The Culinary Institute of America has elected Anne Fink, President of Global Foodservice at PepsiCo, as its 24th board chair — putting one of the industry's most senior foodservice executives at the governance table of the institution that has trained nearly 60,000 food and beverage professionals since 1946. The appointment is effective immediately and follows Fink's seven years as a CIA trustee.
Fink succeeds Marc Sarrazin, president and CEO of DeBragga, who chaired the board since 2024. Her move into the chair role comes as the CIA enters its ninth decade and, by CIA President Michiel Bakker's own framing, is actively rethinking what food, beverage, and hospitality education looks like going forward — a signal that the institution's strategic direction will be shaped by operators and suppliers, not just academics.
New Trustees Signal Priorities
Alongside Fink's elevation, the CIA added two trustees whose backgrounds map directly to the pressures operators are navigating right now. Cindy McLoughlin, managing partner of the Consumer, Hospitality, and Manufacturing Practice at CohnReznick, brings more than 25 years advising restaurant and hospitality brands on capital transactions, growth strategy, and operational performance — exactly the kind of counsel relevant to a moment when independent operators are under margin pressure and mid-market brands are actively seeking private equity partnerships.
Ahmad Popal, Senior Vice President of Food Innovation and Customer Experience at Ventura Foods, rounds out the new appointments. His scope — marketing, product development, culinary, and digital transformation for restaurant and retail clients — reflects the growing convergence of food innovation and customer experience technology that is reshaping procurement and menu development across the industry.
What This Signals for Operators
The CIA's board composition has always functioned as a loose proxy for where institutional capital and talent in the food industry are flowing. A board that now includes a Fortune 50 foodservice president, a restaurant-sector PE advisor, and a senior food-innovation executive at a major ingredients supplier is a board oriented toward the commercial realities of foodservice at scale — not just culinary craft.
For operators evaluating talent pipelines and workforce development partnerships, the CIA's governance shift matters. When the institution that produces a significant share of working culinary professionals is being steered by executives embedded in global foodservice supply chains and restaurant finance, expect the curriculum and executive education programming to tilt further toward business operations, food innovation, and scalable concepts — the same competencies operators say are hardest to hire for.
For suppliers and brands tracking institutional partnerships and distribution relationships, Fink's PepsiCo perch is worth noting. PepsiCo's Global Foodservice division operates at the intersection of branded beverage, snack, and foodservice channel strategy — and the CIA's nearly 60,000-strong alumni network represents a meaningful professional audience for any supplier trying to build durable channel presence.
The board now stands at 23 trustees. All serve without compensation.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
