Art Froehlich grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm near Rhein, Saskatchewan, and decided early that agriculture would be his work. A career that has taken him to close to 50 countries has had him running companies, backing start-ups and sitting on boards that shape how Alberta grows and exports food. He was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2022.
4-H shaped his childhood
Froehlich was born on December 7, 1953, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, the eldest of five children. His father John had emigrated from Germany in 1950 and met his mother Evelyn soon after, and both became 4-H leaders. Art joined the Yorkton Multiple Project Club at age 10 and met Shirley Benjamin at a 4-H beef show. They married in 1974. He studied soil science at the University of Saskatchewan.
A scholarship set a global course
A four-month 4-H study scholarship sent him to the United Kingdom to intern with companies owned by shipping magnate Peter Dalgliesh. He went on to roles that included Director of Sales and Marketing at Hoechst Canada, General Manager of Operations at Alberta Pool and President of Westcan Malting. He completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School in 1993, and has invested in more than a dozen agriculture, food and biological sciences start-ups.
AdFarm and the boards came after
Froehlich became president of AdFarm, the Calgary agricultural marketing communications company, in 2000. His Alberta Order of Excellence profile lists board service with the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Genome Alberta, Ag-West Bio and ATB Financial. He was the first Thought Leader in Smart Agriculture at Olds College. His volunteer work includes soil remediation research after Chernobyl, food audits for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and advice to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on using plants to stabilize eroding soils and waterways.
His foundation reaches from Calgary to Peru
The Froehlich Family Foundation supports social agencies across Alberta and Canada, and helped create and sustain the Manchay Gardening School near Lima, Peru, where women learn to grow vegetables in dry, difficult ground. Four hundred women have graduated from the six-month program. Froehlich received the Distinguished Agrologist Award and the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005, entered Alberta’s Bioindustry Hall of Fame in 2012, received an honorary degree from Olds College in 2014 and the Rotary Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2022. He and Shirley have two children, Lindsay and Robert, and two grandchildren.
