MANN MAKES HIS MARK BIOTECH PIONEER FINDS CURES, VAST FORTUNE; MINIMED DEAL BRINGS $3.7 BILLION MORE.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Billionaire Alfred E. Mann is no numbers man - despite his six sterling companies, 21 scientific patents, 25 prestigious awards and what soon could become the world's largest university endowment.

And that doesn't include MiniMed Inc. and another firm the San Fernando Valley aerospace and biotech pioneer sold this week to a Minnesota-based Medtronic Inc. for $3.7 billion.

``I'm a very lucky guy,'' said Mann, 75, who lives atop Beverly Hills overlooking the city and the Valley. ``I've been very fortunate to have been able to do some very significant things - I've lived through the golden age of technology and I'm very excited about the future.''

What Mann is about, say industry associates, are people behind the numbers - the blind, the deaf, the diabetic and the sick - and each and every worker tinkering to set them free.

MiniMed, based in Northridge, founded to focus on diabetes. His Medical Research Group, also sold, created to develop an artificial pancreas.

A high-tech company for deafness and pain. One for vaccines against cancers. Another to create bionic eyes for the blind, another for batteries for bionic implants. A firm to lead cures for allergies and asthma, and another to research new drug delivery systems. Not to mention a foundation in his name with another army of scientists.

With each medical challenge, Mann just starts a new company.

``He's had two driving forces: One is to cure the diseases and ailments that mankind has had forever; and the other is to give back to his community,'' said Bruce Ackerman, head of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

``And he has sure set the mark for that.''

Mann dropped the shoe on the numbers game nearly 20 years ago when engineers approached him with a scheme to save money on a pump to deliver insulin - despite a one-in-a-million chance of overdosing patients.

Cliff Hague, former vice president of marketing and business development for Mann's Sylmar-based MiniMed Inc., can still hear its founder's response.

``He took off his shoe, banged it on the table and said, 'We shall not ever compromise patient safety in the interest of economics,' '' he said. ``And the meeting was closed.''

Mann's sale this week of MiniMed not only rocked the Los Angeles business world, it also turned the spotlight on one of the region's most generous residents. Just over two years ago, Mann - unknown to all but industry insiders - shocked academia by offering $100 million to USC and $100 million to his alma mater, UCLA, for biomedical research.

Now, with more ducats in his pocket, the onetime physicist plans to give his entire fortune to the advancement of science - with more foundations, more endowments and a likely gift to Johns Hopkins University.

``I'm giving my whole estate away,'' said Mann, 75, who lives in a glass house he built himself on top of Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills with views of the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles.

To those who know him, Mann is the can-do of enterprisers.

Mann was born in 1925 in Portland, Ore., of British and Polish parents. Too squeamish to dissect frogs, Mann didn't have any interest in science until his senior year in high school when he discovered chemistry and physics. And then college.

After a short stint as a navigator aboard a B-29 bomber in World War II, Mann helped his father turn a dogpatch into a successful citrus ranch. He now has six children of his own.

Then, backed by the U.S. Army, he founded Spectrolab, maker of guidance systems for anti-tank missiles, which would soon become the leading maker of solar-powered satellite systems. For his aerospace accomplishments, Mann has been noted at the Smithsonian Institution no fewer than 32 times.

(His brother, Robert Mann, became founding first violinist of the Julliard String Quartet).

After stunning the aerospace industry, Mann headed a request by Johns Hopkins University to help develop a cardiac pacemaker that could last longer than two years. Mann responded by starting Pacesetter Inc., which became the world's second-largest manufacturer of rechargeable pacemakers. He sold it to a German firm for $150 million.

``Al has no medical training, he's a physicist,'' said Ahmed Enany, executive director of the Southern California Biomedical Council.

``But he sees opportunities where others don't - he starts something from scratch and turns it into a gold mine.''

The key may be in Mann's management style. He's a regular spry guy, his cohorts say. He drives a Mustang convertible. Drinks no coffee. Doesn't touch alcohol. Attends temple only on holidays. Works 80 to 90 hours a week. And has total focus.

When Mann sat down to fiddle with a problem outside a secretary's home, he never even noticed the chicken that hopped on his lap.

``He's incredible; he's just an incredible person,'' said Georgia Smith, Mann's administrative assistant for the past 18 years. ``He calls all the women 'Honey,' because he can't remember names.''

His summer picnics and Christmas parties are legendary. His management style avoids micromanagement.

``There's a magic about an Al Mann company,'' said Hague, who is co- authoring a book with Mann titled ``How to be an Entrepreneur by Really Trying: The Business Philosophy of Alfred E. Mann.'' ``You walk in the door and there's magic energy - almost like electricity.''

Mann, for his part, lives for the love, according to one daughter, of those he has helped.

``It's the letters,'' he said. ``And interaction with people I do something for - someone who can hear for the first time in years; someone who has had heart disease who just got a pacemaker - those are very moving experiences.

``I'm anxious to do what we do because we make a difference in people's lives.''

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Photo:

(color) Alfred E. Mann, founder of the world's largest maker of insulin pumps, has sold the company as part of a deal worth $3.7 billion.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer