Former President of University of Guelph to serve as Executive Director

Toronto, Ontario and Birmingham, Alabama 18 June 2014 – Kirchner Group today announced the launch of the Kirchner Food Fellowship. This Fellowship program will attract a select group of students from top North American universities and will provide academic training, business mentors, and financial capital to help address global food security issues. The objective of the program is to accelerate the global deployment of ground-breaking technologies that can provide long-term sustainable solutions, both environmentally and economically. This will be achieved through an innovative approach to capital allocation for entrepreneurial, agriculture-oriented businesses.

This program was created through a partnership of the Kirchner Group, The Hunger Solutions Institute and Universities Fighting World Hunger. Kirchner Group brings a long-standing track record of success and innovation in merchant banking, a distinguished involvement in agriculture, and a focus on ‘social impact’ activities. The Hunger Solutions Institute will contribute its knowledge and best practices in the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and Universities Fighting World Hunger will provide access to a global higher education movement of some 300 universities worldwide that is focused on educating, mobilizing and organizing students, administrators and faculty in the war against hunger.

The Executive Director of the program will be Alastair Summerlee upon pending completion of his duties as the President of the University of Guelph, one of the top-ranked schools in North America with an international reputation for community engagement and social enterprise. Steve Dauphin, the Managing Partner of the Food Security Group, the agricultural social impact arm of the Kirchner Group will serve as the program’s Investment Director.  W.B. (Bud) Kirchner, Founder and CEO of the Kirchner Group, along with all the professionals at Kirchner will serve as a ready resource to the Fellows.

“This new initiative is exciting. By linking academic training, business acumen and exposure to real-life investment, students will have the opportunities to fund global food security issues in a meaningful way. The culture, platform and decades of experience brought by Kirchner Group is really this program’s differentiator,” said Summerlee. “I am keen to be involved in this innovative effort and look forward to working with the fellows chosen for the program and with Bud Kirchner as he mentors them.”

“This kind of ‘social impact’ or ‘doing good while doing well’ activity is a key component of our culture and we feel very strongly about it. These scholars will gain unprecedented access to our resources, expertise and network to help address the issue of food security head on” added Bud Kirchner.

More details on the curriculum and the application process will be released soon. www.fundthefood.com

For further information:

Alastair Summerlee
Executive Director
Kirchner Food Fellowship Program
519.824.4120 x 52986
asummerlee@fundthefood.com

About Kirchner Group/Food Security Group
The Kirchner Group has provided traditional merchant banking services since 1985. The Company provides advisory, operational and transactional support to companies as well as asset management services for institutional investors. Kirchner Group’s proprietary platform is built on the premise that pairing deep domain expertise with process experts provides superior results. Our clients and partners range from promising entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies and their investors. Kirchner Group also manages assets for some of the largest insurance companies, commercial banks and institutional investors in the world.

Kirchner Group’s Agriculture and Food team has more than 95 years of collective experience as operators, transaction experts, and investors in the sector. Kirchner Group founded its agricultural social impact arm the Food Security Group in 2011. www.kirchnergroup.com

Steve Dauphin
Managing Partner
Food Security Group
205.602.9845
sdauphin@fundthefood.com