Murray Wise

Mr. Wise joined the Board of Directors following FPI’s acquisition of Murray Wise Associates, LLC in November 2021. With more than 40 years of experience in global agriculture and land markets, Mr. Wise pioneered the notion of agriculture as an investable asset class and built a core client group of institutional investors and pension funds. He founded Westchester Group, Inc. in 1986 after acquiring the Champaign, IL division of the Sandage Companies, transforming it from a small farmland investment firm into an industry-leading agricultural land asset management company. In 2010, Mr. Wise and the team sold the agricultural asset management division of the company to TIAA-CREF. The Iowa farm real estate and management office, MWA Capital, and the land auction division of Westchester Group, Inc. subsequently became Murray Wise Associates, LLC.

Mr. Wise attended Iowa State University, receiving a B.S. in Agriculture before returning to Southern Ontario to continue farming at the onset of his career. He also received an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois and an honorary degree from Parkland College. Mr. Wise has written two books about investing in farmland, and he has been a guest speaker at Iowa State University, University of Illinois, Purdue University, and Parkland College. In 1998, he founded the Murray Wise Foundation, which provides scholarships to students studying agriculture in higher education.