“Born with a hammer in his hand,” Richard Ward II grew up watching his father build houses, and he always wanted to work in his family’s construction business. To be able to look back at a day’s worth of accomplishments appealed to him. Richard returned to Washington, D.C. after college and moved to the Adams Morgan neighborhood. As the owner of a successful construction and development firm, Richard is always focused on the bottom line.

In 2000, he created Ellisdale Construction and Development (formerly Ellis Denning) to increase focus on the urban infill construction work in the neighborhood he called home. In 2004 he teamed up with his sister and brother-in-law to start Piccard Companies, developing an impressive portfolio of office building projects and new single-family residential divisions spanning from the Northern Neck to the Greater Washington Metro area, and now Richard is poised to take advantage of a residential market rebound in the coming years. Richard Ward now splits time between these two excellent construction firms.