Except for Old Money sealed away in bulletproof trusts, the wealth of the richest and most influential Virginians ebbs and flows according to the times. Last year, for instance, Old Money made a big resurgence after the New Money people took their lumps from the imploding high technology market. This year, downturns continue to eat away at the values of stocks and options, spotlighting the stubborn woes that have beset the U.S. economy.

Take, for instance, Dennis Bakke and Roger Sant. Both are top executives of AES Corp., a global energy firm based in Arlington. Last year, they were riding high as AES positioned itself to take advantage of new opportunities offered by coming energy deregulation. Abroad, they had invested in markets that seemed poised for growth all the while running their firm with a special sort of Christian altruism.

Then, wham! Latin American markets fell and the demise of energy trader Enron cast a huge shadow over energy dereg. Even worse, AES's books got contaminated from the fallout of the post-Enron accounting firm debacle. End result? From March 15, 2001 to March 15 of this year, our cutoff date for figuring stock holdings for this year's list, AES shares plummeted roughly 80 percent. Both Bakke and Sant saw their net worths drop by roughly $1.5 billion apiece. "It would have been worse," says Sant, "if I had been completely in AES."

Then there's John W. Kluge, one of the richest men in the U.S. He had built his $11 billion nest egg through various deals in entertainment and restaurants. In the 1990s, he plunged into highly popular and promising telecommunications. Yet the huge overcapacity in telecom and its unrealized hopes caught up with investors such as Kluge, even though his losses are nowhere on the level of Sant's or Bakke's.

Or take the America Online crowd. Just a year ago, the Virginia-based troika of Stephen M. Case, Barry Schuler and Theodore J. Leonsis was basking in the warm glow of favorable publicity and huge paper earnings from one of the most ambitious takeovers in U.S. history - that of Time Warner by AOL. Yet, a year later, that merger is sputtering as Internet advertising falters and the promised synergies by combining Old and New Media prove elusive. Schuler has been demoted and Case and Leonsis are scrambling to retrieve the old AOL magic to turn the merged company around. Their portfolios have taken hits, correspondingly.

Not all of the stories on this year's Virginia 100 list, however, are unhappy. Old Money continues to do just fine, thank you. Heirs and heiresses continue their work giving to charity or raising thoroughbreds. Famed novelist and Charlottesville resident John Grisham is launching his newest legal thriller while writer Patricia Cornwell has left the Old Dominion for greener grass in Connecticut. Old-line corporate titan John W. Snow has successfully revived railroad CSX Corp. after its disastrous takeover of Conrail two years ago. Not only is CSX running on time, Snow's success has restored much of the original wealth to his net worth.

As always, Virginia Business compiled the "Virginia 100" by interviewing listees and others, checking public records, such as proxy statements and making what we hope are intelligent estimates. We rate ourselves accordingly. An "A" confidence rating means we regard our net worth estimates as accurate, a "B" means ballpark and "C" is conjecture.

 

 

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