Ejnar Knudsen

Ejnar Knudsen III (born 1968) is a US investment manager who focuses on food and agriculture investments. He has served in executive positions for a number of different companies and is currently the managing member of a private equity fund, AGR Partners where he oversees the strategy development and investment process. He has also presented at a number of international conferences on the subject of food and agriculture.

Career and Occupation

AGR Partners is a growth investment firm, having invested over $280 million of equity and subordinated debt in the last four years in food processors, manufacturers and agribusinesses.

Ejnar is AGR's founder and CEO, and oversees the investment strategy. From 2009 to 2012, Ejnar was portfolio manager of Passport Capital's Agriculture Fund. Prior to Passport Capital, Ejnar served as EVP of Western Milling, a grain and feed milling company that grew from a small California startup to over $1 billion in sales. Ejnar also spent 10 years with Rabobank, in its New York office, managing loan portfolios and venture capital investments in addition to providing corporate advisory services. Ejnar is chair of the Dairy Club and a director of Opal Foods, Icicle Seafoods, Ridley (RIC.ASX), Green Plains (GPRE) and Materra Farming. Ejnar is on the board of the California Ag Leadership Foundation and on the steering committee of the Farm Foundation.

In 2016 AGR Partners moved from Visalia, California to its new location in Davis, California. The move was to be closer to UC Davis, a leader in agriculture and veterinary science. Jenna Makus, the associate director of the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship stated, “We’ve been an ag school for a long time but I’m actually seeing some traction between academia and industry. He’s attracted a lot more donors for us. I really credit Ejnar’s enthusiasm for making that happen.”

Ejnar received his B.S. from Cornell University and is a CFA charter holder. Ejnar lives in Davis, California with his wife and their four children.

Education

In 1991, Ejnar received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in New York and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Personal life

Ejnar lives with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children in El Macero (Davis, California).

Conference Presentations

As Portfolio manager of agricultural investments, Ejnar commonly attends different international symposiums and conferences serving as guest speaker (e.g. the 2010 Global Conference of the Milken Institute in Los Angeles, or the 2011 Agriculture Investment Summit in Miami). Other conferences include:

2015 Agricultural Symposium Agenda — "Financing Efficiency and Innovation," July 14–15, 2015, Kansas City, MO.

Intrafish Seafood Investor Forum, "Investing in Seafood: How, Where, and Why," — May 28, 2015, New York, NY.

Capital Roundtable, “Finding Today’s Most Fertile Investment Opportunities” — June 2013, New York, NY. Ejnar chaired this event.

Global AgInvesting, “Diversified Ag Strategies” — April 2013, New York, NY.

Boston Seafood — March 2013, Boston, MA.

Global AgInvesting, “Diversified Ag Strategies” — December 2012, London, UK.

Global AgInvesting, “Liquid Ag Investing Strategies" — April 2012, New York, NY.

International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, Australian Chapter — February 2012, Sydney, Australia.

Agriculture Investment Summit for the Americas — October 2011, Miami, FL.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Conference, "Recognizing Risk in Global Agriculture" — July 2011, Kansas City, MO.

Global Ag Investing, “Understanding where each sub-sector is in the Ag Industry” — May 2011, Chicago, IL.

National Conference for Agribusiness — November 2010, West Lafayette, IN.

Milken Institute Global Conference, "Shaping the Future" — April, 2010, Los Angeles, CA.

Articles

AGR Partners investing in ag from new Chicago office (Ag Professional, November 17, 2015)

Equity firm looks to produce investments (The Packer, November 12, 2015)

Slow supply growth raises ‘peak salmon’ fears (Financial Times, February 2014)

US private equity execs travel to Chile with $100m for salmon deals (Undercurrents, August 2013)

AGR purchases 19.5% stake in Ridley Corp. (Feedstuffs, May 2013)

Sustainable Agriculture Investor Sees Opportunity in Alternative Protein Sources (Seedstock, March 26, 2012)

Betting on World Agriculture, US Private Equity Managers Eye Agricultural Returns, The Oakland Institute, 2012

NFP Launches Dialogue on Food and Agriculture (Farm Foundation, September 2011)

Agriculture 2.0 Global Investments, "Ag Chat Wednesdays" — In this “Ag Chat Podcast", Ejnar explains why we’re at the early stages of a massive agriculture market reset – in step with an iterative, 38-year cycle. Transcript also available.