Exec suspended, Beyond Meat says
The chief operating officer of Beyond Meat has been suspended by the company after he was charged with felony battery after a fight in Fayetteville in which police say he bit a man's nose.
In a release Tuesday afternoon, El Segundo, Calif.-based Beyond Meat said its COO Doug Ramsey has been suspended immediately and operations activities will be handled by Jonathan Nelson, senior vice president, manufacturing operations.
Police also charged Ramsey, 53, with making a terroristic threat after the attack in a parking garage Saturday at Fayetteville. Ramsey had spent more than 30 years at Springdale-based Tyson Foods before joining Beyond Meat Inc. as its chief operating officer late last year.
Tyson Foods was an investor in Beyond Meat but sold its stake in 2019 just before Beyond Meat's initial public offering and began to develop its own alternative protein products.
Shares of Beyond Meat closed at $15.90, down 13 cents or less than 1% in trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq.
-- John Magsam
Business luncheon planned for Oct. 27
The release of the State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report and the annual Business Analysis Luncheon have been scheduled for Oct. 27, according to a Wednesday news release.
Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, will discuss new economic data for the nation, Arkansas, and Northwest Arkansas, the Federal Reserve's current monetary policy, inflation, lingering effects of the pandemic and other issues.
The Business Analysis Luncheon begins at 11:45 a.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fayetteville, with networking starting at 11 a.m. The cost of the program is $50 and registration by Oct. 21 is required. More information and registration is available at the Quarterly Business Analysis website -- for other registration options call (479) 575-4151.
The report is the result of a collaboration between the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas Council.
-- John Magsam
6.05 drop leaves index at 755.94
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Wednesday at 755.94, down 6.05.
"Equities slid in afternoon trading following the anticipated [Federal Reserve] decision to raise interest rates by 75 basis points as projections for rates by year-end were raised by Federal Reserve officials to 4.4%," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.