Transformative leaders pass away
The past year saw the passing of several leaders who played a key role in the grain-based foods industry during their careers.
In mid-November, Dwayne O. Andreas, longtime chief executive officer of Archer Daniels Midland Co. who was credited with transforming the company into an agribusiness powerhouse, died at the age of 98.
A month earlier, in October, John Paterakis, a Baltimore native who led H&S Bakery, the largest privately owned bakery, died from complications of myelodysplasia, a bone marrow disorder. He was 87 years old.
Gerard (William) Louis-Dreyfus, former chairman of Louis Dreyfus Co., died Sept. 16 at the age of 84. Mr. Louis-Dreyfus broadened the company’s role from grain trader to diversified trading house. According to the company’s history, Mr. Louis-Dreyfus took trading activities in a different direction to capitalize on arbitrage opportunities in a variety of commodity markets, including government bonds, rice, cotton and natural gas. During the 1970s and 1980s, he led the company’s move to extend its direct involvement in agricultural activities to cotton, sugar, citrus and coffee.