The McLean, Virginia-headquartered American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) has hired Alison Bodor as its new president and chief executive officer. She will assume the position on May 16, taking over from Joseph Clayton. He stepped in as interim president after the trade association’s former chief executive, Kraig R. Naasz, left at the end of 2015 to head up the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
Bodor recently served as executive vice president of the National Confectioner’s Association (NCA), where she provided strategic leadership across multiple disciplines while directly leading the organization’s public policy and advocacy team. Prior to joining NCA in 2000, she held positions in domestic and international regulatory compliance at McCormick & Company and the US Dairy Export Council.
“I am extremely excited to welcome Alison to AFFI, and believe her extensive public policy and leadership experience will further strengthen our efforts on behalf of the frozen food and beverage community,” said Larry Cope, chairman of the AFFI’s board of directors. “She joins us at a critical time. Nutrition, food safety, food labeling and international trade remain active policy and regulatory issues of vital importance to our membership. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is readying to implement and enforce a host of new complex federal rules, requirements, procedures and powers under the Food Safety Modernization Act. Our industry is also anxiously awaiting FDA’s response to a series of highly publicized Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) and other foodborne illness outbreaks.”
Cope added: “In addition to the regulatory and policy work that lies ahead, AFFI continues to engage and educate consumers and key influencers about the benefits of our products and the important economic role we play within the US economy. With so much critical work to be done, it is of great importance that we have a strong leader who is able to build off the Institute’s previous successes and position AFFI to advance our industry’s policy, regulatory and education initiatives.”
Bodor holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a BS in Food Science from Cornell University.
