Ed Fryar in 2014 (file)
The Fryar Family Charitable Foundation has donated $10 million donation to the University of Arkansas System.
The UA said it will use the money to create and support a center that will provide analysis and education on issues of price risk management in agriculture, finance and energy.
The foundation is led by Ed and Michelle Fryar of Rogers, both UA alumni. Ed Fryar is a board of trustees member and the founder of Ozark Mountain Poultry, which he sold to George’s Inc. of Springdale in 2018. He also served 13 years as an agricultural economics and agribusiness faculty member.
“Our family roots run deep in Arkansas and the University of Arkansas,” Ed Fryar said in a news release. “This endowment is an opportunity to repay the university for all that it has given us. Price risk management plays an important role in the success or failure of many farms and companies. We hope that our support of research, teaching and extension programs in this area will have a national impact on academia, industry, farming and the career paths of students for many years.”
According to the UA, risk management is the science of anticipating and analyzing the potential for adverse financial events and minimizing the effect of those events. It’s essential for success in markets characterized by substantial price risks, such as agricultural commodities, the university said.
The money will establish the Fryar Family Charitable Foundation Endowment in Price Risk Management, which will create and support the Fryar Price Risk Management Center of Excellence, establish the Fryar Endowed Professorship in Applied Price Risk Management and support research, teaching and extension outreach, according to the university.
The money will be managed by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences and the UA System Division of Agriculture.
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