Robert B. Shapiro (born August 4, 1938 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) is a businessman and attorney who has worked extensively with the biochemical corporations G. D. Searle & Company and

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in th ...

. Before working in this sector he was Vice-President and legal counsel at

General Instrument General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...

from 1972 to 1979. His father, Moses, was Chairman of this company from 1969 to 1975. From 1979 he worked as attorney for the Illinois-based G. D. Searle. In 1982 he became CEO and Chairman of the

NutraSweet The NutraSweet Company is an American nutrient company that produces and markets NutraSweet Neotame, their trademarked brand name for the high-intensity sweetener neotame. In 2021, NutraSweet was placed 43rd by FoodTalks' list of Top 50 Global S ...

subsidiary. The FDA approved

aspartame Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade names ...

's use in soft drinks in November 1983, and

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

was among the first brands to deploy the product on a large scale in the United States. When G. D. Searle was acquired by Monsanto in 1985, Shapiro moved up the management chain in the ladder, becoming Vice President in 1990, President in 1993 and CEO in 1995. He remained CEO of Monsanto until 2000. He oversaw a period of industrial expansion, acquisitions, and consumer regulatory approval for the genetically-engineered seed businesses. In 2000 Monsanto merged with the U.S.-based pharmaceutical company

Pharmacia & Upjohn Pharmacia & Upjohn was a global pharmaceutical company formed by the merger of Sweden-based Pharmacia AB and the American company The Upjohn Company, Upjohn in 1995. Today the remainder of the company is owned by Pfizer. In 1997, Pharmacia & Upjo ...

to form Pharmacia Corp. Shapiro became chair of this entity until he stepped down in February 2001. Fred Hassan became CEO of Pharmacia. The agricultural business of the merged entity was later spun out of Pharmacia to form Monsanto Company, a business focused on agricultural products. Pharmacia Corporation was subsequently acquired by Pfizer. Shapiro was a co-founder of Sandbox Industries, a Chicago-based business incubator and venture fund manager in 2003, and currently serves as one of its managing directors. He is on the board of Conservis, a Sandbox funded firm. Shapiro was an early member of the board of directors of

Theranos Theranos Inc. () was an American privately held corporation that was touted as a breakthrough health technology company. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and ...

, the company created by

Elizabeth Holmes Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American convicted fraudster and former biotechnology entrepreneur. In 2003, Holmes founded and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company that ...

with the goal of disrupting the blood-testing industry. He has a BA from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and a JD from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

References

Sources

Hutchington Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Robert B. American manufacturing businesspeople American chief executives of food industry companies 20th-century American Jews American lawyers Harvard University alumni Columbia Law School alumni 1938 births Living people Monsanto employees 21st-century American Jews