The First Presidency announced on May 27 the appointment of David A. Bednar of Fayetteville, Ark., as president of Ricks College.
Brother Bednar, 44, is a business management professor at the University of Arkansas. He succeeds Steven D. Bennion, who recently accepted the presidency of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. Pres. Bennion has served as Ricks president since July 1989.The new president was introduced to the Ricks faculty May 27. He will assume his responsibilities July 1.
Ricks College is a two-year institution and part of the Church Educational System, which includes BYU, with campuses in Provo, Utah, and Laie, Hawaii; LDS Business College in Salt Lake City; and seminaries and institutes of religion throughout the world.
Brother Bednar is a native of San Leandro, Calif. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from BYU and a doctorate from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Prior to joining the University of Arkansas faculty, he was a business management professor at Texas Tech University.
The new Ricks president served as the associate dean for graduate studies in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas from 1987 to 1992. Recently, he has been teaching courses in organizational behavior, team management and managerial communication. He has twice been the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Business Administration, and in 1994 was recognized as the outstanding faculty member at the University of Arkansas. He is also the author of several books on organizational behavior.
Brother Bednar is serving as an Area Authority Seventy in the North America Southwest Area. He has served in a variety of other Church callings, including bishop, stake president and regional representative. As a young man, Brother Bednar served as a missionary in Germany.
He and his wife, Susan Kae Robinson Bednar, are parents of three sons.
