Bethany McLean Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth

What is Bethany McLean’s net worth?

Bethany McLean is an accomplished American journalist and author with a net worth estimated at $3 million. She is highly regarded for her expertise in investigative journalism and financial writing, notably rising to fame in the early 2000s for her pivotal role in uncovering the Enron scandal.

Is Enron Overpriced?

Bethany McLean was born on December 12, 1977, in Hibbing, Minnesota. She graduated from Hibbing High School in 1988 and then attended Williams College, earning a B.A. in English and Mathematics in 1992.

She began her professional journey at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst. However, in 1995, she transitioned to Fortune magazine as a reporter, where she worked for over a decade. Her significant breakthrough occurred in 2001 when she penned an article that raised concerns about Enron’s accounting practices and inflated stock valuation. This article, entitled “Is Enron Overpriced?“, was among the first to question the company’s financial integrity, foreshadowing its collapse later that year.

Smartest Guys in the Room

After the Enron scandal, McLean collaborated with her Fortune colleague Peter Elkind to co-author the book “The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron,” published in 2003. The book achieved bestseller status and was later turned into an Academy Award-nominated documentary. It explores Enron’s transformation from a modest energy supplier to one of the 10 largest corporations in the U.S., largely through dubious accounting practices orchestrated by figures like Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and Lou Pai. Bethany’s research revealed astonishing facts, including the story of Enron executive Lou Pai, whose affair with a stripper ended his marriage but enabled him to sell off $300 million in Enron stock mere months before the company’s bankruptcy.

Vanity Fair & Other Books

In 2008, McLean joined Vanity Fair as a contributing editor, continuing her coverage of major financial events, including the 2008 financial crisis. This work led her to co-author another influential book, “All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis,” alongside New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, released in 2010.

Moreover, McLean has authored “Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants” (2015), focusing on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as “Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World” (2018).

Throughout her extensive career, McLean has contributed to numerous publications and frequently appears on news programs as a financial analyst. She has built a reputation as a meticulous investigative journalist skilled in demystifying complex financial topics for a broad audience.

Personal Life

Bethany was married to Chris Wilford from 2000 until their divorce in 2006. In May 2008, she married attorney Sean Berkowitz, who was a lead prosecutor for the Justice Department in the Enron case against Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay. They divorced in 2020.