The Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame will add four new members later this year, including a former space issues attorney turned health company CEO, a bank chairman, a barbecue expert and the chief executive of a hospital.
The following people have been named to the business hall of fame and are scheduled to be honored at an Oct. 27 event:
Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics – Rothblatt, a transgender woman, is one of the highest-paid female CEOs in America, earning an estimated $38 million in 2013 as the CEO of the Silver Spring-based pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics, a company she founded in 1996. Rothblatt entered the biotech industry in the ‘90s after years of working as a space attorney—she represented companies who had issues revolving around satellites. Her work in satellite law and space issues led to her founding of Sirius Satellite Radio in 1990. She resigned from the satellite radio company in 1994 to focus on finding a cure for her 7-year-old daughter, who was suffering from primary pulmonary hypertension—a heart disease that constricts blood flow between the heart and the lungs. Rothblatt’s work in the field later led to the founding of United Therapeutics.
Ronald D. Paul, chairman and CEO of Eagle Bancorp Inc. – Paul got his start in accounting in 1980 as a bookkeeper at a real estate company after graduating from the University of Maryland. He later formed his own investment company in 1987 and began purchasing properties in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Florida and Iowa. That same year Paul became a founding board member of the Prince George’s National Bank and served as a director at the bank until it was acquired by another bank in 1996, according to his EagleBank profile. The next year Paul was one of the founding board members of Eagle Bancorp, the parent company of EagleBank. Paul currently serves as CEO of EagleBank and Eagle Bancorp Inc. He recently oversaw the EagleBank’s merger with Virginia Heritage Bank.
Kevin Sexton, CEO of Holy Cross Health – Sexton has been the president and CEO of Holy Cross Health since 1998. During that time he has guided the Silver Spring hospital through a renovation in 2005 and expanded Holy Cross’s business with a new hospital in Germantown, which opened in 2014. Sexton helped pioneer an innovative approach to geriatric emergency care with Holy Cross Hospital’s emergency center dedicated to patients older than 65 who have non-life threatening emergencies.
James Sweet, president of Smokey Glen Farm – Sweet is the man behind the barbecue event center Smokey Glen Farm. The farm coined itself “the company picnic place” and for more than 50 years it has served as a summer retreat for office workers who participate in team-building exercises and chomp on ribs, smoked chicken and peach cobbler. As well as owning and operating the Gaithersburg farm, Sweet also serves on the board of directors of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
Last year, five people were named to the county’s business hall of fame, including David Reznick of CohnReznick LLP, Potomac philanthropist Annie S. Totah, Dottie Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Auto Malls, e-Management CEO Olga Sage, and Mark Choe, the owner of Mark’s Kitchen Restaurant in Takoma Park.
Photo of Ronald Paul via EagleBank website. Photo of Kevin Sexton via Holy Cross Health website. Photo of James Sweet via Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce website.
