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.

John Chambers of Cisco Systems

By almost any standard, John Chambers has compressed a lifetime of business milestones into the five years he has been chief executive of San Jose-based Cisco Systems. For starters, he turned an obscure maker of computer networking equipment into the biggest hardware company in the nation--taking that title from Intel Corp. this year en route to a valuation exceeding $350 billion.

“Chambers has generated $330 billion in shareholder wealth, which is probably unprecedented among American managers; perhaps only in a category with [General Electric’s] Jack Welch,” said Patrick Houghton, senior vice president at investment bank Sutro & Co. in San Francisco.

As chief strategist for the most important Internet hardware company, Chambers, 50, will play a major role in dictating the pace and development of the Internet in 2000. His plans to grab big shares of the wireless networking and telecom equipment industries in the coming year could prove crucial in shaping industry visions of a society in which every manner of device--from hand-held computers to refrigerators to cars--are perpetually linked over the Internet, creating an always-connected culture.

Whereas Microsoft’s growth is still constrained by lackluster PC sales, Cisco is perfectly positioned to exploit the growth of the Internet itself. “Cisco could be the first company to hit a trillion-[dollar] market cap. They could eclipse Microsoft” within three years, Houghton said.