George Chavel
George Chavel is president and chief executive officer of Sodexo North America. Sodexo, with 2010 revenues of $7.9 billion, is a leading integrated food and facilities management services company specializing in corporate, health care, education, and government markets in the US, Canada, and Mexico. With headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Sodexo employs 120,000 people in the company’s six business lines serving more than 6,000 clients and ten million customers daily. Mr. Chavel also serves on the global Sodexo Executive Committee as a group chief operating officer and is a member of the worldwide Operating Committee that represents 80 countries.
A strong advocate of training and development opportunities for employees and building diverse and inclusive workplaces, Mr. Chavel joined Sodexo in 1991 and has held a wide range of leadership positions including vice president of the Hospitals/Acute Care division and chief operating officer and Health Care Market president of Sodexo North America. Prior to joining Sodexo, Mr. Chavel spent seven years in the restaurant franchising industry. He began his professional career with Arthur Andersen.
Mr. Chavel is a former board member of the National Committee for Quality Health Care (NCQHC) and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL). He currently chairs the Sodexo Diversity Leadership Council, is a member of the Albion College Board of Trustees and serves on the boards of the Hispanic College Fund, the Maryland Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, and the Sodexo Foundation, the charitable arm of Sodexo, Inc. whose mission is to end hunger in America.
A native of Michigan, Mr. Chavel graduated from Albion College, in Albion, Michigan with a bachelor of arts in Economics and Management.
