For immediate release
Contact: Joey Lee, Media Relations Representative, 215-574-3840
Philadelphia — The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has appointed three new members to its Economic and Community Advisory Council (ECAC), a committee that informs the Bank’s senior leadership team about emerging issues and market conditions in the Third Federal Reserve District and nationwide. The new members are Sophia Ahmad, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Comcast’s Xfinity Consumer Services; Chef Jose Garces, Iron Chef, James Beard Award winner, entrepreneur, and food innovator; and Omar Woodard, vice president of solutions at Results for America.
Created in 2008, the ECAC is composed of up to 15 leaders representing businesses of varying sizes and in different industry sectors as well as nonprofit organizations, philanthropic organizations, academic institutions, the public sector, and organized labor. The ECAC extends partnerships with organizations from the private and public sectors and fosters greater integration and collaboration to have a broader impact on the Third Federal Reserve District and to encourage economic growth.
As executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Comcast’s Xfinity Consumer Services, Ahmad leads Xfinity’s brand marketing strategy and execution. Ahmad joined Comcast from Sky UK, where she held leadership roles in marketing and finance. She worked on the launch of NOW TV, Sky’s OTT streaming service, the acquisitions of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, and Sky’s Operating Efficiency program. Most recently, she led the Sky mobile business unit, which became the United Kingdom’s fastest-growing mobile network. Prior to joining Sky UK, Ahmad served as an audit associate at Ernst & Young in London.
Garces is known as a leading culinary authority of Spanish and Latin-American food. He is a 2009 winner of the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic award and one of eight chefs in the country to hold the title of Iron Chef. In addition, he is the author of two cookbooks, Latin Evolution and The Latin Road Home.
To help provide ongoing and actionable assistance to the immigrant community in Philadelphia, Garces cofounded the Garces Foundation in 2011. The foundation provides services such as community health days, English language skills classes that target the restaurant industry, and food supplies to the food insecure.
As vice president of solutions at Results for America, Woodard advises state and local government leaders on using data and evidence in policymaking and supports collaborative, community-led efforts across the U.S. to accelerate economic mobility. Before joining Results for America, Woodard spent nearly a decade in venture philanthropy as executive director of GreenLight Fund Philadelphia and principal at Venture Philanthropy Partners. Earlier in his career, Woodard specialized in government affairs as a registered federal lobbyist, policy director to the Pennsylvania State Senate minority whip, and policy director to a Philadelphia mayoral campaign. He started his career on Capitol Hill as an urban policy aide to a U.S. congressman and appropriator.
He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology, and the Independence Public Media Foundation.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia helps formulate and implement monetary policy, supervises state member banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies, and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. It is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serves eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.