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Profiles of OC’s Wealthiest – 25 – 32

# 25. Michael Harrah, Owner, president, Caribou Industries Inc.

estimated worth: $300 million

Mike Harrah, Santa Ana’s largest commercial real estate owner, says he isn’t fazed by the tough real estate market.

Down markets “are when I’ve made all my money,” Harrah recently told the Business Journal. “They’re only bad times if you want them to be.”

How much Harrah’s made during the latest downturn remains to be seen.

We estimate Harrah at $300 million, based on his real estate holdings and Caribou Industries Inc., a development, construction and property management company that he owns.

Harrah owns close to 4 million square feet of commercial space in downtown Santa Ana and around the Civic Center. He also owns close to a quarter of Santa Ana’s office buildings—some 50 office buildings, plus a handful of stores and restaurants.

Much of his office space is leased to government tenants that have proven to be relatively stable during the downturn.

Harrah has minimal debt on his buildings, many of which were bought on the cheap during Santa Ana’s downtrodden days in the 1980s.

Like other commercial real estate executives, Harrah’s believed to have seen declining rents and increased empty space, leading to our lower estimate for him.

In 2009, we estimated his worth at $325 million. At the peak of the market in 2007, we valued Harrah at $500 million.

Harrah recently struck a deal to sell the OC Pavilion, a concert hall and restaurant he designed himself, to neighboring Orange County High School of the Arts, for about $13 million.

He’s selling the OC Pavilion to the charter school at about half of its construction cost. Harrah’s the designer and builder of the school’s neighboring campus and has given it more than $2 million.

The sale should close this fall. The money’s set to be used to help finance construction of Harrah’s proposed One Broadway Plaza office tower in downtown Santa Ana.

If it is built, it will be the tallest building in OC.

The long-stalled project got a boost last month when the city waived a rule requiring Harrah to lease half of the proposed 530,000-square-foot tower before starting construction.

Harrah contends he would be better off building the massive tower on speculation.

“This really is the poster child of ‘build it, and they will come,’” he said.

We’ve considered land and approvals for One Broadway Plaza but don’t consider the project a major factor in his wealth.

Beyond Santa Ana, Harrah’s company has built condominium towers and parking lots in Hawaii, among other projects.

Recent projects he’s worked on include the Pinnacle Honolulu, a 36-story condominium tower in Hawaii. Harrah also owns a Honolulu hotel.

Other assets include jets, helicopters and a collection of rare automobiles.

Harrah also said he recently made “a few million” buying and selling stock of automotive companies and has been snapping up distressed properties in Las Vegas.

Along with the Orange County High School of the Arts, Harrah also supports the Boys & Girls Club, D.A.R.E. and the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Orange County.

Mark Mueller


# 25. Sheldon Razin, Founder, chairman, Quality Systems Inc.

estimated worth: $300 million

Sheldon Razin, a Boston native who years ago turned $2,000 into Irvine medical software maker Quality Systems Inc., could see his wealth grow this year, thanks to healthcare reform.

Quality, which had a $1.6 billion market value at recent check, is expected to benefit from up to $20 billion in healthcare information technology investments as part of healthcare reform signed into law earlier this year.

The company makes software that helps doctors and dentists manage their practices.

Even though health reform is seen as beneficial to his company, Razin said he’s not in favor of what came out of Congress, primarily because he contends it’s about “shifting around costs” rather than containing them.

Quality’s been a Wall Street favorite throughout the years. Its shares are up nearly 700% since early 2000. The stock has cooled a bit this year as investors wait for federal stimulus spending. It’s flat in the past 12 months.

Razin, 72, owns more than 5 million shares of Quality, an 18% stake with a recent market value of $280 million. Our estimate of his wealth is based on that and a presumption of other investments. We’ve tried to account for past stock sales, the cost of exercising options and taxes.

Quality has grown through doctors’ and dentists’ adopting of technology to create “paperless offices.”

The company has its origins in a management consulting business Razin started in the early 1970s to develop commercial software.

Quality started selling to dentists, then added doctors and went public in 1982, raising $11 million.

Razin has a bachelor’s in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before starting Quality, he held various technical and managerial positions at former OC aerospace company Rockwell International Corp.

He’s given to MIT, the Chabad Jewish Center of Laguna Beach and the Alzheimer’s Association.

A married father of two and grandfather of five, Razin said he follows the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Boston Red Sox. He was on hand for July’s All-Star Game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim with one of his sons.

Vita Reed


# 25. Pawan Seth, Drug developer, founder, Pharma Pass LLC

estimated worth: $300 million

Pawan Seth, a drug developer and inventor, makes his debut among OC’s Wealthiest after years on our list of Other Centimillionaires.

Seth made our main ranking based on input from sources and a closer examination of his accomplishments.

Even so, his wealth from patents and development deals isn’t easily discernable. He could be worth more than the $300 million we estimate him at.

Seth created Pharma Pass LLC, a developer of ways to control the release and boost the effectiveness of drugs.

He’s perhaps best-known as the creator of Wellbutrin XL, a once daily, time-release version of the anti-depressant that has maintained a loyal following despite competition from generic alternatives.

Seth has a longtime relationship with Biovail Corp., Canada’s largest drug maker that’s in the process of buying Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

Biovail bought products under development, technologies, intellectual properties and assets of Pharma Pass LLC and Pharma Pass SA of France for $190 million in 2002.

Seth continued to independently work on drug development after the Biovail deal. He appears to have continued work at a successor company aptly named Pharma Pass II LLC.

Seth still works with Biovail, with the two striking a deal for two drugs under development in 2008.

He also has the distinction of inventing the only generic version of Prilosec, a blockbuster heartburn drug, that didn’t infringe on patents held by AstraZeneca PLC. Seth’s version of generic Prilosec is marketed by UCB SA of Belgium.

Vita Reed


# 28. Michael Wilson, Chief executive, Makena Technologies Inc.

estimated worth: $275 million

The virtual world that former eBay Inc. executive Michael Wilson brought to life in the past decade took a fatal hit this year.

Wilson’s company, Makena Technologies Inc., shut down online community There.com in March.

“There.com’s customers were hardest hit by the recession, and so was There,” Wilson said in an online letter. “While our membership numbers and the number of people in the world have continued to grow, there has been a marked decrease in revenue which, in these economic times, is no surprise.”

Wilson works from Laguna Beach for Makena, which has its on-the-books headquarters in Silicon Valley.

At There.com, a competitor of Second Life and Facebook, people take on digital personas, take part in online activities and interact with each other.

The site generated money from members and advertising. At one point There.com had deals with Coca-Cola Co., Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and some clothing brands.

Wilson was employee No. 5 at eBay. He made millions in eBay’s 1998 $63 million initial public offering and ensuing stock rise.

Our $275 million estimate for Wilson comes from his early eBay shares. Without a good read on Wilson’s finances, we’ve left him unchanged from a year ago. He could be worth more, though he likely lost some money on There.com.

Wilson “retired” from eBay in 2001 as chief scientist and dabbled in startups. He moved to Laguna Beach in 2005.

In the mid-1990s, Wilson was hired as an engineer at eShop, a software company that was bought by Microsoft Corp. in 1996.

At eShop, Wilson met eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who was tinkering with the code that would make online auctions happen.

Wilson said on his blog that he’s working on “a number of commercial projects” at Makena, but didn’t give specifics.

He is involved in Washington, D.C.-based Maya Foundation, an education nonprofit, and is a cofounder of its sister group, the Tzec Maun Foundation, which provides students with access to telescopes and “Internet astronomy.”

He also gives to Child’s Play, which gives sick kids video games during hospital stays, Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto and Toys for Tots.

Sarah Tolkoff

# 29. Rick Aversano, Cofounder, philanthropist, Qtera Corp.

estimated worth: $250 million

Rick Aversano and wife Wendy are fans of stage and screen.

The Aversanos are community theater lovers who support their passion by giving to Irvine’s Barclay Theater, South Coast Repertory and the Laguna Playhouse.

Their wealth comes from Rick Aversano’s days before he came to Orange County. In 2000, he and other cofounders sold Boca Raton, Fla.-based Qtera Corp. to Nortel Networks Corp. for more than $3 billion.

The founders struck it rich before ever selling a single product after finding a way to boost the distance and speed of data flowing over fiber optic cables, which was key to Nortel’s networking gear.

Aversano was the head guy in brokering the Nortel deal. Before Qtera, he was at a handful of startups.

We estimate Aversano at $250 million, based on his Qtera stake at the time of the sale. We presume he sold at least some of his Nortel stock before it crashed in 2001.

He’s now partly retired, overseeing investments and philanthropy.

The couple gives to environmental groups, including the Surfrider Foundation, ocean conservation group Oceana and the Crystal Cove Alliance, which seeks to protect Crystal Cove State Park.

The Aversanos are big supporters of Democrats, including Loretta Sanchez, John Kerry, California district attorney candidate Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Committee. They gave some $50,000 to President Obama’s inauguration bash.

They also give to the Laguna Art Museum and Olive Crest, which aims to prevent child abuse.

In 2008, the Aversanos sold a Corona del Mar home for about $27 million.

At one point the Aversanos owned Corona del Mar’s Port Theater and later sold it to fellow OC’s Wealthiest Fariborz Maseeh (see story, page 34) for about $3 million.

Sarah Tolkoff


# 29. Robert Hoff, General partner, Crosspoint Venture Partners

estimated worth: $250 million

Venture capitalist Bob Hoff makes a return visit to OC’s Wealthiest.

Hoff first appeared in 2002 and then again in 2004. Other years he’s appeared on our “Other Centimillionaires” roster.

We confess we don’t have a clear view into Hoff’s wealth. But he returns this year based on the persistent input of trusted sources that he should be on our list.

Based on that input and our own number crunching, we figure our $250 million estimate for Hoff’s wealth is a safe bet. Some sources tell us he could be worth more.

Hoff is a general partner at Woodside-based Crosspoint Venture Partners and manager of its Irvine office. He’s invested in scores of startups in his career.

Some of Hoff’s hits include Innovent Systems (acquired by Broadcom Corp.), IPivot (bought by Intel Corp.) and PairGain Technologies (bought by ADC Telecom-munications Inc.). Misses include now defunct Internet consultant marchFirst Inc.

Most of Hoff’s wealth is estimated to have come from investments during the technology boom.

In 2001, Forbes magazine ranked Crosspoint No. 1 in the country in terms of overall distributed returns to its limited partners. Investors who had placed $1 with Crosspoint in 1996 got back $29 by 2001. This was after fees and profit-sharing by general partners such as Hoff.

Venture capital firms such as Crosspoint normally charge 2% fees for managing money and take 20% of the profits.

After making his fortune, Hoff is semi-retired.

He’s on the advisory board of Encore Housing Opportunity Funds, a San Francisco-based distressed real estate investor.

He’s also an investor in an Aspen, Colo., project of Newport Beach’s Centurion Partners LLC that called for building an upscale, 75-room hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain.

The project filed for bankruptcy protection last year in what the company’s lawyers have described as a defensive move made to save the proposed Lodge at Aspen Mountain project from a bank foreclosure.

Michael Lyster


# 29. Joan Irvine Smith, Heiress, philanthropist

estimated worth: $250 million

Joan Irvine Smith, great-granddaughter of Irvine Ranch founder James Irvine, is one of the county’s big givers to education, the arts and environmental causes.

We estimate Smith’s wealth at $250 million, based on input from sources.

Her fortune comes from her great-grandfather, who struck it rich during the Gold Rush of 1849. James Irvine and three partners bought 120,000 acres of land, which made up about a quarter of Orange County at the time.

James Irvine II, Smith’s grandfather, incorporated the land as Irvine Land Co. in the 1890s.

In 1977, a group including Donald Bren acquired control of what later became Irvine Company. Bren, No. 1 on OC’s Wealthiest (see story, page 22), became sole owner in 1996.

In 1991, he paid a $256 million court award to Smith and mother Athalie Clarke for their shares.

Smith and Bren are cordial. They share a passion for the environment and preserving parts of the Irvine Ranch as open space.

One of Smith’s biggest visions came to fruition last year, when the University of California, Irvine’s School of Law opened. Smith, an early UC Irvine champion, donated $1 million for the law school.

In April, Smith said she was donating 106 oak trees grown on her San Juan Capistrano ranch, the Oaks, to the Great Park in Irvine.

Smith’s other passions include world-class jumping horses and politics.

Smith came up last year in news coverage about Danny Pang, an alleged financial fraudster who died in 2009. Pang claimed ties to the Irvine family in order to attract Taiwanese investors, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

Smith told the newspaper that Pang used her son, Morton Irvine Smith, as a “front guy” and added that the family “had not one red cent in this venture.”

Smith, an ardent Democrat, has given to Hillary Clinton, Loretta Sanchez, the late Ted Kennedy, John Edwards and others.

Vita Reed


# 29. William Wang, Founder, chief executive, Vizio Inc.

estimated worth: $250 million

William Wang owes his wealth to a populist notion that everyone should be able to afford the American Dream. Or at least a flat-screen TV.

Wang started and runs Irvine-based Vizio Inc., North America’s top seller of liquid-crystal display TVs in 2009.

Vizio’s TVs sell for hundreds of dollars less than his competitors and see big sales from retailers such as Costco Wholesale Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

It’s a business model that’s worked, even during the recent downturn when consumer spending on gadgets took a lengthy pause.

Vizio sold about 6 million TVs in 2009, nearly double from 2008. It recorded sales of $2.5 billion last year, up 25% from 2008.

The company now ranks among Orange County’s top private companies by sales.

It’s the second-largest minority-owned company here after Kingston Technology Co., (run by John Tu and David Sun, who rank No. 3 among OC’s Wealthiest, page 25).

Wang makes his debut at No. 28 at an estimated wealth of $250 million.

That’s our conservative guess since his exact ownership stake, Vizio’s profits and other variables aren’t known.

Getting a read on Vizio isn’t easy. The company competes with big players such as Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. but can’t really be valued like those big, diverse companies.

Vizio designs and markets TVs and has them made by Taiwanese contract electronics maker AmTran Technology Co., a Vizio investor.

In coming up with our estimate, we looked back at Syntax-Brillian Corp., a onetime Arizona seller of TVs made in Asia.

The company, now part of New Jersey’s Emerson Radio Corp., went bankrupt in 2009. We looked at Syntax-Brillian’s valuation and profits before it ran into trouble to get an idea of a market value for Vizio.

From there, we tried to account for debt and investors, which also include Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Co.

We presume Wang owns a sizable Vizio stake and has other investments.

Wang gives to a variety of causes for Chinese-Americans, education, healthcare and the arts.

He’s also given to natural disaster relief in Haiti, cancer research and schools in OC.

Sarah Tolkoff

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