Specialty Coffee Association Names Six Board of Directors Candidates

The current slate of candidates for the Specialty Coffee Association board election. SCA image.

The Specialty Coffee Association today announced a slate of six candidates to potentially fill the six open spots on the group’s 18-member board of directors. Other candidates may be added through a petition process prior to the election, voting for which takes place throughout the month of November via an online voting portal or through paper ballots by request.

The six candidates selected from dozens of applications reviewed by the SCA’s nominating committee are, in alphabetical order by last name:

• Burak Alici, founder and CEO of the New York City-based investment firm QVIDTVM;
• Konstantinos Konstantinopoulos, CEO of the 400+ location coffee shop chain Coffee Island, based in Greece;
• Paul Macek, vice president of programs for the Washington D.C.-based World Cocoa Foundation;
• David Piza, director of national accounts for the North Carolina-based full-service roasting company S&D Coffee & Tea;
• Sarina Prabasi, author of “The Coffeehouse Resistance” and co-founder of the New York City-based, Ethiopia-coffee-focused independent chain Buunni Coffee;
• and Doreen Zankowski, a partner in the Philadelphia-based law firm Duane Morris LLP and co-owner/operator of the Hawaiian coffee-producing and roasting company Kope Kabana.

Barring additional candidates via petition, all six coffee professionals will become volunteer board members, occupying two-year terms beginning January 1, 2020. Candidates seeking to enter the election through the petition process must be existing SCA members and must collect 100 approved signatures from other SCA members by the Sept. 30 deadline.

Additional information about each of the existing candidates, the petition process and the voting process for SCA members can be found at the organization’s elections page.