Project Angel Food promotes Richard Ayoub to CEO

Project Angel Food’s executive director Richard Ayoub announced his promotion to CEO of the charitable nonprofit organization Thursday.

Ayoub made the announcement via Facebook live as he marked his 6th anniversary delivering meals to people suffering from life-threatening illnesses and others in needs.

He stressed that Project Angel Food’s volunteer program and kitchen are back in operation and in need of volunteers, especially as Thanksgiving approaches. You can sign up here or contact them at volunteers@angelfood.org.

Richard Ayoub brings 20+ years of management and leadership experience to Project Angel Food. While having a rich and thriving career in television and digital media, Richard has always juggled his entertainment work with his passion to help the underdog.

Richard has always led with his heart. He began his philanthropic activities at the age of 19, when he led a fundraising effort in his hometown of El Paso to send a local elite level gymnast to the Olympics. Through the years, he was a top fundraiser for APLA’s AIDS Marathon and was on the board of The Trevor Project for seven years helping grow the annual budget from $600,000 to $6 million. In 2001, Richard founded Friends of Lockwood, a grassroots group of friends that adopted an elementary school in an economically depressed area of Hollywood.

Richard’s entertainment career is capped by two Emmys and multiple other awards for journalistic excellence. He’s run newsrooms in Texas, Arizona, Florida and Los Angeles, California. Richard has also developed tremendous celebrity relationships and has provided media coaching for many TV personalities. As Senior Supervising Producer of the entertainment news show “Extra” for seven years, he developed several series that later turned into successful TV shows.

Richard is also a master at startups and is excellent at creating a cultural shift. He was lured to ManiaTV!, the world’s first live online TV network, to serve as Executive Vice President of Programming, he is the founder of the successful TV brand “CyberGuy,” he and partnered with Jay McGraw (Dr. Phil’s son) to start the anti-tabloid entertainment website, RumorFix.

When asked why Richard would step away from entertainment to lead Project Angel Food as Executive Director, he said, “I received the call. And I answered it.”