Scott Ford, CEO of Westrock Group LLC, will speak to the Logistics of Capitalism class at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas on Sept. 15.
Ford will discuss his company’s free enterprise initiatives in Rwanda, where it has invested more than $100 million in the country’s coffee industry.
Westrock Group operates Westrock Coffee Company LLC, which has worked to improve coffee prices, yields and quality as a way of making a positive impact on the Rwandan economy.
Ford’s talk, which is free and open to the public, will be at 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development.
Ford, along with Ben Affleck and Bill Gates, recently testified about Westrock’s Rwandan investments before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on the topic of "Diplomacy, Development, and National Security."
Ford founded Westrock Group in 2013 after serving a number of years as president and CEO of Alltel Corp. of Little Rock.
After earning a bachelor of science in business administration in finance from the Walton College in 1984, Ford worked for Merrill Lynch and Stephens Inc. In 1995, Ford was named an Arkansas Business’ 40 Under 40 honoree when he was serving as assistant to the chairman of the Stephens Group Inc.
He joined Alltel in 1996 and was named president in 1997. He added the title of COO in 1998 and was named CEO in 2002.
Ford serves on the board of directors of AT&T, Bear State Financial and the Agaciro Development Fund.
Instructors for the course are Wes Kemp, executive in residence, and Jason Arentz of the supply chain management department.
