Conn. Food Association Names Wayne Pesce President

The Connecticut Food Association (CFA) has appointed Wayne Pesce president. He succeeds Stan Sorkin, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Before he joined the West Hartford-based association, Pesce's most recent role was VP of national retail sales at Coca-Cola, where he was responsible for Northeast supermarket customers with annual retail sales of $100 million-plus. Over the course of more than 20 years at Coca-Cola, he also worked as a route driver, district sales manager, key account manager and director of sales.

Pesce was inducted into the CFA Hall of Fame in 2013 and previously served as second vice chairman of its board of directors. He has also received the Food Industry Alliance of New York State's annual Leadership Award on several occasions.

CFA conducts programs in public affairs, food safety, research, education and industry relations for its 250 member companies, which consist of food retailers, wholesalers, distributors and service providers in the state. Collectively, the association's members operate about 300 retail food stores and 120 pharmacies.