The Culinary Institute of America has elected Anne Fink, President of Global Foodservice at PepsiCo, as its 24th board chair, the Hyde Park, N.Y.-based culinary college announced Tuesday. Fink, who has served on the CIA's board of trustees since 2019, succeeds Marc Sarrazin, president and CEO of DeBragga, who had chaired the board since 2024. The CIA simultaneously announced the appointment of two new trustees, bringing total board membership to 23.
Leadership Transition
Fink's elevation comes as the not-for-profit institution, founded in 1946, moves into its ninth decade of culinary and hospitality education. Her career at PepsiCo spans general management, marketing, and operations — experience that the CIA's leadership cited as directly relevant to its mission of preparing students for industry roles in foodservice, food business management, and hospitality. The appointment signals the college's continued effort to anchor its governance in senior executives with active, large-scale industry portfolios, a strategy that strengthens both its curriculum relevance and its network of nearly 60,000 alumni.
"The CIA has historically played an important role in shaping the people and ideas that move our industry forward," Fink said. "As the CIA enters its ninth decade, there is tremendous opportunity to build on that legacy and help prepare the next generation of leaders for the future of food, foodservice, and hospitality."
Two New Trustees
The two incoming trustees extend the board's depth across advisory services and product innovation. Cindy McLoughlin joins as managing partner of the Consumer, Hospitality, and Manufacturing Practice at CohnReznick, where she advises restaurant, hospitality, and consumer businesses on growth strategies, capital transactions, and operational performance. Her more than 25 years of experience includes a focus on private equity transactions for consumer and restaurant brands — a background that could prove relevant as the CIA navigates capital decisions tied to its multi-campus footprint across New York, California, Texas, and Singapore.
Ahmad Popal comes from Ventura Foods, where he serves as senior vice president of Food Innovation and Customer Experience, overseeing marketing, product development, culinary, and customer service functions that serve restaurant and retail clients. His background in digital transformation and commercial strategy adds a technology-forward perspective to a board that must guide curriculum development in an era of rapid change across the food and beverage sector.
Governance at a Pivotal Moment
CIA President Michiel Bakker framed the appointments as central to the institution's forward planning. "Anne has demonstrated a deep commitment to our mission, and to mentoring and developing the next generation of leaders," Bakker said. "Her guidance will be vital in shaping our journey forward."
The CIA's board of trustees serves in an uncompensated capacity and provides governance oversight for the college, which offers associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees across culinary arts, food business management, hospitality, and wine and beverage management, among other disciplines. The institution also runs executive education and professional certificate programs that connect directly to foodservice industry operators and suppliers — the same constituency now represented at the board level by Fink, McLoughlin, and Popal. For the broader food and beverage industry, the board composition offers a signal of which operational and financial disciplines the CIA sees as critical to shaping the next generation of foodservice talent.
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.
