Haute 100 San Francisco Update: Carl Berg

Our Haute 100 list details the accomplishments of the most influential people in each of our markets—Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. These people continue to make moves, so rather than waiting for the next Haute 100 issue to come out, we thought we’d provide you with regular updates on those Haute 100 members who are making headlines. Continuously making the Forbes “400 Billionaires” list, Carl Berg is doing more than just banking it in 2010.

Carl Berg

Category: Billionaires

Company: Mission West Properties

Industry: Real Estate

What Made Him Haute: Berg, chairman and CEO of Mission West Properties, bought the real estate investment trust in 1997, which now manages 8 million square feet across 100 properties. He unsuccessfully tried to sell in 2007 for $1.8 billion before the real estate market collapsed. He is also a venture capitalist, one of the billionaire principals of Berg & Berg Enterprises and Berg & Berg Developers, and his résumé of tech industry investments includes names like MoSys Inc, Valence Technologies, Focus Enhancements, LynuxWorks and Hancock Fabrics Inc.

What Makes Him Haute Now: Carl Berg is a capitalist on the quest to finding the cure for cancer by investing millions of dollars each month in Cytotech, which is conducting medical research for cancer treatment. Beyond scientific advances and equity offerings, this former vending machine repairman joined commercial icons when he was inducted into the 2010 Developer Hall of Fame by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in May. As for Mission West, Berg foresees steady dividends in 2010 and 2011.