Ricks College Names President

A business management professor and former associate dean at the University of Arkansas was named on Tuesday as the new president of Ricks College.

David Bednar, 44, will succeed Steven Bennion, who headed the two-year school for eight years before accepting the presidency of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Bednar would take over the Mormon Church school in Rexburg on July 1, when Bennion, 55, officially moves to Southern Utah.

Bednar was associate dean of graduate studies at Arkansas between 1987 and 1992. Since then he has been teaching courses in organizational behavior, team management and managerial communications.

The author of several books on organizational behavior, Bednar has twice been named the outstanding teacher in the College of Business Administration on the Fayetteville, Ark., campus

He has also held a variety of offices in the Mormon Church and is currently Area Authority Seventy in the North America Southwest Area.