7 Maryland Billionaires On Forbes List Of Richest Americans 2019

America’s richest keep getting richer. The wealthiest Americans on the annual Forbes 400 list grew their combined net worth by just over 2 percent from the previous year, making them worth $2.96 trillion in 2019.

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, is once again at the top of the list. His ex-wife, Mackenzie Bezos, who got 25 percent of the couple’s shares in Amazon as part of their divorce settlement, is now the 15th richest person in America, according to the list.

In Maryland, seven people were among the 400 richest in America in 2019.

According to Forbes, the minimum net worth to qualify for the list is $2.1 billion. The average wealth of those on the list increased by $200 million to $7.4 billion, Forbes writes.

With the vast amounts of wealth in the pockets of those on the exclusive list, Forbes notes that a number of high-profile billionaires such as Kylie Jenner and Michael Jordan, didn’t even make the list.

In Maryland, seven residents made it to the elite club. More than half of them have invested in sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Nationals, Washington Redskins and St. Louis Cardinals.

These are the Maryland residents on the Forbes 400 list:

• No. 128 Ted Lerner, 92, and family; net worth $5.1B (real estate)
• No. 150 Steven Bisciotti, 58; net worth $4.5B (staffing, Baltimore Ravens)
• No. 154 Mitchell Rales, 62; net worth $4.4B (manufacturing, investments)
• No. 250 Bernard Saul II, 86; net worth $3.4B (banking, real estate)
• No. 275 David Rubenstein, 69; $3.1B (private equity)
• No. 287 Jim Davis, 58; net worth $3B (staffing and recruiting)
• No. 333 Dan Snyder, 53; $2.6B (Washington Redskins)

Ted Lerner of Chevy Chase founded the commercial real estate firm Lerner Enterprises. His family is the majority owner of the Washington Nationals. In 1952 Lerner borrowed $250 from his wife to start a real estate company, selling homes for developers. Now he owns millions of square feet in commercial and retail space, plus hotels and apartments.

Stephen Bisciotti of Millersville is co-founder of Allegis staffing company and owner of the Baltimore Ravens. Bisciotti and his cousin, fellow billionaire Jim Davis, started what would become Allegis Group — now one of the world's biggest staffing companies — in 1983. Originally called Aerotek and focused on filling aeronautics, engineering and light industrial jobs, today Allegis Group places people in sectors spanning from IT to finance.

Mitchell Rales of Potomac is co-founder of Danaher investment firm. Three decades after building it into an industrial conglomerate, Steven Rales and his brother, Mitchell, broke their empire into two halves: one part devoted to science and technology, in late 2016.

Bernard Saul II of Chevy Chase is chairman and CEO of Saul Centers Inc. Saul inherited his grandfather's Washington, D.C.-based real estate company. Within a few years he expanded from real estate to banking, developing the plans for what became Chevy Chase Federal Savings Bank, which he sold to Capital One for $476 million in 2009. In the 1990s he founded another REIT, Saul Centers, which owns real estate, mostly shopping centers and office properties in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

David Rubenstein of Bethesda is co-chief executive officer and co-founder of Carlyle Group. Rubenstein cofounded Carlyle in 1987; he raised the money and managed its stable of advisers, which has included George H.W. Bush and ex-British prime minister John Major. Rubenstein has donated millions to restore the Lincoln Memorial, preserve the Washington Monument and facilitate panda life at the National Zoo.

Jim Davis of Cockeysville is co-founder and now head of staffing powerhouse Allegis. Davis is the chairman of staffing firm Allegis Group, which he co-founded with cousin and business partner Stephen Bisciotti in 1983. The company was originally called Aerotek, and it matched job seekers with aeronautics, engineering and light industrial jobs. Davis bought in as a minority partner of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals in 2010.

Dan Snyder of Potomac is owner of the Washington Redskins. A lifelong Redskins fan, Snyder bought the NFL team for $800 million after Jack Kent Cooke's death in 1997. Snyder made his first fortune in marketing, when Snyder Communications sold advertisements placed on boards inside of buildings, and distributed product samples. The firm went public in 1996, making Snyder, then 32, the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange. He also owns private equity firm Red Zone Capital.

The top 10 richest people in America for 2019 are:

1. Jeff Bezos: $114 billion
2. Bill Gates: $106 billion
3. Warren Buffett: $80.8 billion
4. Mark Zuckerberg: $69.6 billion
5. Larry Ellison: $65 billion
6. Larry Page: $55.5 billion
7. Sergey Brin: $53.5 billion
8. Michael Bloomberg: $53.4 billion
9. Steve Ballmer: $51.7 billion
10. Jim Walton: $51.6 billion

See the full list and read more via Forbes.