- Alfred E. Mann
Alfred E. Mann (born 1925, Portland, OR), who is also known as Al Mann, is an American
entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is abillionaire .Born and raised in Portland, his father was English and mother Polish. He moved to
Los Angeles, California in 1946 and has remained there ever since. He received his B.S. and M.S. inphysics from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles , doing graduate work in nuclear andmathematical physics . Mann holds honorary doctorate degrees from theUniversity of Southern California ,The Johns Hopkins University ,Western University , and theTechnion Institute (Israel).Business
In 1956, Mann founded
Spectrolab , the first of hisaerospace companies. While at Spectrolab, an electrooptical systems company, he also foundedHeliotek , asemiconductor company, that became a major supplier ofsolar cell s forspacecraft . Among other accomplishments during his tenure, Mann's companies provided the electric power for over 100 spacecraft and constructed one of the lunar experiments. Although he sold both companies toTextron in 1960 (merged into one, Spectrolab is now a subsidiary ofBoeing Satellite Systems ) he continued to manage them until 1972. After he left those companies to foundPacesetter Systems , which focused on cardiac pacemakers, he sold that company in 1985 and managed it until 1992. It is now a part ofSt. Jude Medical . Mann then went on to establishMiniMed (insulin pump s and continuous glucose devices, now owned byMedtronic ) andAdvanced Bionics (neuroprosthetics ), which was owned byBoston Scientific from 2004-2008.Boston Scientific and theAdvanced Bionics management had agreed to split the company. Under this split, Boston Scientific would own the pain management and other neural stimulation portions and Advanced Bionics would focus on developing, manufacturing and distributing cochlear implants for the restoration of hearing to the deaf.He is currently involved in several companies, including:
*Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board ofMannKind Corporation , abiomedical company working ona unique inhalable insulin for the treatment ofdiabetes and therapeutic vaccines for cancer;
*founder and Chairman of Second Sight, a biomed company working on aretinal prosthesis ;
*founder and Chairman ofBioness , a company devoted to applyingelectrostimulation for functional neural defects such as paralysis;
*founder and Chairman of the Board ofQuallion, LLC , a company producing high reliability batteries for medical products and for the military and aerospace industries;
*Chairman of Stellar Microelectronics, an electronic circuit manufacturer for the medical, military and aerospace industries;
* Mann also chairs the Southern California Biomedical Council (SCBC orSoCalBio ), a trade association that represents and promotes the growth of the life-science community in the Greater Los Angeles region (see: http://www.socalbio.org).'
* Serves on the Board of Directors and is the largest investor inEclipse Aviation Philanthropy
Alfred Mann has made major philanthropic contributions. His two most notable are below.
Alfred Mann Institutes
Mr. Mann has so far established Alfred E. Mann Institutes for
Biomedical Engineering at theUniversity of Southern California (USC), known as AMI/USC ($162 million); at Purdue known as AMI/Purdue ($100 million); and at the Technion known as AMIT ($104 million) arebusiness incubators formedical device development in preparation forcommercialization . The Institutes are essentially fully funded. Three other universities are in late stage discussions and one is likely to be announced during 2007. AMI was founded in 1998 when Alfred Mann made his first $100 million gift to USC, a major privateresearch university in Los Angeles. The total gifted endowment for AMI/USC is $162 million since then.The Alfred Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering is charged with selecting, establishing and overseeing the institutes, similar to AMI at USC and at other research universities.
Mann is a Life
Trustee of the University of Southern California. [http://www.usc.edu/about/administration/trustees/ Board of Trustees] , University of Southern California, "Accessed April 13, 2008."]Alfred Mann Foundation
Founded in 1985, the Alfred Mann Foundation has several core aims. It aims to work with scientists and research organizations to find
bionic solutions for people suffering from debilitating medical impairmentsTrivia
*Mann still works 80-hours a week on his start-up companies.
*Mann is a member of the National Academies for Engineering (NAE)
*According to "Forbes " magazine, his estimated net worth exceeds $2.2 billion, ranking him the 204th richest man in America [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/54/richlist07_Alfred-Mann_NG0I.html #204 Alfred Mann - Forbes.com ] ] and the 390th richest man in the world. [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Alfred-Mann_NG0I.html #390 Alfred Mann - Forbes.com ] ]
*He is married to Claude Mann, a successful businesswoman and humanitarian. They met in 1977.
*He has seven children.
*As a proud alumnus of UCLA, he tried to make a substantial monetary gift to his alma mater; however, he became frustrated over the bureaucratic delays involved in donating to the noted public university and ended up, after lobbying by USC PresidentSteven B. Sample , making a $162 million gift to the arch-rival private university. At the time of the USC gift in 1998, Mr. Mann announced plans to give a similar amount of money to UCLA, but the parties could never come to terms.
*Mann has received numerous accolades; he has been honored many dozens of times by various organizations.
*Mann has received four honorary doctorate degrees.
*In 2004 he won the "Business Leader and Humanitarian of the Year Award" from the Jewish Vocational Service [http://www.quallion.com/about_bioam.html] .
*On March 16, 2007 Purdue University received a $100 million endowment from the Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering. The endowment is the largest research gift ever at the university, and will create the Alfred Mann Institute at Purdue.http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007a/070316WodickaMann.html Quote
*"When my success exceeded my expectations, I began to think of a way to return to society what it has given to me."
External links
* [http://www.mannkindcorp.com/ Mannkind Corporation]
* [http://www.aemf.org/ Alfred E. Mann Foundation]
* [http://ami.usc.edu/ Alfred E. Mann Institute]
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