People to Watch in 2000

Who will make big news in the business world this year? Who will emerge from relative obscurity to become a major player? To start the new year, Times business reporters selected people from their beats who they believe will be among those to watch in 2000--in Southern California, across the country and around the world. Some are well known, having made big news in previous years. Others are not exactly household names but nevertheless are likely to make a major impact in their fields.

Of course, there’s no way to predict just what’s going to happen in the next 12 months. Nor can any such list be complete--there’s always the come-from-nowhere phenom who’ll surprise everyone. But it’s a good bet that if you follow the fortunes of these 22, you’ll see the top business stories of 2000 unfold.

Fred Hassan of Monsanto, Pharmacia Upjohn

With sentiment rising quickly against genetically engineered foods, the pressure is on for the largest manufacturer of genetically modified seeds, Monsanto Co. of St. Louis, and its newly named chief executive, Fred Hassan, who will take over after the company’s expected merger with pharmaceutical giant Pharmacia & Upjohn in the second quarter this year.

Things are looking grim. Activists are calling for labeling of genetically altered ingredients; baby food makers have begun shunning GMOs (genetically modified organisms); and some farm groups have asked their members to consider switching back to non-modified seeds. All these bode ill for Monsanto’s $5.2-billion agricultural business and the future of agricultural biotechnology overall.

Already rivals Novartis and Anglo-Swiss drug maker AstraZeneca have announced plans to wash their hands of the controversial business by combining their agricultural units into one company and spinning them off.

And some suggest that Hassan, 54, who now heads New Jersey-based Pharmacia, may shift the company’s emphasis away from crop science, which has been labeled a liability by Wall Street. But the company and some other industry watchers insist the merger will simply give the company time to refocus its agricultural unit.

If Hassan can’t make a case for agricultural biotechnology with consumers, the sector could vanish from the scene as quickly as nuclear energy, raising farmers’ growing costs and cutting into the business of seed companies and pesticide sellers who have made a market in these products in recent years.