by Sarah Cunningham, Checkbiotech.org

At the Annual General Meeting Sir David Barnes retired from his position as Deputy Chairman of Syngenta. Sarah Cunningham met with Sir David recently to talk to him about his many years in the industry and his thoughts for the future.

If Sir David Barnes could take just one souvenir from his nearly half-century working for Syngenta and its predecessor companies it would be a tin of the genetically modified (GM) tomato paste launched in British supermarkets in 1996. Not only because it was the first GM foodstuff to be sold in the UK, but also because it was a huge success.

"It outsold the conventional tomato paste," says Sir David, "So when anyone stands up and says the public doesn't want this food, it's not true. The only experience there has been in the UK, they did want it. It was cheaper, it was better tasting and it was environmentally more friendly."

The disappearance of even this first GM foodstuff from supermarket shelves still rankles. The supermarkets were, he thinks, "a bit pusillanimous".

This is not a word one could ever use about Sir David himself. His career took him from Research Assistant at ICI to Chief Executive of Zeneca and from there to the boardrooms of AstraZeneca and of Syngenta. Although his career presented him with a vast array of challenges, nothing could have prepared him better than his extraordinary childhood.

He was born in Malawi, then the British protectorate of Nyasaland, where his father was a district commissioner. At the age of five he was sent back to England after he and his elder sister contracted malaria. His grandparents, with whom he went to live, both died soon after. So, aged six, he went to boarding school, staying until he was 18. Once a year he would go by sea to Africa, travelling for five weeks and spending just three weeks with his parents.

"I learned to be independent early on and also to be social," he says. "It sounds like it was harsh. I know I missed things. But in no way was one in a unique position. That was the experience of our generation."

From school, he went to study veterinary science at the University of Liverpool and then took the research job. "I was not a researcher born and bred, but the job gave me a belief in research that endured. There is no let up in this business from inventing. You have got to reinvent yourself every ten years."

After National Service in the Far East he rejoined ICI, but this time on the commercial side. "I was much more at ease, it was much more my metier," he recalls. He moved up quickly, joining the main board in 1986 and becoming Chief Executive of Zeneca when it was demerged in 1993. He remained in that job until 1999, just ahead of the merger with Astra. He remained on the board of AstraZeneca until 2001.

He has always believed passionately in the beneficial nature of the pharmaceuticals and agribusinesses and has been disappointed only that the political atmosphere in which they operate has been so much more difficult in recent decades. The high point for agrochemicals in terms of public acceptance came in 1970, he believes, when Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing new strains of rice and wheat. "When I look now at what the green movement thinks of agrochemicals and the development of new strains, the whole thing has turned 180 degrees," Sir David says. "But I think it will turn again. We're at an extreme resistance to genetic technology is an intellectual possibility for people in the West who have no real idea of what it means to wake up hungry every day and see their children starving. I think there is a terrible intellectual arrogance about it, backed up with very poor science a lot of the time."

Finally away from the fray of the business world, Sir David is now looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Fiona, and with his two grown-up children and five young grandchildren. He is also raising money to develop the veterinarians department at Liverpool University, and he will carry on as governor of his old school, Shrewsbury. He is a keen shot, enjoys other country pursuits and is interested in looking further back into his family history.

As for his personal feelings on leaving Syngenta, "Of course I shall miss it. I shall miss the intellectual challenge, the collegiate friendship and the stimulation that goes with that. I shall miss the buzz of business; of acquisitions, mergers, divestments, demergers, battle with Hanson, whatever. I shall miss those things. But I've had a super time. I've never, ever been bored and I'm immensely grateful for that."