If the assessments of professionals, analysts, venture capitalists and companies themselves are correct, San Diego’s business community is looking to have an upbeat 2004. While they won’t “party like it’s 1999,” growth in revenue and employee head count seems imminent.

For more than a month, San Diego Metropolitan quizzed industry movers, shakers, investors and observers about who would be making news. We took names and numbers and narrowed the list. One touted executive declined the honor. We won’t say who, but we did look a little closer, said “hmmm” and will watch his firm too in 2004. DivXNetworks Inc. has an outstanding video compression technology that our children use to play online games, but we couldn’t draw human interaction with voice or e-mails; well, that’s not a first.

Those we do feature in the inaugural “Metro Movers To Watch In ’04” range from old guard, like coverboy Malin Burnham whose philanthropic tale begins on Page 40, to new guard companies, virtual kids and association and civic leaders.

Following, and to avoid bruised feelings in no particular order, are executives we expect to make news both in, and out, of their industries next year. Apologies in advance to those we missed; maybe next year.

With Park Laurel’s first 51 luxury homes essentially sold, Robert Lawrence and his new partners, CLB Partners of Dallas, are tearing down the old San Diego Trust & Savings at Sixth Avenue and Laurel. On the site will rise the second phase, a 48-unit mid-rise tower with oversized homes overlooking Balboa Park. Lawrence’s pioneering Uptown efforts have encouraged others to follow, albeit with more modest projects. He also controls most of the gateway block at the north entrance to Mission Hills and will in January begin preliminary plans for a mixed-use effort much anticipated by community residents and urban experts alike.

As veteran restaurateur Ron Zappardino steers his Top o’ The Cove into its 51st year, he also takes the presidency of the California Restaurant Association. Look for him to get statewide press in the effort to repeal Senate Bill 2, a state law mandating health insurance be provided by companies with 20 or more employees.

When it comes to wireless, you ain’t seen nothing yet. As president of Helicomm, Jack Sun runs a company whose wireless data technology is finding its way into nuclear power plants (non-critical stuff) and gas and electric meters. Starting from the get-go two years ago with offices in China and the U.S., Helicomm now is seeing its products enter homes, in security systems, powered drapes and more. Everything is done in partnership with original equipment manufacturers that market the products under their own names, but with Helicomm under the hood.

At age 32, John Phillips is using his high-profile law enforcement and investment experience to form Satellite Security Systems, a firm that is grabbing a share of the remote tracking and monitoring business. A pilot program follows school buses in San Francisco. Last month, in cooperation with the California Highway Patrol and InterState Oil Co., Phillips’ firm demonstrated the first wireless remote shutdown of a fully loaded moving petrochemical tanker truck. Three words: homeland security contracts.

In broadband, speed doesn’t kill, it’s a killer. About a year ago, Bill Stenstrud put aside his investor’s hat to take the helm of Ensemble Communications. Now, XO Communications is rolling out Ensemble’s broadband technology in commercial centers around the country, offering wireless connection speeds of up to 20 megabits — about 10 times what feels fast with a cable modem — and with the potential to hit 100 megabits. With most commercial buildings hardwired only for copper and XO owning buckets of spectrum and charging moderate prices, Ensemble’s stuff is getting the opportunity to shine.

Your cells are dying and, in some cases, Steven J. Mento, wants that to stop. As president of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Mento leads a biotech with encouraging prospects for protecting livers attacked by hepatitis C and keeping transplant-suitable organs “fresher” longer to lessen rejections. Administered in pill form, the small molecule drugs are in Phase II human testing. The treatments are trying to control apoptosis, the ubiquitous, fundamental, genetically controlled pathway of programmed cell death. A final round of mezzanine funding in 2004 is likely the last before the company goes public.

In March of 2000, Masood Tayebi was a coverboy for this magazine in a section titled “Billion Dollar Babies” that looked at San Diego’s suddenly rich public companies. Then came the tech wreck and Tayebi’s Wireless Facilities Inc., which designed wireless networks, was smacked when 70 percent of its customers declared bankruptcy. Layoffs — “the worst decision I had to make in my life,” Tayebi says — and a 120 line-item review of company expenses followed. Tayebi, 42, took no salary for two years while directing the company to focus its business on only the large carriers. Company shares, which went out at $15 on Nov. 5, 1999, peaked about $150 in February 2000, hovered in the $3 to $10 range in 2001 and 2002. Yet by 2002’s second quarter, the company was again profitable; in late November, shares were trading near $15, bringing its market cap above $880 million. As cash flow turned positive the company went on the offensive. “We said ‘let’s not wait and see what happens with the industry. Let’s see where we can grow,’” Tayebi recalls. One way was by looking at a typical commercial building, which has up to five different networks — wireless, telephone, data, security and building technology — each with its own support team. Wireless Facilities can merge those networks and manage them as a single account. The business already accounts for 24 percent of revenue. Tayebi is hiring — employment is 1,765, up from its low of 1,100 — and expects to do more as the wireless industry grows and installs third generation systems. “We are seeing that (3G) revolution happening and we are very excited about it,” he says. In his personal life, Tayebi this year created the Lotus Children’s Foundation, a private effort run by Madison Volker, the daughter of Paul Volker, the former Federal Reserve chairman and a mentor of Tayebi. It is designed to help orphans get to their adopted parents faster.

All those forms in your life are money in the bank to Reynolds C. Bish who leads Captiva Software, a company with trick software that reads documents and converts the content to digital data. San Diego is a forms processing capital and Bish, whose clients include Cigna, Blue Shield and Blue Cross, is the industry’s king. Trading at $12.25 in late November, near its 52-week high and light years from its $1.13 low, Captiva is a market standout. This year the company rolled out its Digital Mail Room software that, simply put, captures every piece of paper and converts it into digital form. Look for Bish’s 265-employee company to capture even more business in 2004.

As the semiconductor industry endured three years of bad times, Robert Akins’ Cymer Inc. suffered. The world’s leading supplier of excimer lightsources that are critical to manufacturing the smallest semiconductors, Cymer found declining demand for its lasers. While this fiscal year analysts expect it will lose 32 cents a share, next year they forecast a profit of 89 cents and sales growth of 38.5 percent as the chip industry booms. With more than 800 employees, that’s good news for San Diego.

When San Diego voters head to the polls March 5, the media glare will be on Sally McPherson. She’s not on the ballot, but as San Diego’s registrar of voters it is McPherson who will oversee the 10,200 touch-screen Diebold Accu-Vote TSx voting terminals that will be rolled out in all 1,600 polling places throughout the county. County supervisors this month are expected to approve the $30 million effort, all but $3 million paid for with federal and state dollars. With hanging chads history, will voters like, and trust, the new system?

With its expansion now complete, 2004 will be the first full year that San Diego will be home to the second largest Hyatt hotel in the world, the 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt. Now it is Rob Cameron’s job to keep it filled with customers. If the hotel’s director of sales and marketing does his job well it is good for the city. The Downtown property will directly generate $10 million in hotel taxes and pay another $9 million in rent to its landlord, the San Diego Unified Port District.

Regina Petty is a big-time businesses attorney, specializing in product and employment liability. But in 2004 truck pulls, motorcycle races and rodeos will be on her mind as she chairs the Qualcomm Stadium Advisory Board charged with filling dates left blank by the Padres departure to Petco Park. Truck pulls? “The truck pulls we have been able to book in the past often sold out,” notes the Wilson Petty Kosmo & Turner partner. The damage they cause the field formerly limited the times they could be booked. Also on Petty’s plate is the possible review of a new Chargers’ contract, which Mayor Murphy has promised to let the stadium board analyze. The mayor, she expects, will listen to the board’s advice. “After having done a new sports facility in town with the Padres, all of us are a lot smarter about these kinds of things,” she says.

Six years ago Dan Novak created and launched Channel 4 San Diego for Cox Communications. This year, as the Padres move into their new ballpark, he’s looking to kick up the already award-winning programming leading up to the opening of Petco Park. Once the season begins, look for ongoing programming from and around the Downtown area. San Diegans will be watching. The timing couldn’t be better as Novak also is the incoming chairman of the San Diego International Sports Council.

Forget wanting the MTV, San Diego’s sports junkies want their all-local sports radio station. John Lynch, the founder of the first version, XTRA 690, which now operates from Los Angeles, has obliged with The Mighty 1090 (XEPRS-AM). Expect 2004 to be a big year for Lynch as he also has secured the broadcast rights to the SDSU football and basketball and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. As president and CEO of Broadcast Co. of the Americas, Lynch also wants to buy a local FM station.

Remember the “It’s More Than A Ballpark” campaign that convinced San Diego voters to approve a new home for the San Diego Padres? Responsible for making that slogan a reality is John Kratzer, CEO and president of JMI Realty. When the first pitch is thrown out April 8, Kratzer will savor the moment then get back to work. On his shoulders is ensuring the promised retail, commercial and residential development is completed in a timely and tax-generating manner.

Television shows like “Extreme Makeover” have elevated public awareness of the cosmetic plastic surgery procedures that 6.6 million Americans underwent last year. But how to care for that newly peeled face when you get home? Celeste Dunn-Hilling heard that question a lot when she was CEO of the nation’s largest network of day spas. Now she has started a new business — Skin Authority — around the idea of working with cosmetic surgeons on home care regimens, both before and after surgery.

Eerie in hindsight is the warning County Supervisor Dianne Jacob issued in the September issue of her online The Jacob Journal. If a fire starts while Santa Ana winds are blowing, she wrote, “we are faced with the threat of an unprecedented firestorm.” That firestorm did materialize. In its first few days, Jacob zeroed in on apparent bureaucratic bungling that deprived the area of early critical firefighting resources. If she finds meat on those allegations, some officials could be in for a tough year. Jacob nearly single-handedly cost the former Red Cross chapter director her job for not disclosing how little money raised was spent on victims during a previous fire. Also in the tenacious 2nd District supervisor’s sights are advocates of a large Indian gaming operation in Jamul.

The 2004 mayor’s race has gotten interesting for incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy. First former adviser and Port Commissioner Peter Q. Davis jumped in and now Supervisor Ron Roberts, a veteran of two losing mayoral campaigns, is pondering the leap. The more the merrier, unless you are Mayor Murphy. His populist roots still branch wide and in a campaign with only a single bona fide opponent, Murphy might be able to capture more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, thereby avoiding the general election. If Roberts jumps into the primary, will Councilwoman Donna Frye be far behind? She’s playing it cool. But the value of the free political publicity — it is probably in the six figures — may be hard to resist.

While GMS Realty works with the Port District on plans for an overhauled and expanded Seaport Village, Terry B. Hall has been brought in to keep the 92,000-square-foot speciality retail center sparkling. The former on-site general manager at Del Mar Plaza has her bosses’ blessings, and expectations, to take the Seaport Village experience to an even higher level. With the nearby Convention Center and adjacent Manchester Hyatt expected to have record years, lots of customers will be watching how she does.

A fixture in San Diego’s spotlight, home builders will get increased scrutiny in 2004 as they begin rebuilding the nearly 2,500 homes destroyed by October’s fires. As incoming president of the 1,400-member Building Industry Association of San Diego County, Mike Levesque (Le-Vek) will be the industry’s public face. The division president for Greystone Homes in San Diego, Levesque already faced a full plate with the BIA, including two major ballot initiatives, one to greatly restrict home development in unincorporated areas — the BIA will oppose — and the other to extend a half-cent sales tax for transportation — the group will support. While advocating for fair and speedy treatment of those burned out — the county impressed him by outlining a streamlined permit process days after the fires were controlled — Levesque also doesn’t want new home construction delayed. Doing so, he says, will only exacerbate a housing shortage. “One of my concerns is we are not building enough homes in San Diego right now,” he says. “I want to make sure that the communities being processed for new neighborhoods are not put on the back burner while we are rebuilding these.”

As “you got mail” is being replaced with the more stealthy instant messaging, the message for corporate America is “you got problems.” For Peter Shaw at Akonix Systems Inc., that translates into “you got opportunity.” Shaw’s software shop can manage, monitor and record instant messaging in the workplace. Its products can restrict who sends what and clamp shut the peer-to-peer file sharing that drives the entertainment industry nuts. This year the SEC hammered Wall Street to start storing IM records — the technology is proving to be productive and popular to ban. Shaw’s 100-plus clients include blue-chippers like ING, Rothschild, Ingalls & Synder and Craig-Hallum Capital Group. With IM sessions growing at a 150 percent annual clip and potential users in the hundreds of millions, the market remains wide-open. Look for the health care record industry to leap big in 2004.

The future for cell phones is now, as carriers introduce upgraded networks juiced by Qualcomm-flavored technology that delivers DSL-like speed. On the hook for making sure that bandwidth can accommodate imagined and unimagined software goodies is Peggy Johnson who runs Qualcomm Internet Services. With the division’s Brew technology part of millions of phones, software developers can write, and phone companies can sell, programs that do everything from turn a favorite song clip into a ring tone to interactive games where players can track each other’s locations in the real world. When a developer wrote a Brew application that allows the phone to monitor a Web camera, one of Johnson’s engineers decided to test it out by training a lens on his dog. “Of course the dog doesn’t do anything all day,” Johnson says. “It’s a dog.” Johnson’s Brew, on the other hand, is a rabbit, already recording more than 60 million downloads.

Professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek is giving back to the sport that made him a star by forming the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza Foundation. As cities skateboard-proof public spaces through the use of knobs and laws, the sports participants are being forced into fenced-off concrete bowls. Dyrdek’s goal is to design public plazas that incorporate grass, trees, fountains and sculptures into a multi-use park for both skateboarders and others. With the help of a $250,000 donation from the foundation, the first skate plaza will open in summer 2004 in Kettering, Ohio, Dyrdek’s home town. In 2004, Dyrdek, 29, is looking to create the second plaza, either in Los Angeles or San Diego.

Rick Valencia knows that when companies spend $400,000 a month on voice and data services, they are likely paying 7 percent to 12 percent too much. Armed with that knowledge, and a staff of 130 loaded with sharpies from the big telcos, he has built Profitline Inc. into a major player in an industry projected to hit $2.5 billion in 2007. Flat-fee paying clients are mainly Fortune 1000 companies and he swears the big carriers like AT&T are thrilled when his audits find a mistake and earn a rebate check. For three consecutive years Profitline has made Inc. Magazine’s list of the fastest growing companies. With an acquisition likely in 2004, Valencia may be there again.

“Fabless baby” isn’t an Austin Powers line, but rather the preferred way for semiconductor companies to buy from someone else the wafers on which to place their goods. At Peregrine Semiconductor, Jim Cable does just the opposite, using a proprietary technology to manufacture chips here and in Australia for wireless and fiber optic communications. His chips are cheaper, use less power and are great at handling radio frequencies. As the chip industry rebounds, Cable is ready to deal with his biggest obstacle — industry nervousness that he is too small to meet demand. Peregrine has signed a second source deal with Oki, a $5.3 billion Japanese technology company. The partnership gives Cable the chance to aggressively court the 500 million-unit wireless handset market.

Once upon a time, fiber-optic cable was the savior of global communications. It would be installed in every building, office and home, and bandwidth challenges would be a thing of the past. Then the market crashed as analysts realized there will never be enough money to trench every metropolitan city and wire every building. At LightPointe, John Griffen has the solution, products that are essentially fiber-optic cable — only through the air. From three employees in 2000, Griffin now has 80 around the world and fresh agreements with Siemens AG, and China’s telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Ltd. to go with its existing blue chip partners that include Cisco and Corning.