The 2006 Virginia 100
Entrepreneurer are swelling the ranks of the rich

Virginia Business
June 2006

Rising interest rates. A devastating hurricane. Energy costs so high that people felt lucky to find a gallon of regular for less than $3 a gallon. Throw in a cooling response from the housing market and 2005 seemed dismal indeed.

Yet, despite the challenges, the economy’s resilience managed to shine through. During the past year, many Virginia companies reported record revenues. The real estate portfolios of two Northern Virginia companies — Capital Automotive REIT and the Mark Winkler Co. — changed hands at billion-dollar prices. And stock gains from an up market swelled the net worth of business executives.

This growth — and a sweet payday for some entrepreneurs who built their companies from scratch and sold them at a profit — helped put nine new names on the 17th annual Virginia 100, our list of the wealthiest and most influential residents in the state. This year’s cutoff point for net worth was $55 million, $15 million more than last year.

Not surprisingly in this age of the so-called “creative class,” four of the new members are entrepreneurs. There’s Daniel A. Hoffler, head of the development company building one of the most ambitious projects in Hampton Roads: the $500 million Town Center of Virginia Beach.

Two other members, Roger Mody and Rodney Hunt of McLean, represent a new class of wealthy government contractors, which is growing with the federal government’s increased spending on security since 9/11.

With sky-high energy prices for oil and gasoline, coal is back in demand, and the Nicewonder family of Southwest Virginia cashed out big. The privately held Nicewonder Coal Group, with operations in Virginia and West Virginia, sold last fall to Abingdon-based Alpha Natural Resources for $316 million.

The other new slots on the list went to executives leading public companies in the real estate, energy, insurance, tobacco and retail automotive industries. Even in the days of Sarbanes Oxley, it still pays to be the CEO of a large public company where rewards can be generous in terms of salary, bonus and stock options.

On the cover of this year’s Virginia 100 is Rajendra and Neera Singh, longtime fixtures on the list. This intensely private Northern Virginia couple hasn’t given an interview in years. But they sat down with Virginia Business to recall how they came to this country years ago as graduate students at about the time the cellular industry was taking off. Through innovation and hard work they became billionaires in what is an American success story, with a high-tech twist.

As new names come on, old ones fall off. Gone from this year’s edition are longtime business leaders and philanthropists Carl W. Smith, Edwin A. Joseph, Alan M. Voorhees and Woodrow McGlothlin, who passed away last year. Their legacy of giving back will be felt for years.

For some, wealth means a building with your name on it. Yet philanthropy comes in many forms (see story page 36). We hope this year’s look at who’s getting rich and how some of the wealth is being spent chronicles more than dollars and cents, and goes beyond to provide insights into that most American of traits: the drive to excel.