Bernard Saul, II. – Billionaire

B. Francis Saul II made his riches through the businesses he founded under the umbrella of the B.F. Saul Company, a Washington, D.C. real estate firm he inherited from his grandfather. In 1969, Saul ventured into banking, developing the plans for what became Chevy Chase Federal Savings Bank, which he sold Chase to Capital One for $476 million in 2009. “You cannot travel around the Washington region without being touched by a Saul business,” the Washington Post wrote in 2008 after Saul agreed to sell Chevy Chase. That phrase still rings true today, as the B.F. Saul Company boasts 19 hotels in D.C., Maryland and Virginia through one of its subsidiaries. He also owns, among many other properties, 9.3 million feet of mostly commercial real estate in D.C. and Baltimore through Saul Centers, his company’s publicly-traded REIT. The press-averse businessman (“If you forgot about me, I’d be grateful,” he told FORBES in 1998) is CEO and chairman of Saul Centers. Saul has been a prolific donor to Catholic causes, and in 1991 he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal, a high-ranking medal award by the pope.

Source:forbes