Dr. Tim Ryan, president of The Culinary Institute of America, has been elected to the National Restaurant Association‘s Board of Directors, the CIA announced Monday.
Ryan has served on the NRA’s Educational Foundation Board of Trustees since 2011, the same year the NRA awarded its Faces of Diversity Inspiration Award to the Institute, honoring the CIA for its El Sueño initiative at the San Antonio campus.
“I am pleased to help the industry that has given such support to the CIA and provided such great career opportunities to our graduates– myself included,” Ryan said in a news release. “I started as a minimum wage dishwasher in my teenage years, and have been amazed at the doors that the restaurant industry, a great education, and hard work have opened for me since then. I look forward to this new role and the opportunity to contribute even more to the advancement of the industry that has helped me advance.”
Ryan, who graduated from the CIA in 1977 and became its fifth president in 2001, earlier this year was named one of the 50 most powerful people in the restaurant industry by Nation’s Restaurant News in the category of “The Connectors: People who are bringing together ideas, talent, and funding in the restaurant industry.” Ryan is responsible for expanding the school’s curriculum to include more physics and chemistry, as well as the world’s first bachelor’s degrees in culinary arts management and baking and pastry arts management. During Ryan’s tenure the CIA added two campuses, in San Antonio, Texas, in 2008 and Singapore in 2010, in addition to the school’s locations in Hyde Park, N.Y. and St. Helena, Calif.
“We are honored to have Dr. Ryan join the board of the National Restaurant Association. We know Tim is dedicated to the future of our industry. His creativity and understanding of trends in foodservice, as well as his perspective as an educator, will make him a tremendous asset to the National Restaurant Association board as we address 21st century challenges,” Ken Conrad, who was made chairman of the NRA board this year, said in a news release.