Chris Haver

While attending SDSU, Haver decided that he wanted to climb and ski the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, before he was 30 years old.[3] He first climbed Mount Everest in 1989 at the age of 23 with the International Goodwill Expedition.[4] While on the expedition, he met Mike McDowell, a founding partner of Quark Expeditions and other adventure travel enterprises. He would go on to become one of Haver's business associates and a close friend.

After returning from the Everest trip, Haver broke both of his ankles while jumping off an 80-foot cliff at Tonto Natural Bridge outside of Payson, Arizona.[3] He was aiming for a deep pond, but missed and landed on a rock ledge. After sustaining two compound fractures, Haver required multiple surgeries and 2 ½ years of physical therapy.[2]

Haver[5] resumed his quest for the Seven Summits in 1993 by climbing and skiing Mount McKinley in North America. In early 1994, he summited Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Later that year, he conquered Mount Elbrus in European Russia, Australia's Mount Kosciuszko, and Antarctica's Mount Vinson Massif where he sustained frostbite on one of his big toes. He finished the quest in January 1996 in Argentina on Aconcagua approximately two weeks shy of his 30th birthday, becoming the first American to accomplish the feat.[2]

In 1998, Haver planned to join an expedition to the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic with Deep Ocean Exploration. When RMS Titanic heard of the planned trip, the company obtained a court order that banned Haver and any other party from visiting the sunken shipwreck site.[6] In 1999, Haver filed suit in federal court and was joined by Deep Ocean Expeditions and other parties in the suit against RMS Titanic who held the salvager and possession rights. While Haver and the others lost in the District Court, they appealed to the 4th Circuit Appellate Court where the judge ruled in their favor.[6]

RMS Titanic appealed to the US Supreme Court but the case wasn't taken up by the court, the decision from the Appellate Court stood. After the case, Haver joined DOE on an expedition to the shipwreck with Mike McDowell and a pilot, where they had lunch on the bow of the ship. In all, they spent 11 hours diving and photographing the site.[6]

Throughout the course of litigating and diving the Titanic, Haver became friends with film director and documentarian James Cameron. Haver went on to found Deep Ocean One (DOO) with Mike Mcdowell, a company that aimed to bring the benefits of deep-sea exploration to the public. In 2007, DOO worked with Cameron's documentary film company Earth Ship to televise and host a live feed with Cameron and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America an organization dear to Haver as his father Ralph "Bucky" Haver was on the Executive Committee of the Boys and Girls Clubs for many years. Chris hosted the event with television personality Danielle Demski from a studio in Phoenix while Cameron was on a support ship positioned directly above the Titanic.[7]

Haver first met Gregorio Fuentes, considered by many to be the influence for Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novel The Old Man and the Sea, with a few of his friends in the fishing village of Cohimar, Cuba in 1995. After the group traded stories for a few hours, Haver and Fuentes formed a quick friendship. Haver made it a point to see Fuentes and his grandson Rafeal any time he was in Cuba until his last visit (in 2000) before Fuentes's death in 2002. Famed radio personality Paul Harvey asked to do a segment on his show, The Rest of the Story which chronicled how Chris tracked down and became friends with the 95-year-old Fuentes. [8]

Before graduating from college in 1990 Haver began working with Knight and Carver Yachtcenter in San Diego, CA developing facilities for the 1992 America's Cup Sailboat Races,[9] a company that owned a marina in Mission Bay of San Diego.[10] In 1991, Haver formed the Mission Bay Organizing Committee (MBOC) to develop facilities for the 1992 and 1995 America's Cup sailing races in San Diego.[11]

Because none of the international America's Cup teams were responding to Haver, he snuck into the Challenger of Record Dinner hosted by Louis Vuitton at the San Diego Yacht Club to meet the teams face to face. After mingling during the cocktail hour, he sat with the Japanese team because it was the only open seat at the reception dinner. After meeting the team's PR director, Emily Miura, he realized she was the daughter of Yuichiro Miura. The two of them had initially corresponded while Haver was preparing to climb Everest. Yuirchiro was the first person to ski Mt Everest and became the first person to climb and ski the Seven Summits. [2]

The Japanese America's Cup team became the first team to join up with Haver at Knight & Carver. Ultimately, Haver housed six of the nine teams turning Mission Bay into the epicenter of the 1992 and 1995 America's Cup Races. Haver's clients included the countries of France, Japan, Sweden, two teams from Australia, Spain, and U.S. defender. Chris was responsible for the complete design-build, construction, maintenance, management and ultimately restoration of all American's related activities in Mission Bay from 1990-1995. [9]

In 1995 Haver expanded his private equity group to include investments in software, green technology, sustainable forestry, defense, fintech and real estate both in the United States and abroad. Haver has been the founding partner in companies and projects currently operating in the U.S. Europe, Africa and Asia. <name=Gabriel>Gabriel, Angela (24 March 2000). "Scaling the Peak: Builder, investor likes the thrill of start ups". Phoenix Business Journal.</ref>

Haver has developed real estate, both residential and commercial, in the US and abroad under a number of different banners.[12]

• Haver Homes
• HHDC (Haver Homes Development Corporation)
• Developed land in British Columbia, Canada and Eastern Europe
• Haver Homes Africa
• Haver Homes Asia

• H4 Capital Partners LLC (Holding Company for H4 Capital Partners Ventures)

c/o Dentons Law 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

• Dynamic Campaign, LLC[13]
• CDK Group
• Cool Water Springs
• HHDC
• Pet Assure
• CDK Group, LLC
• Haver Williams

Haver coordinated one of the largest private humanitarian relief effort during the Russian recession of the early 1990s. In the end, the group delivered nearly 70 tons of food and medicine via an Antonov An-225 airplane. The group provided valuable supplies and resources to the people of Moscow.[14]