Food Bank names new CEO

The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network announced the hiring of Lawrence Zippin as its new chief executive officer on Tuesday.

Zippin comes to the Food Bank having extensive, senior executive management experience in the nonprofit sector. In his most recent role, Zippin served as president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association Central and Western Virginia chapter in Charlottesville from 2002 to 2006. Prior to that, Zippin worked as an independent management consultant to not-for-profit organizations in Charlottesville and Washington, D.C.; served as interim executive director for the National Network for Youth in Washington, D.C.; and was the president of the Association for Jewish Aging Services for six years in Washington., D.C. In addition, Zippin spent 25 years at the American Insurance Association in several senior-level management roles and three years working as a management analyst for NASA.

“We are pleased to be bringing in a CEO who will use his proven leadership, visioning, strategic expertise and experience to help us as we strive to meet the ever-increasing challenge of reaching more of the food-insecure children and adults within our Network,” said Steven D. Brown, chairman and chief governance officer of the Board of Directors. “The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network team is on the right track, feeding more people this year than we ever have in our 27-year history. We’re looking forward to Larry building on the spirit of excellence and continuing to lead the organization in a way that will allow us to meet the growing need.”

“I am privileged and honored at the opportunity to join the award-winning team of the top food bank in the nation and look forward to leading it to even greater success in eliminating the scourge of hunger in our 25 counties and nine cities,” Zippin said. “My commitment to eliminating the horrors of hunger might best be expressed by paraphrasing Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel: ‘As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame.’ One organization can make a difference. I want the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to be that organization!”

Zippin received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and a MPA from New York University’s Graduate School of Public Administration.