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The First Business School Dedicated to Food Entrepreneurship and Innovation Announces Inaugural Programs and Faculty Roster

Media Contact:

Dana Smith
Dadascope Communications
510-682-3141
dana@dadascope.com

St. Helena, CA – The Food Business School (FBS), the new center for executive education of The Culinary Institute of America, today opened registration for its Spring 2015 session and announced a suite of innovative educational programs taught by expert faculty. The first business school dedicated to food entrepreneurship and innovation, FBS offers knowledge, practical skills, and an extensive network to support a diverse range of innovators, including executives, recent graduates, and mid-career explorers. It is led by FBS Dean and Executive Director William Rosenzweig, an industry-leading food entrepreneur, investor, and educator.

“The Culinary Institute of America has a long history of educating and supporting the world’s leading chefs, tastemakers, and foodservice innovators,” said CIA President Dr. Tim Ryan. “The Food Business School represents a strategic extension of our college’s unique capabilities and resources to serve a broader and vital constituency of students and future leaders committed to transforming the world through food.”

At FBS, students are guided by expert faculty to implement breakthrough solutions for the most pressing challenges and opportunities within the business of food. FBS educational programs are practice-based and focus on accelerating the transformation of good ideas into successful ventures and initiatives.

Faculty for FBS’s inaugural programs include business professors from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis, as well as celebrity chefs, renowned food industry entrepreneurs, artists, and designers, including CIA alumnus Michael Chiarello ’82, Neil Grimmer, Kurt Huffman, Sarah Soule, and Emilie Baltz. FBS faculty is augmented by a network of mentors and professional partners dedicated to supporting the success of students.

“An unprecedented expansion in food industry innovation and investment, coupled with a growing urgency to address global food systems crises, offer a distinct opportunity—and challenge—to shape our food future,” said Rosenzweig. “At The Food Business School, we guide and empower food innovators at all stages of their careers to become the successful catalysts of tomorrow’s food solutions.”

The Food Business School’s classes will be offered in three formats that emphasize action-based learning, experience, and practice.

• Innovation Intensives: These three- to four-day immersive programs at CIA Greystone in the Napa Valley focus on solving the challenges that executive leaders, entrepreneurs, and aspiring food industry innovators face each day. Register today for:
  • Scale Up Your Authentic Food Business, taught by Sarah Soule, William Rosenzweig
  • From Concept to Shelf: Rapid Innovation for Packaged Goods, taught by Neil Grimmer, William Rosenzweig
  • Food Experience Design: Prototyping Everything AND the Kitchen Sink, taught by Lucas Daniels, Elizabeth Glenewinkel, Justin Rheinfrank, Adia Benson, Kyleigh Wawak
• Online Courses: Students new to the food industry gain a working understanding of the current challenges in the food system, as well as their own potential as entrepreneurial leaders. Team-based interactive challenges enable students to develop a portfolio of work to aid their career development. Coming Summer 2015.
• Venture Innovation Program (VIP): For serious entrepreneurs and innovators working to rapidly and rigorously transform good ideas into great food businesses. Multi-month program with a hybrid design (alternating on-campus and online) supports promising entrepreneurs to become inspiring and effective leaders. Offered in early 2016.

Spring courses will be held from March through June 2015. Details about fall and winter programs will be announced in May.

For more information, to join The Food Business School community, or to register for classes, visit .

About The Food Business School

The Food Business School (FBS) is the new center for executive education of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). The FBS broadens the CIA’s commitment to the future of food education and leadership by providing cutting-edge, practice-based business education to corporate professionals, recent graduates, and mid-career explorers. The mission of the FBS is to enable and empower entrepreneurial leaders to design, deliver, and lead transformative innovations that address the world’s most pressing food challenges—and its greatest business opportunities. The Food Business School is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and calls the CIA’s Greystone campus in the Napa Valley its home.

Registration is now open for FBS’s Spring 2015 session at .

About The Culinary Institute of America:

Founded in 1946, The Culinary Institute of America is the world’s premier culinary college. Dedicated to developing leaders in foodservice and hospitality, the independent, not-for-profit CIA offers master’s, bachelor’s, and associate degrees with majors in culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, food business management, hospitality management, culinary science, and applied food studies. The college also offers executive education, certificate programs, and courses for professionals and enthusiasts. Its conferences, leadership initiatives, and consulting services have made the CIA the think tank of the food industry and its worldwide network of more than 50,000 alumni includes innovators in every area of the food world. The CIA has locations in New York, California, Texas, and Singapore.

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