669 million Earl ier this year, the CIA Off icers Memorial Foundation gave an award to George Pederson, chairman and CEO of ManTech International Corp for his help to the organization that helps the families of agents who have died on active duty. Only in Washington could such philanthropic connections happen, and the award underlines the close relationship between the defense industry and its military, intelligence and Homeland Security clientele. ManTech says it produces “critical security programs” for these clients, but otherwise has a reputation for secrecy about its activities. Founded by Pederson in 1968 with one contract for the U.S. Navy, it now does upwards of $1.4 billion worth of business each year. Among other charities and causes ManTech supports regularly are the U.S. Marines Heritage Foundation, the Cyber Center for Education and Innovation, which has ties to the National Security Agency, and Ivymount School for special education in Rockville, Md. Bertram R. firestone, 86 & Diana Johnson Firestone, 85 Worth: $330 million The Firestones are long time major owner/breeders of Thoroughbred equestrian and flat racing horses at their 400-acre Newstead Farm in Upperville, Va. From Genuine Risk, one of only three fillies to win America’s greatest race, the Kentucky Derby, in 1980 to their homebred Winchester, who won the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes at Illinois Arlington Park in 2008, to even more recent successes, the Firestones continue to be active on the equestrian circuit. They are both members of the Marion du Pont Scott Equine

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

| washingtonlife.com

Medical Center Advisory Council. Bertram and Diana – a Johnson & Johnson heiress – were among the early campaigners in favor of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act that would ban the transportation and slaughter of horses for human consumption. The law passed in 2011.

Russell W. Ramsey, 59 & Norma ramsey Worth: $330 million Ramsey led the attempt to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to the nation’s capital. His plan was to develop the depressed Anacostia River area as the Olympic site, along the lines that London focused on its poorer East End for the same purpose. The Washington attempt failed, but Ramsey has had his successes, too. In 2001, he founded Ramsey Asset Management, a hugely successful hedge fund based in Reston, Va. Newsweek magazine named him one of its four “people to see” in Washington’s finance community. He was chairman of the board of trustees of George Washington University, which he attended on a baseball scholarship. He gave the university $1 million as an investment portfolio to be managed by students. He was recently behind the emergence of a new business-driven organization aimed at bringing economic growth and closer cooperation to the urban axis of Washington, Baltimore and Richmond. Improving roads and infrastructure is one of the group’s primary targets. In 2017, he raised $25 million among investors to acquire the martial arts league World Series of Fighting. robert rosenthal, 80 & marion rosenthal Worth: $300 million Rosenthal started in the mid-’50s with a Chevrolet dealership in Arlington, and built it up into Rosenthal Automotive Organization, one of the region’s largest. A noted philanthropist he has served as a trustee of the National Gallery of Art and has pledged

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

more than $5 million to the Eisenhower Medical Center in California, where Rosenthal and his wife Marion have one of their homes, and the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, plus education programs and Jewish charities.

michael saylor, 52 Worth: $330 million In 1989, Saylor founded Microstrategy, a business intelligence company that develops software to enable organizations to make business decisions and develop mobile apps. Saylor is its co-founder, president, chief executive and chairman. One of its early successes was a $10 million contract with McDonalds to develop applications to assess the impact of its promotions. In 2012, he put his views on the future impact of mobile technology into a book, “The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything,” which made the New York Times bestseller list. By 2015, the Tysons-based company revenue was $500 million. The Saylor Foundation aims to encourage companies to “aggressively pursue digital education” and make free higher education available. $200 million to $299 million

john ‘chip’ akridge, 70 & sally akridge Worth: $280 million A k r id ge i s ch a i r m a n of a development f irm founded by him in 1976, and bearing his name. He recently told an interviewer that his first project was a small downtown building on K Street that housed the Women’s Bank. Other more recent developments were Gallery Place (in partnership with the Western Development Corp.); the redevelopment of the historic Victor Building at 750 Ninth St. NW: and Burnham Place, a mixed use area at Union Station covering about three million square feet. Akridge started the Trust for the National Mall to assist the National Park Service in restoring and repairing the Mall.

A supporter of the Nature Conservancy and the

| washingtonlife.com

Chesapeake Bay Foundation, he has turned his Eastern Shore farm into a demonstration site for protecting wetlands and wildlife.

robert allbritton, 47 & elena allbritton Worth: $220 million A banking scion (his father owned now defunct Riggs Bank), Allbritton is chairman of Capital News Corporation, owner of Politico, which which the New Republic once called “the obsessivecompulsive news organization that has changed journalism in D.C. since its launch in 2007.” In 2013, Albritton sold Allbritton Communications – of which he was also chairman – with its 13 television stations for $985 million in order to focus on Politico. But perhaps Allbritton’s biggest success to date is that under his leadership Politico weathered the departure in 2016 of four of its cofounding journalists following differences over the company’s future development. Politico has recently added overseas coverage from key cities in Europe and Asia.

Adrienne Arsht, 75 Worth: $200 million Arsht is a philanthropist and society staple who has never looked anything but perfect in a photograph, but there’s a lot more to her than being elegantly photogenic. Her cultural world revolves around the Kennedy Center in Washington, Lincoln Center in New York (she is on the board of both institutions), the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami (where she is chairman emeritus of the center’s foundation), the Metropolitan Opera and the Washington National Opera, both of which have received sizeable donations from her. This month, she will receive New York’s Carnegie Hall medal of excellence for outstanding and continued support. But what she wants to talk about these days is her growing involvement with the Atlantic Council, the prestigious Washington think-tank.

A couple of years ago, the Council launched the Middle Atlantic Center for Latin American Studies with a $10 million gift from Arsht. Now, she has

37

SPECIAL FEATURE

the wealth list

donated $5 million towards the Council’s new Arsht Center of Reliance to study what makes people resilient. Arsht’s philanthropy is rooted in the sale in 2007 of TotalBank, a small community bank she owned in Miami to Banco Popular Espanol for $300 million. Arsht’s philanthropic organization consists of herself and her checkbook: she never started a foundation. She is not defensive about having her name on the results of her major endowments. “Women don’t seem to want to be known for what they have done,” she says, “and I think that’s a shame.”

calvin cafritz, 85, carter cafritz, 80 & conrad cafritz, 78 Worth: $250 million This trio of brothers inherited a major fortune built from scratch by their father, Morris Cafritz (1887-1964), a Lithuanian immigrant who started out with a grocery store and moved on to building single-family homes, apartment complexes and office buildings. He survived the Depression uniquely poised to thrive during the post-World War II building boom and soon amassed one of the capital’s great fortunes (valued at a record $66 million after his death). Despite an early 1990’s lawsuit (Calvin vs. Carter and Conrad) over their mother Gwendolyn’s estate, the brothers maintain, albeit separately, the clan’s high real estate profile in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Calvin continues the family tradition of generous and enlightened philanthropy as chairman of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, which has dispensed more than $500 million to upwards of 900 deserving organizations in five general areas (arts and humanities, community services, education, health and the environment).

John Delaney, 54 & april delaney Worth: $200 million U.S. Rep. John Delaney, ( D -Md.), now i n h is second t er m , i s one of the ten wea lth iest members of Cong ress.

He i s a l so t he on ly

38

member of the House who had been a CEO in a publ icly traded company – actually more than one. Before going into politics he sold CapitolSource, which made loans to borrowers denied by the banks, and his HealthCare Financial Partners, which specialized in lending to small-care businesses. According to press reports, he is seriously considering running for governor of M a r yl a nd . Del a ne y’s Pa r t ner sh ip to Bu i ld A mer ica Bi l l, proposing infrastructure funding precedes the Trump ad m i n i st r at ion’s i n f r a st r uct u re pl a n s.

Delaney and his wife April have supported Catholic Char ities, Innocents at R isk, the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and both serve on the National Advisory Counci l of Br idges of Understand ing, which promotes greater communication and understanding between Americans and the Arab world.

Raul Fernandez, 49 & jean-marie fernandez Worth: $220 million Fernandez sold ObjectVideo, a v ideo analytics and surveillance company of which he was chairman, to Alarm. com in March 2017 for an undisclosed amount. The entrepreneur previously sold par t of the company’s i nter nat iona l l icensi ng a nd patent i ng program to a Canadian company for more than $ 80 m il lion. He started his f irst business, the internet ser vices company Proxicom, in the early 1990s with $40,000 and grew it into a f irm with $200 million in revenue before selling it in 2001. The University of Maryland graduate is also a vice chairman of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Verizon Center and its aff iliated sports teams. He is a co-founder of Venture Philanthropy Partners, which utilizes the venture capital model of aggressive investing to raise money for area non-prof its providing services to children and low-income families. The group has raised over $100 million since launching in June of 2000.

C. Boyden Gray, 74 Worth: $200 million Boyden Gray may not have attended Dona ld Tr u m p’s c a m p a i g n rallies, but he has written ar t icles welcom ing the appoint ment of Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt to – as he put it – “rein in the EPA,” and advised Trump in print on how to divest himself of his f inancial assets as president. He is also a member of the Federalist Society which has advised the Trump administration on the judicial appoint ment s, includ ing the Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and a board member of FreedomWorks, the national conservative group that helped launch the Tea Party movement. Earlier, he served as legal adviser to Vice-President George Bush Sr., and White House counsel to President George Bush. He was also U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Gray’s grandfather, uncle and great uncle all served as heads of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in WinstonSalem, and Gray is always characterized in the press as an “R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir.” Gray has served on the boards of several charitable, education and professional organizations.

Jane Harman, 71 Worth: $244 million The for mer long time Democratic cong re s swom a n f rom California and current president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars, is the widow of the late multimillionaire Sidney Harman, an audio pioneer who founded speaker company Harman Kardon and later owned Newsweek.

Harman is a trustee of the Aspen Institute and the University of Southern California and president of the Harman Family Foundation, which funds non-prof its that work in education, human rights and the intersection of youth and the arts. The foundation developed the Catalogue of Philanthropy: Greater

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

| washingtonlife.com

Washington, which has raised more than $37 million for local charities.

mandell ‘mandy’ ourisman, 91 & mary ourisman Worth: $200 million The jingle “You always get your way at Ourisman Chev rolet” cont i nue s to resonate across the metropolitan area after close to a century. The company, founded in 1921, remains one of the nation’s largest automobile dealers with 28 vehicle franchises in Mar yland and Virginia. Mandy Ourisman, who took charge after the death of his father Benjamin in 1955, continues to keep an eye on business interests after having handed down responsibility for day-to-day operations to his sons Robert and John Ourisman and step-son Daniel Korengold. He resides mostly in Palm Beach, Fla. these days where he and his wife Mary, a former ambassador to Barbados and six other Caribbean nations under President George W. Bush, are well known fixtures on the social scene.

Paul Saville, 61 Worth: $230 million As CEO of NVR, Inc. Paul Saville has nurtured his Reston, Va.- based residential construction company to be a leading force in the nation’s homebuilding industry. Under the NVR umbrella Ryan Homes, NV Homes and Heartland Homes all engage in the construction and sale of singlefamily homes and condominiums. Additionally, NVR runs a mortgage banking business in-house making it a one-stop shop for homebuyers.

J. Rock Tomkel,53 Worth: $210 million J. Rock Tomkel has been president of Arlington Asset Investment since 2011.

The publicly traded investment firm holds mortgage related and other assets. One of his earlier experiences was serving as special assistant to the director of the Thrift Supervision Regulator y Agency for the savings and loan industry where he oversaw the restructuring of many of the nation’s

WASHI N G T O N LI F E

| june

2017

troubled thrifts and savings banks. The family’s philanthropy ranges from support of the Theta Foundation’s women’s programs to Washington Catholic Charities.

sen. Mark Warner, 62 Worth: $200 million Behind Mark Warner’s political prowess is the resourceful businessman who made his fortune off the cell phone boom in the ’80s, when the F.C.C. began awarding cellular franchise licenses via lottery to anyone who was interested.

Warner capitalized on the mayhem, serving as a conduit between license holders and buyers. His five percent cut off each brokered deal proved successful and helped earn him $150 million over the course of a decade.

Columbia Capital, the venture capital firm he started in 1989 helped finance a number of telecommunications companies, including Nextel. Eventually, his knack for being a middleman translated into politics. As governor of Virginia, Warner gained unprecedented popularity as a Democrat in a previously red state with an 80 percent approval rating.

Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2008, re-elected to a second term in 2014 and serves on the Senate Finance, Banking, and Intelligence committees. As a philanthropist, Warner has supported nonprof it organizations that promote public schools and higher education.

Jeffrey Zients, 61 & Mary Zients Worth: $210 million.

At 35, Zients was named to Fortune Magazine’s “4 0 -u nder - 4 0” when he took two business research and consulting companies, The Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board, originally launched by Atlantic publisher and entrepreneur David Bradley, through initial public offerings, making both men multimillionaires. In 2005, he caught President Barack Obama’s attention and was appointed

| washingtonlife.com

chief performance officer, where he focused on streamlining the government’s information technology. Mainly, he worked on repairing the trouble plagued healthcare.gov rollout – in other words, Obamacare. Zients was eventually appointed director of the National Economic Council. Zients and his wife, Mary, run the Zients Family Foundation focusing on women’s social and economic issues.

Methodology: Washington Life magazine obtained information on net worth principally from direct sources, and then fact-checked the numbers through many of the individuals listed, or their attorneys and public relations representatives. Any errors or omissions by Washington Life Magazine were not intentional.

We welcome your feedback at editorial@washingtonlife.com.

39

SPECIAL REPORT | BOOK TALK

PHILANTHROPIC POWER SHIFT David Callahan explores the influence of elite philanthropy on American life in ‘The Givers.’

BY ERICA MOODY

W

ith great wealth comes great responsibility,” Bill Gates once said. It’s a sentiment that American philanthropists are embracing more and more – while they are still living. Activist donors on both sides of the political aisle are taking over where government is lacking, tackling the big issues of the day (climate change, school reform, cancer research, etc.) with their charitable dollars. Inside Philanthropy founder David Callahan introduces us to this new class of donors in “The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age” (Alfred A. Knopf) and investigates what this power shift means for ordinary citizens.>>

backed nonprofits playing a big role in policy changes, such as when legal groups challenged the Affordable Care Act and got a key piece of that law, mandating expansion of Medicaid, struck down by the Supreme Court.

Name a single philanthropist who’s been most effective with his or her giving.

Michael Bloomberg is an especially effective philanthropist. He’s focused a lot of resources on solvable problems like reducing tobacco-related deaths in poorer countries and stuck with this work over a long period. He’s also made big bets, such as backing the Sierra Club’s effort to shut down coal-fired power plants on a large scale.

What inspired you to write this book? I’ve

long been interested in the inf luence of philanthropy, going back to the 1990s when I began working in the think tank world and saw how effective these donor-supported institutions could be in swaying public policy. In 2014, I started Inside Philanthropy and began looking at the rise of new givers with big ambitions to shift the direction of society. This book grew out of that reporting.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan got a lot of backlash for establishing an LLC for their giving rather than a foundation. Why is that?

Should we be skeptical of philanthropists who give that way? LLCs make people nervous

because they are less transparent, so it’s hard to see what donors are doing. But philanthropists have some good reasons for using LLCs because they can use their money more f lexibly – such as investing in for-profit social enterprises alongside traditional grantmaking. You can also make political gifts through LLCs, which you can’t do with foundations.

40

What is the biggest mistake philanthropists make starting out? Many spread their gifts More philanthropists are embracing “giving while living” as you put it, rather than leaving money to their kids or putting it into foundations that go on long after they die. What does this change mean for the country? This shift

reflects a rising desire among donors to solve big problems or make “systemic change” in society – hopefully sooner rather than later.

That’s a different goal than stewarding existing institutions or supporting particular cities or regions, and it leads donors to give more aggressively while they’re still living.

Philanthropists like the Koch brothers are more interested in shaping public policy than ever before. How significant is this influence on our politics, and is it growing? Often charitable

gifts to think tanks, advocacy organizations and legal groups are more effective in bringing about change than political donations. Charles Koch said this himself.

There are lots of examples of philanthropy-

too widely and without a real strategy, as opposed to focusing more narrowly and being strategic. One problem is that newer donors may engage in too much “relationship giving” – backing an array of organizations that are recommended by friends as opposed to a select handful that are the most effective.

You outline areas of reform for a more transparent, accountable and “less aggressively political” philanthropic sector. Will you briefly describe these? Too much money is flowing

in opaque ways through donor-advised funds that aren’t governed by the same strong disclosure rules as private foundations. All institutions that make grants should be fully transparent. We also should seek to limit the rising flood of giving aimed at influencing public policy by tightening the criteria for what organizations can receive tax-deductible gifts. Many 501(c)3 policy groups should probably be reclassified as 501(c)4s, which are not eligible to receive tax-deductible gifts.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT

The Gift of Fresh Air Children’s National Medical Center dedicates the Bunny Mellon Healing Garden to the first ladies of the United States.

BY C AT H E R I N E T R I F I L E T T I

Stacy Lloyd, Thomas Lloyd, Andy and Heather Florance, Melania Trump, Children’s Board Chairman Mike Williams, Children’s President & CEO Kurt Newman and Children’s Exec. Vice President of Patient Care Services Kathleen Chavanu Gorman

K

ids need to be outside in the sun,” and “it made me feel better” were just a few of the comments that could be heard from Children’s National Medical Center patients in a video announcing the opening of the facility’s new outdoor garden. After the short production aired at the dedication ceremony in late April, there wasn’t a dry eye in a room of fiercely dedicated people who saw the project to completion. It was as if being able to see patients experience the simple joy of breathing in fresh air provided immediate validation for all the hard work that went into the planning and execution of the 7,200-square-foot space.

Inspiration for the project was sparked by a terminally-ill patient’s final wish to go outdoors – a story that resonated with CoStar Group’s Andy Florance and his wife Heather when they learned of the monumental efforts taken by the Center’s staff and medical team to make it happen. Children’s National President and CEO Kurt Newman fondly noted that, while most people would hear such a story, maybe pause, then go back to business as usual, the Florances

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

did not. Along with the couple’s generous personal gift, Andy Florance enlisted colleagues at CoStar Group to help with seed funding for the outdoor concept, spurring the first steps of an extensive planning process requiring cooperation from many individuals and groups. Landscape architects worked alongside planning committees in sync with nurses and doctors to eventually make the garden a reality.

“Everything we do is about providing the best possible experience for our patients,” Newman said, adding that “having a place to go outside and escape the rigors of hospital life will be a tremendous benefit for all.” The outdoor space is equipped with outlets for medical machines, wide doors to accommodate hospital beds and faux grass for children with allergies.

Naming the garden after Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon, a green-thumbed philanthropist who designed the White House Rose Garden when her friend Jacqueline Kennedy was first lady, seemed most appropriate after a gift of $5 million was given from her estate through the Gerard B. Lambert

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Foundation. Her grandsons,Thomas Lloyd and Stacy Lloyd were present at the ceremony, to reiterate how proud their late grandmother would be of the finished product.

The garden is dedicated to first ladies of the United States to recognize their ongoing support of Children’s National through the years. Continuing the tradition, first lady Melania Trump attended the ribbon cutting and expressed her excitement about the project.

“This garden,” she said,“will be a quiet space for children to benefit from nature’s most important elements: fresh air and beautiful views, to relax and enjoy in peace.”

After brief remarks, Mrs. Trump sat comfortably among patients of all ages to make art, talk about books and enjoy the spring day. As the sun and blue sky hovered above and a soft breeze rustled plants on the garden’s outskirts, the courtyard seemed to take on a new life well beyond the confines of the hospital. A natural oasis that, if only for a moment, can make young people forget their discomfort as patients and remember what it’s like to be a kid.

41

LIFESTYLES

FAIR LADY PLAYFUL COLORS BOMBER JACKETS AND LOTS OF JEWELRY

PHOTOGRAPHY TONY POWELL | WWW/TONY-POWELL/COM STYLIST LINDSEY NOLAN | T H E ARTIST AGENCY | @LINDSEYNOLANSTYLING STYLIST’S ASSISTANT ABBI WARD MAKEUP/HAIR CAROLA MYERS ASSISTED BY KAYLA DRESEEN | WWW/CAROLAMYERS/COM HAIR KAYLA | MODEL NADINE CAMPEAU | T H E ARTIST AGENCY EDITORIAL DIRECTION CATHERINE TRIFILETTI EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS WENG CHEONG AND EMILY ROSENKOETTER PHOTOGRAPHED AT GLEN ECHO PARK MACARTHUR BLVD GLEN ECHO MD

MAJE Varsity-style embroidered satin jacket ($325) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 5564600; MAJE Rita Lace Midi Dress ($480) Bloomingdale’s; KENNETH JAY LANE double tiger head bracelet ($145) Tabandeh, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777; KENNETH JAY LANE double giraffe head bracelet ($145) Tabandeh; CATHERINE MALANDRINO Gold Zihae Wedge ($130) catherinemalandrino.com; TABANDEH Necklace ($435) Tabandeh; TABANDEH 3 Large Hoop Earrings ($145) Tabandeh; 300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777.

REBECCA TAYLOR Solid Halter Neck Top ($250) Saks Fifth Avenue, 2051 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, (703) 7610700, AG JEANS Stilt Crop Jeans in White ($178) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600; CARA Beaded Tassel Pendant Necklace Multi ($16.97); GAS BIJOUX Massai Cuffs ($210) Tabandeh, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777; TABANDEH Earrings ($535) Tabendah, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777.

HUGO BOSS Diganira dress and Cipeila jacket; Hugo Boss CityCenterDC 1054 Palmer Alley NWWashington, D.C 20001 (202) 408-9845; STUART WEITZMAN nudist song patent heels ($398) Bloomingdales 5300 Western Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, (240) 744-3700. TIFFANY & CO. Schlumberger multiplication earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds ($17,500) . Tiffany & Co, 5481 Wisconsin Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 (301) 657-8777.

SANDRO Space Tie-Neck Printed Silk Shirt ($495) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600; BCBG GENERATION Denim Palazzo Pants ($98) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600; LOVERS & DRIFTERS shag sweater ($178) loversanddrifters.com; KATE SPADE Emma Too Flat ($175) Bloomingdale’s; TABANDEH Earrings ($535) Tabandeh, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777; Red Belt ($50) Curated Classix, curatedclassix.com.

Sunset & Spring Star Studded Motorcycle Jacket ($148) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600; KAREN MILLEN Short Sleeve Bardot Top ($125) Bloomingdale’s; KAREN MILLEN Pleated Drop Waist Skirt ($235) Bloomingdale’s; L.K. BENNETT Primrose Pointed Toe Pump ($395) us.lkbennett.com; VANESSA MOONEY Fawn Choker Necklace ($68) vanessamooney.com, (323) 9620200; DANNIJO Necklace ($52); dannijo. com, (212) 971-7070; RILEY VERSA “Versa” Base Bag Lola Cover ($200) Riley Versa, rileyversa.com. VITTORIO CECCOLI Body Harness ($635) Tabandeh, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 244-0777.

N / NICHOLAS dress ($529), Saks Jandel, 5510 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, (301) 6522250; HALSTON HERITAGE clutch ($345) and SJP Sarah Jessica Parker pumps ($560), Bloomingdales, 5300 Western Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815; TIFFANY & CO. Enchant scroll earrings in MARA platinum with diamonds ($11,000), ON EMMA: HOFFMAN patterned Tiffany & Co., Tiffany & Co., 5481 monokini ($253) and KATE SPADE Cameron Wisconsinbag Ave,($378) Chevy Chase, MD 20815, Street Blakely Bloomingdale’s (301) 657-8777; CARTIER Paris NouTysons Corner Center, 8100 Tysons Corner velle Vague Delicate white gold and Center, McLean, Va., 703-556-4600. diamond necklace ($16,300) and LOVE in white gold, pave diamonds ON ERIC:bracelet MORGENTHAL FREDERICS and ceranic ($43,700), Hustler hand-crafted Japanese Cartier, titanium5471B Avenue,Fredrics, Chevy Chase, sunglassesWisconsin ($495), Morgenthal City- MD 20815, (301) 654-5858 CenterDC, 941 H St. NW, 202-204-3393.

KATE SPADE Dellie Striped Platform Wedge Sandals ($198) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600; Jacket: MALOOM shopbop.com (stylists own); DIANE VON FURSTENBERG One Shoulder Striped Silk Dress Saks Fifth Avenue, 2051 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, (703) 761-0700 ($548); JOSE BARRERA Bracelet ($395); JOSE BARRERA Earrings ($345) Tabandeh, 5300 Wisconsin Ave NW, (202) 2440777; NASTY GAL Ring Leader Crossbody ($78) Bloomingdale’s, 8100 Tysons Corner Center, Tysons, VA 22102, (703) 556-4600 BROW BAR Polaroid Polarized Brow Bar Aviator Sunglasses, 60mm ($65).

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| S U M M E R | washingtonlife.com

47

LIFESTYLES | WOMEN’S WATCHES

DIOR La mini D de Dior satine, 19mm, quartz movement (Price on request), Saks Fifth Avenue,Tysons Galleria, 703.761.0700

LONGINES Agassiz 23mm gold 18k ($8,725); Lenkersdorfer Fine Jewelers,Tysons Corner Center, 703.506.6712

7XE] +SPH Embellish your wrist with luxurious timepieces.

BY ERICA MOODY

CHOPARD Imperiale 36mm watch,18k yellow gold, amethysts and diamonds ($44,190); Liljenquist & Beckstead,Tysons Galleria, 703.448.6731

ROLEX Oyster Perpetual Lady-Date Just 28, yellow gold (Price on request); Tiny Jewel Box, Dupont Circle, 202.393.2747

CARTIER Clé de Cartier 31mm, 18k yellow gold and diamonds ($30,300); Cartier,Tysons Galleria, 703.749.4664

48

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

THE NEW MANNERS

CIVILITY’S LAST STAND

Famed Chez Panisse chef Jeremiah Tower knows a refined diner when he sees one — but has also suffered many slobs ungladly. Excerpted here, the famed forefather of California cuisine’s recent book, “Table Manners: How to Behave in the Modern World and Why Bother” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $20), has been called “an antidote to the tidal wave of vulgarity threatening to drown us all.”

SHARING

If you dig in for a taste of someone’s food without asking first, then that person had better be in love with you.

TECHIQUETTE

If it feels irresistible to put event photos on Facebook, keep in mind that what’s amusing and of interest to you may not be to the host (if he wanted everyone in on the details of the event, he would have invited them), or to those who were left out of the party. If you care that an uninvited friend may be hit with a serious case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), then don’t put them up. If any photos involve obviously compromising situations, ask permission first. People might love you for it, but going viral for some may be as much fun as a dose of Ebola.

HOW DO I EAT THAT?

BUFFET SERVICE DRESS CODES

Knowing what kind of event you are attending and what the host expects is the key to wearing the right thing. Hosts: informing your guests in advance what’s expected will save them potential embarrassments and make for a much smoother and therefore enjoyable event.

As a guest, you don’t have to take all the food you think you want on the first go. It’s acceptable to get in line again. You are not greedy.

You just don’t like salad on top of your lemon pudding. If you do, get it all at once. Then you look greedy, but you got what you wanted.

Eat an artichoke with your fingers. Peel off the leaves one by one, dip each into the butter or sauce, and, holding the leaf by the pointed end, slide the bottom of it through your teeth, to scrape off the tender flesh. If the bottom of the leaf is tender, eat that. The used leaf goes on the edge of your plate or into a provided bowl. What’s left is the artichoke bottom with a few of the tender and as yet unformed leaves still attached. Eat the tender parts of those. Scoop the spines out with a spoon or a knife and discard them with the eaten leaves. Then you are free to cut up what’s left of the bottom with a knife and fork and dip it into whatever butter, mayonnaise, or sauce was supplied for the outer leaves.

, WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

49

Welcome Ury & Associates We are proud to announce that Ury & Associates has combined with Toka Salon & Day Spa’s Georgetown location. We believe that the joining of these two extraordinary salons with highly complementary industry strengths will position us to provide a broader set of services to our clients.

Toka Welcomes Ury & Associates

Georgetown Court 3251 Prospect Street, NW Suite #19, 2nd floor Washington, DC 20007 202.333.5133

Madison Avenue 768 Madison Avenue 2nd floor, between 65th & 66th New York, NY 10065 212.517.5133

t k

Great Falls 9867 Georgetown Pike Great Falls, VA 22066 703.759.5700

l

Cameron Station 4907 Brenman Park Drive Alexandria, VA 22304 703.370.5133

WASHINGTON S O C I A L D I A R Y over the moonďš? inova lobster festďš? national museum of women in the arts gala and more!

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein at the Kennedy Center Spring Gala.

(Photo by Tony Powell)

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

51

| EMBASSY ROW

Just Your Normal Week in Washington Not your Typical Rush Hour Traffic | Last Hurrah for the E.U. Embassy Tour? | A Flying Envoy

BY ROLAND FLAMINI

BENTLEY PARADE: What

52

Bentleys on display at the British Embassy

he wanted “to be on the safe side.” But with English champagne and Pimm’s No. 1 flowing, “tea” was rather loosely defined.

SWAN SONG? An estimated 85,000 people

braved the rain to visit the 28 European Union embassies on this year’s E.U. Open Day. Crowds toured the British Embassy residence, always a favorite, amid some uncertainty whether this would be the U.K.’s last participation in what has become what the New York Times called “one of Washington’s signature spring events.”

U.K.-E.U. “divorce proceedings” are expected to extend until 2019, but will the Brits be in the mood for joining this exercise in European solidarity next year?

OPERA BALLO ADDIO? Out of the embers of the recently defunct Washington Opera Ball will rise on June 3 the Washington Opera Gala, with a reception and a star-studded concert (soprano Renee Fleming, mezzo Denyce Graves, “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, etc.) at the Kennedy Center as the main attraction. The new formula eliminates the dancing part and keeps the celebration focused on the opera company’s performing venue. After the concert, a number of embassies will be serving a late supper to guests who are able to stay awake that late.

SAUDI ROYAL Just prior to President Donald

Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia and other destinations the Saudis switched ambassadors in Washington in apparent anticipation of improved bi-lateral relations with its most important strategic ally after eight years of awkward policy differences with the Obama administration centering on the U.S. nuclear agreement with Riyadh’s number one foe, Iran. In April, Prince Khaled bin Salman, one of King Salman’s sons, took over as ambassador from the genial Prince Abdullah bin Faisal AlSaud, who held the post for 17 months. To

Saudi Arabian Amb. Khaled bin Salman

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

CO U RT E SY P H OTOS

looked at first sight like a long line of driverless cars – Bentleys, no less – making their way up Massachusetts Avenue NW turned out on closer examination to have drivers on what in American automobiles is the passenger, or “shot-gun” seat.

This was a motorcade of British Bentleys made for British roads owned and driven by members of the Bentley Drivers Club U.K. on an American tour.

There were new Bentleys, and a predominance of vintage models from the 1920s through the 1960s, including one 1923 model and two 1924 3 Litre open tourers. Rush hour traffic came to a halt as drivers gawked at the spectacular display of Britain’s deserved, and long-standing reputation as the maker of handcrafted luxury automobiles. (True, Bentleys Motors is now part of the German Volkswagen Group, but the cars are still produced in Britain).

The drivers and their cars were entertained to tea at the British Embassy by Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch and his wife Vanessa. The ambassador told the group that while he rode in a Bentley, it was owned by the British taxpayer, the British Embassy here being the only one in the world with a Bentley (armored) as the ambassadorial car. John Beschenbossel, outgoing chairman of the Chesapeake Region Rolls Royce (and Bentley) Owners’ Club who hosted the group, said earlier that the British visitors shipped their cars to New Orleans, where they were offloaded and then driven 2,500 miles through the Southeast to Washington. Beschenbossel, a retired Washington dentist and the owner of four Bentleys and two Rolls-Royces, said that, with drinking and driving laws in mind, the ambassador opted for a tea rather than an evening reception because

put this change in context, Prince Abdullah’s predecessor, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, was in Washington for seven years, and the legendary Prince Bandar bin Sultan for 22 years. Prince Salman, 28 – a former U.S.trained F-15 pilot who has flown missions against ISIS – is expected to be a direct connection between his father and President Trump, who has a reputed preference for personal relationships with his counterparts.

The finale sing-along led by host David Duchovny.

(Photo: The Kennedy Center)

Co-Chairs Heather Kirby and James Johnson wtih guest Ann Jordan

Barbie Allbritton and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price

KENNEDY CENTER SPRING GALA

HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Hilary Ross

Kennedy Center | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

Sandy, Joan, Mark and Madelyn Weill

COME TOGETHER Five Cabinet secretaries, along with scores of officials from former administrations, were spotted at this tribute to musician John Lennon headlined by host David Duchovny. The former “X-Files” star sang for the bipartisan crowd before announcing, “We are not going to make this a political event … Coming together means checking our divisiveness at the door.” The show featured performances of some of Lennon’s most beloved songs by Judy Collins, Taj Mahal, Corinne Bailey Rae and Steven Van Zandt. Citizen artist and philanthropy awards were bestowed on Afa and Aaron Dworkin and Joan and Sandy Weill, respectively, by Kennedy Center chairman David Rubenstein and president Deborah Ru er, both of whom appeared on stage wearing Lennon’s signature round sunglasses.

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Aaron and Afa Dworkin

Susan Blumenthal, Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman

Gina and Gene Adams

Grace Bender and Mary Ourisman

Peter Ellefson and Deborah Rutter

Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton

Ian Cameron and Susan Rice WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

53

| HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMAC

WHEN CLASSES COLLIDE Holly Peterson dishes on the social dynamics that rule the Hamptons each summer.

B Y J A N E T D O N O VA N

B

efore New York Times-best-sellingauthor Holly Peterson made her annual trek to one of America’s most storied summer destinations she made a “book stop” at the Jefferson Hotel to celebrate her latest novel, “It Happens in The Hamptons.” The gathering, hosted by Constance Milstein, Tammy Haddad, Kathy O’Hearn, Hilary Rosen, Juleanna Glover, Carol Melton and Heather Podesta, included many guests intimately familiar with the second summer home lifestyle.

The Hamptons, long a playground for the rich and famous, is the focus of her novel, which addresses the dynamic of what happens when new money, old money and local culture collide. “Think of it as ‘Downton Abbey’ in bikinis,” Peterson says. Though her social satire centers around the clashing of classes and cultures on the southeastern tip of Long Island, it could apply to other summer communities, including Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor and Newport.

Peterson has spent the last 20 years writing

social satire because of her fascination with the wealthy and their intense neuroses. The premise of the book was to socially analyze the old money Hamptons types who own adorable but often rundown cottages and often clash with new money one percenters like Ron Perelman and celebrity glitterati who include Sean Combs and Christie Brinkley. Throw in the locals who serve the rich at restaurants and shops, and you have a real collision of culture and values. “There’s this amazing tension between the classes in these communities,” Peterson says, “and that’s the life blood for any author. So that’s the setting.”

The book strikes close to home for Peterson, whose father Pete Peterson was a self-made man who grew up poor in Nebraska during the Great Depression. It was her father’s drive, which she describes as “stratospheric and astronomical and not kind of human or normal,” that helped secure his fortune on Wall Street. His subsequent service as Richard Nixon’s secretary of commerce helped inspire his devoted daughter’s interest

in current events and the “cocktail social swirl of power, business and media.” Being around policy decisions and people who affect them is “a big heroine rush” she says, crediting former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and that newspaper’s longtime syndicated columnist Richard Cohen as her journalistic role models.

Peterson fondly remembers playing jacks in the halls of the White House while her father attended meetings. From her Washington days she cites her parents’ close friends Kay Graham, Muffy and Henry Brandon, Barbara Howar, Sherry Henry and Joan and Tom Braden, adding that she was “friends with all the kids, too.”

“The book is a narrative. It’s a romance,” Peterson adds. “There’s a lot of sex. There’s a lot of fun. But I think it’s a grander thing about the financial differences between people and what that means.”

The promise of sex, money and drama is a good one and come summer there is no doubt what book we’ll have stashed away in our beach bags.

Ann Hand and Tom Forrest

“Killing Reagan” Director Rod Lurie and Novelist Kyra Davis Jack Norton and Jean Case

Kristen Shaw and Michael Grady Anita McBride and Tina Tchen

Heather Vincent, Kathy O’Hearn, Rachel Greenberg and Tammy Haddad

HOLLY PETERSON BOOK PARTY The Jefferson Hotel | PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHITE

Megan Murphy and Hilary Rosen

54

HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS INSIDER

Holly Peterson and Maureen Dowd Cynthia Nixon and Tim Matheson

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Annie Totah, model Jane Merkel and Courtenay Eversole

(Photo by Tony Powell) Gala co-chairwomen Cindy Jones, Amy Baier, Kristin Cecchi and Jamie Dorros WL SPONSORED

WOMEN’S MUSEUM 30TH ANNIVERSARY National Museum of Women in the Arts

British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch and Lady Darroch

Abeer Al-Otaiba

PHOTOS BY ERIN SCHAFF

Calvin and Jane Cafritz, Robert Haft and Davis Camalier

ART CELEBRATING ART The only museum in the world to focus exclusively on the creative contributions of women artists marked its 30th anniversary in high style with an explosion of color that would have made Mary Cassatt proud. Towering floral arrangements reached new heights in the museum’s Great Hall where marble staircases and balustrades were garlanded in ever more thousands of spring blooms as festively-attired guests in couture gowns and major jewels celebrated raising a record $1.5 million for the museum. VISIONS TO BEHOLD: artist Maggie O’Neill’s “interactive art” installation; exquisite desserts made to resemble a work of art; and Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife Jane gamely keeping to the dance floor despite a bevy of pesky photographers closing in.

Jane Sullivan Roberts and Chief Justice John Roberts with museum founder Wilhelmina Holladay (Photo by Tony Powell)

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Britty and John Damgard

Maria Trabocchi and Marisol LaMadrid WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Kelly Gans and Dana Bash 55

OVER THE MOON

A Great House and Great Art Historic ‘North Wales’ goes on the market for $33 million in Warrenton, while artist Robin Hill focuses on birds in Middleburg

BY VICKY MOON

T

he listing for a property at 7500 Ironwood Lane in Warrenton at first glance appears as if it’s just one more pricey country estate, now listed at $33 million.

The main stone and brick and house, known as “North Wales,” has 22 bedrooms, stables, guesthouse, cottages, a shooting preserve, tennis courts, a swimming pool, formal gardens and ponds spread out over an exquisite 1,471 acres.

Oh yes, it’s big and dates to 1781. The handsome stonework outside and gorgeous interior architectural details cause a visitor to virtually hyperventilate in awe. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Most important, it’s one of the supreme examples of the power of conservation in this breathtaking countryside. And, it’s all thanks to nonagenarian Hope Wallach Porter, who stepped up to the plate starting in 1967 and fought mightily against development of the property.

Originally 4,200 acres, prior owners include Edward M. Weld, who added a 40-stall racing stable, a six-furlong training track and an enviable wine cellar around 1914. During the 1940s, auto magnate Walter P. Chrysler spent $7.5 million on renovations. The next few owners sought to subdivide the estate with sections sold

56

The “North Wales” estate in Warrenton, Va. (Courtesy photo)

around the core.

As legal and zoning maneuvers wove through a formidable bureaucratic maze, Porter was relentless for decades, even to the point of tape recording public hearings. Countless consultants and attorneys joined the fight. Mike and Patricia Prentiss purchased “North Wales” in 1997 and placed a no-more-structures easement on the property with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

David B. Ford, a financial magnate, and his wife, Pamela Fielder of Greenwich, Conn., purchased the estate in 2014 for $21 million.

Citizens for Fauquier County published Porter’s book, “The Saga of North Wales,” in 2004. She remains a revered and tenacious advocate in fighting development.

A far more modest structure with ravens, toucans, bald eagles, yellow Rosellas, owls, cockatoos and even a Cape Buffalo nearby also forms the oeuvre of artist Robin Hill’s studio in Middleburg. Nestled in the woods, their cottage out the Foxcroft Road is adjacent to “Farmer’s Delight,” the historic estate once owned by her late parents, Ambassador to Turkey and West Germany George McGhee and his Texas oil heiress wife, Cecilia DeGolyer McGhee. The couple also has a home in Georgetown.

Marcia greets visitors as they enter the renovated barn-studio one recent weekend and makes an announcement of introduction. “Lynn Wiley is here to see you Robin,” she notes or, “Oh, how lovely to see you, Viviane Warren.”

Guests feel as if they are entering the atelier or salon of Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet or Pierre-Auguste Renoir as they ascend the wooden steps. Drinks are offered as they roam the light-filled main room and an adjacent gallery.

A dashing and dapper Australian, Hill specialized in watercolors of birds and wildlife and also paints oil portraits of dogs and humans.

Each captivating piece is accomplished with delicate detail. His work spans five-plus decades and is exhibited across three continents.

Finally, The Virginia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation will be having an extraordinary garden party at “Marshfield,” the home of Sam Mitchell in Warrenton, on Sunday, June 17 at 5 p.m. It’s designed by acclaimed designer, lecturer, author and naturalist Cole Burrell of Free Union, Va. Eyes will pop at his magnificent work. Sponsors include: Randy and Cathy Mayes, Mark Ohrstrom, James Iker and Hayes Nuss, Chuck and Dee Akre, Jacqueline Badger Mars and Jocelyn Sladen.

To reserve tickets contact 540-364-1922.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

P H OTO BY VI C KY M O O N ; P H OTO CO U RT E SY O F M C L E AN FAU LCO N E R

Artist Robin Hill in his Middleburg studio with his wife, Marcia McGhee Carter (Photo by Vicky Moon)

Jennie Warner, Susan Warner, George Allen, John Warner and Milt Peterson

Dean Morehouse, Todd Stottlemyer, and Carolyn Peterson

Ami Aronson, Bob Hisaoka and Laura Evans Manatos Lauren Peterson, Nancy McGrath and Denise Todd

WL SPONSORED

Tina and Gary Mather with Dr. Skip Trump

INOVA LOBSTER EXTRAVAGANZA Milt and Carolyn Peterson Residence | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL CRUSTACEAN FEST The developer Milt Peterson and his wife Carolyn opened up their Fairfax, Va. residence to 1,000 guests for an authentic Maine lobster dinner, raising $800,000 to support the Inova Life with Cancer program. After a live viewing of the Kentucky Derby, a live auction featured such items as tickets to a Pebble Beach golf tournament (fetching $13,500), a week in Historic Key West ($8,500), two VIP tickets to the Middleburg Film Festival ($6,500) and four VIP tickets to the Preakness Stakes ($3,000).

Chaired by Lauren Peterson, Life with Cancer patient Sue Malone summed up the love and support she feels from Life with Cancer: “This program makes me feel super empowered.”

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Barbara Comstock

Bruce and Kiersten Allen, Nancy and John Galiani

Jeff Mullen and Sage Bolte

Katharine Rupp, Fern and Bill Bekenstein

Jeff Newman and Bob Biagi WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

57

Oval Room Executive Chef John Melfi

Alaina Giampapa, Casey Sedlock, Traci Simpson and Dara Frey Tom Wertz, Paul Hatch and Rick Shadyac WL SPONSORED

ST. JUDE GOURMET GALA National Building Museum | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL GOURMET GIVING In its 18th year, the gala, led by event chair Paul Hatch and honorary chair Annie Totah, broke records raising over $1 million for the kids at St. Jude, ensuring that their mission, for families to never receive a bill from St. Jude, continues. Over 850 guests ate and drank their way through the ballroom sampling dishes from 34 of Washington’s top restaurants. Epic Prizes: Lucky live auction winners walked away with a private dinner by Chef Mike Ellis of Charlie Palmer Steak and a luxurious getaway to Montserrat.

Bob Dole

Kerith Rae and Tanya Kelley.

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Ellen Pierce and Holidae Hayes

Wendy White, Julie Chase and Jeanne Slade Jack Evans and Paul Cohn

Debbie, Ed and Ernie Jarvis WL EXCLUSIVE

JARVIS ANNIVERSARY PARTY Boss Shepherd’s Restaurant and Whiskey Bar PHOTOS BY TONY BROWN

REAL ESTATE WINS Champagne flowed at the twoyear anniversary celebration of Jarvis Commercial Real Estate, an office brokerage and development company that recently represented one of the largest publicly traded media companies in its lease negotiations.

Mayor Muriel Bowser congratulated founder Ernie Jarvis and presented a plaque acknowledging the company’s success in the District. Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner and councilmember Jack Evans were among the 250 in attendance.

Mayor Muriel Bowser

Terry McCallister and Linda Rabbitt

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

58

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Toyota’s Bob Carter with PenFed Credit Union President and CEO James Schenk and Lisa Schenck

Cpt. Florent Groberg and Sgt. Dakota Meyer

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Fred Pang

Janet Patton and Sgt. Adam Keys

Tim McGale an Libby Romer

WL SPONSORED

PENFED NIGHT OF HEROES

Tammy Darvish and Master Sgt. Jake Brooks

Trump International Hotel | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL HEROES MAKING A DIFFERENCE The PenFed Foundation’s 13th annual “Night of Heroes” gala raised nearly $1.5 million—a record amount—to support veterans, active members of the armed forces and their families.

Around 800 military, business, community and government leaders attended the event, which included tributes to three “heroes” making a difference for those who have served. Bob Carter, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. and Executive General Manager of Toyota Corporation, received the Community Hero Award for partnering with the “Hiring our Heroes” organization. Also recognized: retired Marine Cpl. Joshua Himan, who returned home from Afghanistan paralyzed and Claudia Avila, a caregiver to her husband, Capt. Luis Avila, who was severely wounded in 2011.

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Caitlin Hicks and Nadia Saghafi

Alan and Amy Meltzer WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Rep. Anthony Brown, Capt. Luis Avila and Claudia Avila

Cpl. Joshua Himan

59

Sara Beckstead and Lizzy Bayly

Justin and Samantha Guilder

Alison Crosby, Matt Rippetoe and Hector Peraza

Vicky Markovitz and Mercedes Ortiz-Olivieri

ROCK THE STACKS Martin Luther King Library | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

Devin Ocampo

CELEBRATING THE WRITTEN WORD The Martin Luther King Library was temporarily transformed into a concert hall to benefit the D.C. Public Library Foundation’s support of 26 libraries spread across the city. The music event and the “ALB Rock the Stacks” record project were both dedicated to the late Annie Lou Bayly Berman, a community advocate with a knack for connecting artists and a love of Washington libraries. Local musicians played seamlessly back and forth between two stages while audience members danced along, enjoying beer and cocktails courtesy of DC Brau and Room 11. Event organizers Jerry Busher and Ben Gilligan organized the tribute to Berman and also performed with the ALB AllStars. Busher said “The group is a tribute to her spirit of putting different artists that don’t know each other together to create.”

Jair Lynch, Jocelyn Sigue, Nicole Elkon, Becky and Josh Wilsusen VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Lars Dabney, Manny Reding and Davita Louie

Jay Newton-Small and Denver Nicks

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann

Tara Papanicolas and Violetta Markelou

WEWORK CREATOR AWARDS Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL INNOVATION REWARDED The shared workspace provider WeWork hosted its inaugural creator awards with CEO-cum-emcee Adam Neumann recognizing entrepreneurs catalyzing change in their local communities and beyond. The 25 winners, who received a total of $1.25 million in grants, included small businesses, growing companies, non-profit groups, artists and others who “are thinking in new ways, building fresh projects and achieving real change.” Washington had a strong presence among finalists in the winners circle including Jay Newton-Small whose service Memory Well enlists journalists to tell the stories of nursing home and assisted living residents to help caregivers create personalized treatment plans. SURPRISE PERFORMANCE Guests toasted passed celebratory shots to the winners and erupted when Mark Ronson appeared, playing his hit “Uptown Funk.”

Jordan Kanegis and Gabby Rose

Judges Nasir Qadree, Kate Goodall, Jeff Reid and Jen Berrent

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

60

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Moira Lee

Cailin and Courtney West Callie and Brad Nierenberg WL SPONSORED

CHANCE FOR LIFE MGM National Harbor | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL HITTING THE JACKPOT Hundreds of generous poker players (including a number of Washington Redskins) flocked to the first charity event held at MGM National Harbor, the 12th annual Chance for Life poker tournament, wine and food tasting and after-party to benefit Children’s National Medical Center and Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Doug Kammerer emceed the affair that included a raucous Texas Hold-Em Poker Tournament with 600 players and a $10,000 grand prize seat at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The event has raised $3 million for pediatric cancer research since being founded by Brad Nierenberg after his goddaughter Kennedy’s cancer diagnosis, and this year brought in $650,000.

Sameer Bhargava, Karen Ghoorah and Chuck Ghoorah

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Brian Draper, Sarah Simmons, Jett Snyder and Dave McLachlan

Reggie Aggarwal and Jeff Butler

Rob and Jennifer Clark, Carolyn Ridgway, Tina Burns, Cathyann and Tripp Shreves

Eric and Susi Larsen

Ryan Lopez, Jen Sheridan, Greg and Stacey Lubar

Rynthia Rost WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

61

Trevor and Ciera Ashley

Mirella Levinas, Shamin Jawad and Joann Mason Dr. Sachiko Kuno and Mark Gillespie WL EXCLUSIVE

Marshall and Rachel Scallan

YOA ORCHESTRA OF THE AMERICAS GALA Four Seasons Washington | PHOTOS BY TONY BROWN FIESTA! How better to herald YOA Orchestra of the Americas’ annual summer tour (this year to the “ABC countries” of Argentina, Brazil and Chile) than with endless Veuve Clicquot, Santa Teresa rum cocktails, Dominican cigars, an auction of top-notch vacations and post-dinner dancing to Latin rhythms that proceeded well into the night? This liveliest of parties on an otherwise rather staid social scene also included a few classical notes from YOA alumnus violinist Nigel Armstrong, whose unique rendition of “Danny Boy” provided a most charming interlude.

Carla Peterson and Mariano Valas

Cristina Burelli, Teresa Bulgheroni and YOA Founder Hilda Ochoa Brillembourg

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

62

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Rahsaan Bernard

Ashley Taylor Bronczek with Brody, Matt and Birdie Bronczek Eun Yang and Carys Kang

WL SPONSORED

Sabrina, Ethan, Sawyer, Lindsey and Elizabeth Drath

THEARC WACKY & WHIMSICAL TEA Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

Eleanor Powell with John, Callie, Megan, Ella, and McKayla Paleologos

HIGH TEA IN WHOVILLE The eighth annual Wacky & Whimsical Tea supporting the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) was “Dr. Seuss”-themed this year, bringing out “The Cat and the Hat” and “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” to share in games and treats for kids of all ages. Co-chairs Lindsey and Ethan Drath and Megan and John Paleologos came with their children as did honorary chair and NBC 4 anchor Eun Yang, who read aloud from one of her favorite Dr. Seuss books, “Horton Hears a Who.” “His message that ‘a person’s a person no matter how small’ still resonates today,” Yang said. THEARC enables underserved children and adults to participate in dance classes, music instruction, fine arts, educational programs and medical and dental care at a substantially reduced charge or no cost at all.

Alina and Jean-Marie Fernandez VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

Eileen Shields West, Gordon Dale and Connie Carter

Jonnie Jameson, Annie Totah and Karina Gutierrez

Yasmine and Omar Ghorbal

WL SPONSORED

INNOCENTS AT RISK GALA Organization of American States | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

Barbara Harrison, Richard Marks and Deborah Sigmund

Matt Osborne

FIGHTING CHILD TRAFFICKING Under the patronage of Dominican Republic Ambassador José Thomás Pérez and Caridad de Pérez, Innocents at Risk’s annual gala celebrated the anti-human trafficking nonprofit group’s successes over the last 11 years. Founder Deborah Sigmund was joined by event co-chairmen Mark and Jennifer Axmacher and NBC News-4’s Barbara Harrison, who has emceed the event for the past ten years. Operation Underground Railroad was honored with the “Making a Difference Award” for its efforts to rescue trafficking victims. Occasions Caterers provided dinner and Trio Caliente played music that had Yasmine and Omar Ghorbal, Mitra Lore, Alexa Gelmi and other lively guests tearing up the dance floor.

VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

63

PARTIES PARTIES PARTIES

Patriotism, Macarons and Catwalk Canines VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

1

7 2

3

8

DC-CAPITAL STARS THE JOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

BLUE STAR NEIGHBORS

(Photos courtesy of Hyon Smith/Hyon Smith Photography)

U S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (Photos by Alfredo Flores) Local celebrity chefs (including Restaurant Eve’s Cathal Armstrong, Bayou Bakery’s David Guas and Marcel’s Robert Wiedmaier) paired with active military chefs from each branch of the armed services to “join forces in the kitchenâ€? by catering the secventh annual event honoring military families, chaired by Gen. George Casey, Sheila Casey and Constance Milstein. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin emceed and former ďŹ rst lady Rosalynn Carter accepted the lifetime achievement award for her longtime support of military families.

1. Cathal Armstrong and Hiram Carrion

“The Music of Prince� was the theme of DC College Access Programs annual scholarship awards competition that raised $750,000. The performance at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater was followed by a reception at the Nations Gallery pf Art. The audience joined celebrity judges to vote on the winners, who each won up to $10,000 for college. Duke Ellington pianist Andrew Price took home the top prize 7. Dennis Muilenberg, Ted Leonsis and Leo Brooks 8. Top-3 winner Myah Parker

2. Robert Wiedmaier and Charles Bolden 3. Patrick Murphy, Sheila Casey and George Casey

11

9

4

5 10

LADURÉE OPENING FASHION FOR PAWS

LADURÉE GEORGETOWN (Photos by Daniel Swartz)

GRAND HYATT WASHINGTON (Photos by Erin Schaff)

French Ambassador GÊrard Araud cut the ribbon at the opening of French luxury bakery LadurÊe’s D.C. agship store in Georgetown. Socialites, journalists and fashion bloggers nibbled on mini burgers, savory true fries and the pastry shop’s world-famous macarons.

Glammed-up pooches stole the show at the 11th annual Fashion for Paws benefit for the Humane Rescue Alliance. Dog lovers walked the runway in designer duds with their pets. The only requirement was that models raise a minimum of $3,000 in the 12 weeks prior to the event.

Jessica Abrahams ($26,000-plus), Natalie Kahla and Debodhana Sengupta were among the top fundraisers of the night, which totaled more than $400,000. “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy� host Carson Kressley had guests in stitches with his irreverent commentary.

4. Ashley Taylor Bronzcek and Candace Ourisman 5. Amb. GĂŠrard Araud and Elisabeth Holder Raberin 6. Holly Pan

64

6

9. Joi SheďŹƒeld 10. Luna 11. Mallory DeBenede o

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

PARTIES PARTIES PARTIES

Building Schools in Afghanistan, Celebrating Philanthropy and Screening ‘VEEP’ VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM

7 1

2

3

8

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION CELEBRATION OF PHILANTHROPY

AYENDA FOUNDATION BENEFIT DINNER

ARENA STAGE (Photos by Tony Brown)

EMBASSY OF FINLAND (Courtesy Photos) The Ayenda Foundation and its founder, Shamim Jawad, celebrated 12 years of building schools and enhancing the quality of education for Afghan children at an event hosted by the Embassy of Finland. Guests, including diplomats and members of Congress, enjoyed a fashion show featuring traditional Afghan clothing, Afghan cuisine and an art exhibition featuring works by artists at HM Studios.

With more than $1 billion invested in 8,000 nonproďŹ t organizations during its 43-year history, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region’s supporters had much to celebrate as they gathered at Arena Stage for a night of music, poetry, dance and socializing co-chaired

by Gena Sachs and Katharine Weymouth. Martha’s Table’s Pa y Stonesifer received the Civic Spirit Award before performances from Dance Institute of Washington, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, Project Create, DC Scores and Lo the Poet among others.

1. Deborah Epstein and Mark Lowham

7. Ken and Gloria Banks

2. Jane Lipton Cafritz, Jennifer Camel-toueg

8. Pa y Stonesifer and Johnne a Cole

3. Shamim and Said Jawad

4

5

9

6

WALK THIS WAY

10

11

‘VEEP’ SCREENING

ANDREW MELLON AUDITORIUM (Photos by Tony Powell) MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION (Photos by Alfredo Flores) As in years past, the annual event supporting Becky’s Fund initiatives against domestic violence was a certiďŹ ed crowd pleaser. Proceeds from this year’s show supported the Fund’s Men of Code program, which engages young male athletes to become leaders in the ďŹ ght against domestic violence. In between walks, domestic violence survivors shared their emotional stories oering other victims hope.

Time Warner’s Executive Vice President of Global Public Policy Carol Melton hosted a “low-key� screening of the first two episodes of the sixth season of “VEEP,� the political comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. “We all need a good laugh,� Melton joked as guests settled into their seats at the Motion Picture Association’s theater.

4. Greg Kinsella, Erandi Trevino and Luis Clavijo

9. Philippe Bourguignon, Robert Ha and Joe Hasse

5. Pierre Garcon and Kelly Oubre

10. Garance Franke-Ruta and Steven Clemons

6. Vernon Davis

11. Carol Melton and Tammy Haddad

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

65

HOME LIFE Real Estate News and Open House I Inside Homes and in memoriam

+VERH 6IXVIEX Businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht’s new residence showcases beloved collections — and her personality.

BY VIRGINIA COYNE PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONY POWELL

HOME LIFE | INSIDE HOMES

he grand foyer of Adrienne Arsht’s nearly 13,000-squarefoot house rivals the entrance halls of her ambassadorial neighbors on nearby Embassy Row. A f lawless expanse of white marble floors, 30-foot ceilings topped by a domed skylight and an elegant central staircase with exquisite ironwork railing almost take one’s breath away.

Arsht’s most recent acquisition, a pair of Komainu — Japanese lion dog statues from the 14th century — guard the hall from atop the newel posts, their glass eyes uncannily realistic. A life-sized horse sculpture by u Deborah Butterfield, a tangled masterpiece of recycled steel, warms the vast space and serves as a welcoming presence. Contemporary art hangs on the walls, which she’s had painted a soothing gray.

Built in 2008 by the late venture capitalist Melvin Estrin, the house was unabashedly opulent when it went on the market in 2015. It was modeled after Newport mansions like Rose Cliff and William Vanderbilt’s Marble House, both designed in the style of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Under Estrin and his wife Suellen’s ownership, gold dominated the decor, Greek-and Roman-style statues stood sentry in the foyer and a mural on the dining room ceiling, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s work, made the ultimate statement of grandeur.

Arsht, the former chairman of family-owned TotalBank in Miami, has toned down the gilded edges and turned the mansion, which she says has “brilliant bones,” into a refuge that ref lects her personality, showcases her beloved collections and serves as a home base for her various business and charitable activities.

She serves on the board of the Kennedy Center and has founded two initiatives at the Atlantic Council, the Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center and the newlylaunched Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience, which studies how communities can bounce back in the face of

68

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

PREVIOUS PAGE: (clockwise from top left) The exterior of the house is faced with French Chablis limestone from Quebec; the two-story grand foyer opens to most of the rooms on the first floor; shelves in the library showcase Arsht’s collection of Iradj Moini purses, as well as a smaller collection of antique English biscuit tins. The Pop Art portrait of Arsht above the fireplace was a gift from Brazilian artist Romero Britto; an El Anatsui sculpture hangs on the wall in the formal dining room. A a napkin ring collection is housed in a built-in glass étagère.

THIS PAGE: (clockwise from top left) The domed skylight on the second floor is accented with gold leaf.

A second El Anatsui sculpture hangs below it; the “Venetian Room” behind the staircase features art from the Italian city of which she is fond; In the living room, Meissen Monkey Band figurines from the 18th century were arranged by a conductor friend on an ampitheater modeled after one at Versailles; the home theater, which is accessed via a secret door in the library, features renderings of three institutions upon whose boards she sits: the Kennedy Center, the Adrienne Arsht Peforming Arts Center in Miami and Lincoln Center in New York. Pillows with bon mots rest on every chair; whimsical Fornasetti wallpaper in the second dining room is adorned with monkeys among rows of classical arches .

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

shee

OPENING PAGE: Adrienne Arsht on the staircase of her Greek Revival residence.

global disruptions like hurricanes, Ebola outbreaks and terrorist attacks. She also serves on the board of Lincoln Center in New York and this month will receive the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence, the first woman to be recognized with the award.

Arsht hosts seated dinners once or twice a week, inviting members of the arts community, ambassadors and old friends, like Ann and Lloyd Hand. She rotates the use of two dining rooms — one an intimate gray and silver space she’s enclosed in cheeky Fornasetti wallpaper, and the formal dining room where she’s painted over the Estrins’ ceiling mural with silver leaf.

That’s where she showcases a massive wall sculpture by acclaimed Ghanian artist El Anatsui, who uses metal sourced from recycling stations, discarded bottle caps and cassava craters to create large-scale sculptures.

Another El Anatsui piece hangs on the second f loor under the skylight.

The main dining room is also where the Wilmington, Del. native houses her extensive collection of American Victorian napkin rings, whose fanciful designs are reminiscent of Monopoly pieces. Arsht asks dinner guests to pick their own rings, and during dinner they take turns explaining their choice. “They are really very poignant stories … of someone’s pet, or a trip, or something they love to do, like tennis,” she says. “It personalizes everyone around the table who may not know each other.”

Collections of items Arsht loves abound. In the salon off the entrance hall, she showcases a rare, complete set of Meissen Monkey Band figurines originally cast in 1753 and popularized when they were purchased by Madam de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV and an inf luential patron of the arts. In the library, which she calls the “purse room,” are displayed one-of-a-kind jeweled purses by Iradj Moini, whose jewelry she also collects. A side table contains family memorabilia – old photographs and a gavel once belonging to her mother, the first female judge in Delaware.

Scattered throughout the house are small pillows inscribed with bon mots that she’s been collecting for years and is often given as gifts. “Short sayings are good reminders of the truth,” Arsht says. “You don’t need to say very much to get your point across.”

69

HOME LIFE | REAL ESTATE NEWS

Minding P’s and Q’s Two early 19th Century Georgetown Federals change hands on P and Q streets NW.

BY STAC E Y G R A Z I E R P FA R R

Thomas Nides and Virginia Moseley sold ROCKWOOD PARKWAY NW in American University Park for $3,625,000 with the help of Washington Fine Properties’ Margot Wilson. Harris Hyman IV and Stephanie Hyman are the new owners of the 1951 six-bedroom Colonial on this much coveted street. The updated and expanded house includes many sunny entertaining rooms on the main level including a gourmet kitchen with an attached family room that opens to a lush and private rear garden with a terrace and pool. Washington Fine Properties’ Hatfield Weir Real Estate Team represented the buyer.

OVERLOOK ROAD NW in Spring John Duff Jr., co-founder of DAG Ventures a venture capital firm, sold his 1825 townhouse at P STREET NW for $3.67 million to an undisclosed buyer. The five-bedroom brick Federal, the epitome of Georgetown elegance, features a gourmet kitchen, five wood-burning fireplaces, a lower level au pair suite and a private walled garden with a saltwater pool.

Washington Fine Properties’ Heidi Hatfield and Anne Hatfield Weir listed the property. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s John Edelmann represented the buyer.

THE DISTRICT Local author and parenting blogger Leslie Morgan Steiner sold Q STREET NW for $6.75 million to North Star Trust. The six-bedroom brick Federal townhouse in Georgetown’s East Village has two kitchens, large entertaining rooms, an exercise room and two offices leading to an outdoor sport court,

72

Valley for $3.77 million after purchasing it last year from Yves Balcer, co-founder of the investment firm FORT and a former senior manager at the World Bank. The house was built in 1954 and completed redesigned in 2011 by acclaimed architect Robert Gurney. This “smart home,� intended to be a sympathetic melding of the original with the contemporary, is a truly a modern masterpiece finished with the finest quality materials and accoutrements that include a remote controlled security and entertainment systems and indoor/outdoor pool house.

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty’s Ron Mangas represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.

pool and pool house.The property is complete with a seven-car parking deck. Washington Fine Properties’ Nancy Taylor Bubes was the listing agent; TTR Sotheby’s Greg Gaddy and Carroll Dey were the buyers agents.

Former Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser and his spouse John Roberts sold

Robert and Elizabeth Knake sold WARREN STREET NW for $1.53 million

(more than $50,000 over its listing price) to Debprasad and Richa Dasgupta . The North Cleveland Park semi-detached brick townhouse features classic 1920s architecture with abundant character and char m.

The 2,500-square-foot three-bedroom residence has a fenced rear garden and deck.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Washington Fine Properties’ HRL Partners Robert Hryniewicki, Adam T. Rackliffe and Christopher Leary were the listing agents.

The buyer’s agent was Vincent Hurteau of Continental Properties.

Brian and Kimberly Caplan sold WOODLEY ROAD NW to Daniel and Sarah Goodwin for $1,995,000.The picturesque 1912

Cleveland Park “Foursquare� model underwent a major renovation to include a new gourmet kitchen, bathrooms, plumbing and electrical systems. Two master suites and a lower level living area complete with a wet bar and custom pantry are a few of the many amenities this classic house offers.TTR Sotheby’s International Realty’s Michael Rankin was the listing agent.

Washington Fine Properties’ Bobbie Brewster was the buyer’s agent.

MARYLAND John and Krista Criswell bought WARDOUR DRIVE in Annapolis from Bernard Jammet for $5 million in a private sale. The French Manor style house was built in 1950 with custom imported materials and sits on the bank of the Severn River. The five-bedroom property features grand living spaces, a master suite with sitting room, a paneled library and country style wine cellar.

A covered terrace overlooks the pool and is surrounded by classic gardens and waterfront access complete with a deep water dock.

VIRGINIA Cathedral View LLC sold N GLEBE ROAD in Arlington with the help of TTR Sotheby’s International Real Estate’s Wetherly Barker. The 8,000-plus-square-foot luxury townhouse boasts breathtaking views of both the Washington Golf and Country Club and Washington National Cathedral from two expansive outdoor stone terraces.

The five-bedroom, five-bath Italianate villa was built in 2014 by the J.L. Albrittain Company and listed for $3.5 million. The master suite offers state of the art master bath and dressing rooms while the uppermost level features an additional terrace with an outdoor fireplace adjoining expansive media and entertaining areas.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

Nicholas Hendricks and Julie Holden, both physicians, purchased TH STREET NW, a charming Cleveland Park two bedroom cottage for $1,225,000 from Michael Haney and Meaghan Kelly. The property, situated in the shadow of Washington National Cathedral, was originally built as a carriage house and later used as a small church before being completely renovated. The unique residence features a living room with vaulted ceilings, an eat-in kitchen, spacious bedrooms and a lovely garden and side yard. Washington Fine Properties’ Tammy Gale and Andrea Hatfield represented the sellers. Bobbie Brewster, also of Washington Fine Properties, was the buyer’s agent.

RENO ROAD NW fetched $1,425,000 when Jonathan and Alexis Smallridge bought the four bedroom Colonial built in 1922. Perched high above the road, the 3,100-square-foot charmer boasts original hardwood floors, a posh master suite with cathedral ceilings, an updated kitchen, a finished lower level recreation room and a bright family room opening to a large screened-in porch. Brian and Kristin Mann, the sellers, were represented by Robert Hryniewicki, Adam T. Rackliffe and Christopher R. Leary of HRL Partners and Richard Newton of Washington Fine Properties. The buyer’s agent was American Realty Group’s Marga Pirozzoli.

73

HOME LIFE | REAL ESTATE NEWS

PROPERTY LINES

RIVER VIEWS FOR DAYS: Compass’ Pam Wye listed POTOMAC AVENUE NW in Fox Hall for seller Catharine Dorrier. The unique contemporary property has six bedrooms and four baths and is offered at $2,495,000. The 1986-built 6,000-square-foot house overlooks the Potomac River and has an in-home gym and sauna as well as a massive eat-in family room and kitchen

EASY LIVING IN VIRGINIA: Cathedral View LLC is selling N GLEBE ROAD for $3.3 million. The J.L. Albrittain designed custom property is one of four luxury townhouses perched above the Washington Golf and Country Club Hills area of Arlington. The four-bedroom, six-bath residence offers over 7,500 square feet of living space and features a gourmet kitchen, posh bath and powder rooms and spacious private terraces ideal for outdoor entertaining. TTR Sotheby’s International Realty’s Wetherly Barker is the listing agent.

2ND MOST EXPENSIVE DISTRICT LISTING: Black Entertainment Television CEO and Chairman Debra Lee has dropped the price on her WOODLAND DRIVE NW residence from $13.5 million to $11.5 million – still making it second in price in the District only to

CHAIN BRIDGE ROAD NW in Kent, which is listed at $22 million. The Contemporary mansion overlooking Rock Creek Park was built and designed in 2010 by Marshall Moya. The uber-modern Massachusetts Avenue Heights abode is truly one of a kind with amenities that include a space age-esque wine cellar, 20-foot high great room ceiling and mind blowing media room as well as a pristine eight-car garage, luxurious pool and guest suite. Another fun fact: the property was once the setting for a $40,000-per-plate fundraiser for President Obama.

Washington Fine Properties’ Marilyn Charity is the listing agent.

76

QUALITY HILL: One of Georgetown’s most historic properties, PROSPECT STREET NW, is listed at $6.9 million. The former home of Sen. Claiborne Pell and his wife Nuala, which was sold in 2004 to Arent Fox law firm partner Ralph Taylor and his wife Nancy, was built in 1798 with bricks and materials imported from England. The gray brick Federal was dubbed “Quality Hill� by its first owner, John Thomson Mason, the nephew of Founding Father George Mason.

Another owner of note was Albert Clemons, the owner of the far larger “Halcyon House� just across the street, who used the mansion for storage. The nine-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot property also saw the likes of Thomas Jefferson, who is said to have dined there.

TTR Sotheby’s International Real Estate’s Russell Firestone is the listing agent.

Send real estate news to Stacey Grazier Pfarr at editorial@ washingtonlife.com.

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

HOME LIFE | OPEN HOUSE

Open House These upscale Washington area properties are move-in ready.

MCLEAN BALLANTRAE FARM DRIVE Located in the prestigious Ballantrae neighborhood, this property is close to McLean restaurants and shopping, only a few miles from the Tysons Corner Metro stop. The colonial residence, a classic beauty modeled after the governor’s mansion in Williamsburg,Va. boasts seven bedrooms and six baths, hardwood floors, a full basement and four parking garage spaces.

ASKING PRICE: $3,995,000 LISTING AGENT: Lilian Jorgenson, Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.

PALISADES

WESTHALL DR/ NW

ASKING PRICE: $2,650,000

Located in the Palisades with breathtaking views of the Potomac River, this house has decks on all four levels including a living and dining room deck off of the family room. Its approximately 6,700 square feet of space includes an elevator and an eat-in kitchen that opens to a family room. There is also a flagstone terrace with a fire pit and fenced yard..

LISTING AGENT: Marin Hagen & Sylvia Bergstrom, 202-2572339, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

SPRING VALLEY

TILDEN ST/ NW

ASKING PRICE: $2,879,000

This light-filled, 5,000-plus-square-foot house features seven bedrooms and five and a half baths and sits on almost half an acre of land with a spacious backyard, large pool and outdoor dining/entertaining area. Inside, there’s a luxurious open kitchen with granite countertops, a cathedral ceiling and skylights; the master suite floor includes a new marble bathroom, walk-in closet and a separate office/den.

LISTING AGENT: Russell Firestone, 202271-1701, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

BETHESDA

MCDONALD DR/ This 2012 custom home in the Congressional Forest Estates neighborhood of Bethesda combines a modern open floor plan with a harmony of colors, natural materials and textures.The stacked stone accent wall and chimney pair with blonde acacia wood floors to create a warm and welcoming ambience. The appealing open design is balanced by the aesthetically pleasing definition of spaces by use of architectural elements such as the floating cork wall in the foyer. The upper level screened porch is a truly unusual space allowing one to sit among the treetops in this protected outdoor sanctuary.

78

ASKING PRICE: $2,250,000 LISTING AGENT: Meg Percespe 240-441-8434 and Alison Shu~ 301-219-767, Washington Fine Properties

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

# # % # $ ! $ # " $ ! ! ! $ % $ " % $ $ "

* " '' %#($ + !

+ ) !#) #!

+ ' ' & " '# " + .,-/ %

*

$ * %

# ' # # # # ' * ' % * % ) % ) % #&# ' % #&# ' $ ! % ' %

*

-2 1)136-%1 The late Trish Vradenburg fought a long and good fight to find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease.

BY DONNA SHOR

82

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

| J U N E | washingtonlife.com

P H OTO BY TO N Y P OW E L L

T

his is a column about love, both its Trish started a successful writing singularity and its diversity — an career, beginning as a Senate attempt to capture something of the speechwriter and at different points was shimmering spirit of a warm-hearted a sitcom writer, novelist, humorist and woman who herself was love made playwright. After writing for newspapers manifest, Trish Vradenburg. and magazines, she worked on screenplays Yes, Trish, of the famed lighteningfor the hit TV sitcoms “Family Ties,” fast wit that carried her through life and “Kate & Allie” and “Designing Women” brought her a career and a husband. and published a novel titled “Liberated Trish, aged 70, died in April after a Lady.” heart attack without seeing her mission Both Trish and George were generous become reality: a cure for Alzheimer’s and caring philanthropists, lockstep in Disease. many matters, except politics.

Her husband, George Vradenburg, I remember one night at a blackfirst saw Patricia “Trish” Lerner on a tie dinner at the Belgian embassy, group outing to a Peter, Paul and Mary Republican George made a statement concert. George was a third-year Harvard Democrat Trish took amiss. She clapped Law student; Trish was a junior at Boston her hand to her forehead crying “I can’t University. She noticed him at the believe I’m sleeping with a Republican!” concert when he laughed uproariously at Not missing a beat, George answered, a throwaway joke she made.

“Yes, and loving every minute of it!”

Trish thought, “Has he never heard a They had two children, Alissa and George and Trish Vradenburg at their home in 2016 joke before?”

Tyler. Then dynamic Bea began the dark On their third date he told her that he saw marriage in their descent into Alzheimer’s and death. This was the inspiration for Trish’s future. Trish, startled, felt no such certainty. semi-autobiographical play, “Surviving Grace,” about a sitcom writer Eventually, love won out; but problems loomed. whose mother develops the disease in much the same way.

George’s Mayflower-descendant family were Protestant Frustrated watching the slow progress to find a cure after donating Republicans. Trish was the daughter of a well-established Jewish millions to fight the disease, the pair began UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, a family in New Jersey. Her father was Judge Joseph Lerner. Bea, her multi-layered organization working toward a cure target date of 2020. mother, was a long-time firebrand Democratic political activist who They called on corporate figures and powerful friends in Congress was often on the dais with Democratic presidents, from Truman and on the Supreme Court who became allies with effective voices. onward. They opposed the marriage.

The Vradenburgs slogged the halls of government, emphasizing George, meanwhile, was thinking of the future he would spend the need for vital research and warning of the inadequacy of funding with Trish and the children they would have; he wanted the stability as the elderly population swells and baby boomers age into a future of a shared religion in their home. He admired the historic strength of with no cure. Today there are 5.5 million Americans living with the Jewish people through adversity and began a concentrated study Alzheimer’s, a number that could triple in the near future; 700,000 of all things Jewish: beliefs, rituals, customs and foods. people die from it each year, but that is surpassed by the number of He converted to Judaism and eight months after Trish graduated their caregivers who will die before they do. with a degree in political science, they married.

For a decade the Vradenburgs also published Tikkun, a magazine of While George began a distinguished career that included commentary edited by her brother, Rabbi Michael Lerner. involvement in landmark legal issues and appointments as general The name derives from tikkun olam (repairing the world). That’s counsel and chief executive to CBS, Fox and AOL/Time Warner. what Trish’s life was all about.