Hugh Grant (business executive)

Hugh Grant (born March 23, 1958) is a Scottish-born business manager and the head of the agricultural biotechnology firm, Monsanto.

Grant was born in Larkhall, Scotland. He received a B. S. degree in agricultural zoology from Glasgow University, a postgraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Edinburgh, and an MBA from International Management Centre in Buckingham, England. He worked in Scotland from 1981 to 1991, for the then U.S.-based Monsanto, and then took the title of global strategy director in the agriculture division, based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1995 he became managing director for the company's Asia-Pacific region, and in 1998, co-president of the agriculture division.

The 20th-century Monsanto Company (in the midst of a roughly five-year series of mergers and spin-offs that had the effect of reducing its focus on chemicals in favor of biotechnology) legally ceased to exist in 2000, a new Monsanto Company was created, and Grant became executive vice president and chief operating officer of this new Monsanto. In 2003, he became president and chief executive officer, and joined the board of directors.

In March 2009, Grant was named one of the world's 30 most respected CEO's on Barron's annual list.