Malek, Zients Are Big Hitters in an All-Star Ownership Lineup

Malek's group, known as Washington Baseball Club, began taking shape in 1999 after he was approached by Paul M. Wolff and Stephen W. Porter, longtime Washington lawyers and civic activists, and asked to join their effort to bring a baseball team to the city. At the time, Wolff was chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission's budget and finance committee and Porter was chairman of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce's baseball exploratory committee.

Malek invited three wealthy and well-connected friends -- America Online mogul James V. Kimsey, developer Joseph E. Robert Jr. and Franklin D. Raines, then-chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae -- to join the venture. Meantime, Wolff and Porter stepped down from their positions on the D.C. sports committees to become minor investors.

"They've been out there a very long time and shown real commitment," Barbara Lang, head of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, said of the Malek group.

The group has grown over the years as Malek has sought to draw more financial backers to help pay for the Nationals, whose price has been set by baseball at $450 million. The league bought the team, formerly known as the Montreal Expos, for $120 million in February 2002.

Malek added Jordan, a senior adviser to former president Bill Clinton and now senior managing director of investment bank Lazard Freres & Co., LLC, along with former Washington Redskins defensive back Darrell Green and Dennis Hightower, a former executive with the Walt Disney Co. Powell joined the group this summer. Powell has been a close friend of Malek's since 1973, when, as a White House Fellow, he served as Malek's executive assistant at the Office of Management and Budget.

Frank Carlucci, secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan and now chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group, a McLean-based private equity firm, said Malek has a knack for surrounding himself with talented, young people, many of whom handle the details while Malek concentrates on the big picture.

"I wouldn't expect he would be sitting there nine hours a day telling you how to steal third base," Carlucci said.

To handle the team's business details, Malek and his partners turned to Zients, 38, an investor who made a fortune taking the Advisory Board and the Conference Board, both research companies, public for business partner David G. Bradley. Zients and Bradley, who is owner of Atlantic Monthly magazine, joined the group in 2002.

Zients and Malek have pooled about $80 million of their own money toward the $450 million sale price, according to sources familiar with their bid, making them the lead investors. If Malek and Zients buy the Nationals, Malek will be the managing partner, or "control person," for the first three years, at which point Zients will take over, according to sources familiar with the bid.

Baseball officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified so as to avoid the appearance of seeking to influence the sale, have said they are impressed with Zients's energy and intellect, although they are concerned he has no experience running a baseball team. John Delaney, founder of CapitalSource, said he has seen Zients's attention to detail from when the two have done business together, said baseball officials shouldn't worry. "If baseball chooses him, they will get someone with high integrity, who is very committed to the community, really smart, good at operations and a decent person," he said.

Zients joined the Advisory Board, which then served a broad spectrum of corporate clients, 14 years ago as a lieutenant to Bradley. Within three years, Zients was Bradley's partner. The peak of their collaboration was the public sale of the Advisory Board, which made them both millionaires.

Zients's wealth allowed him and his wife to set up a foundation that donates money to several nonprofit groups in the District and humanitarian projects abroad. They also were able to trade in a two-story colonial in Spring Valley for a mansion off Foxhall Road.