GWS 2024 Opening Session: José Andrés

The internationally recognized culinary innovator, author, educator, and humanitarian will join WERC President and CEO Anupam Singhal for a fireside chat at 10 a.m. ET on 23 October.

WERC is excited to announce that José Andrés will join us at GWS 2024 for the opening session on 23 October. 

Andrés, an award-winning celebrity chef who is often credited with bringing the tapas, or small plates, dining concept to America, is also known for his humanitarian efforts as the founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit devoted to providing meals in the wake of global disasters. Andrés immigrated to the United States in 1991 and has been widely recognized for both his culinary and humanitarian work, including by TIME magazine and the James Beard Foundation.

Following the commercial and critical success of his culinary ventures, Andrés started World Central Kitchen in 2010 to provide quality food to comfort people touched by disasters. Since its founding, World Central Kitchen has touched millions of lives by organizing meals in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Peru, Cuba, Uganda, Cambodia, in Ukraine, and in Gaza.

As the global representative association for talent mobility encompassing a set of industries that collaborate to facilitate global human movement, we are proud to have Andrés join us for an opening session this year.

WERC’s members enable the professional and strategic development of talent via this global movement, and thereby also create pathways for social mobility and global socioeconomic impact. Andrés is a living manifestation of exactly that, and his work via World Central Kitchen empowers communities and helps to strengthen economies.

JOSÉ ANDRÉS Award Winning Chef and Humanitarian

Photo credit: Josh Telles


More about José Andrés

Named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” in both 2012 and 2018 and recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, José Andrés is an internationally recognized culinary innovator, author, Emmy Award-winning television personality, humanitarian, and chef/owner of José Andrés Group.

A pioneer of Spanish tapas in the United States, he is also known for his groundbreaking avant-garde cuisine and his award-winning group of nearly three dozen restaurants located throughout the country and beyond. José Andrés Group’s concepts include the two Michelin-starred minibar by José Andrés in Washington, DC, the acclaimed NYC food hall Mercado Little Spain, and multiple locations of the Bazaar by José Andrés. He has been awarded the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Chef” and "Humanitarian of the Year” awards, and in 2023 received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Culinary Series for his show “José Andrés and Family in Spain."

Andrés is a committed advocate of food and hunger issues and is known for championing the role of chefs in the national debate on food policy. In 2010, he formed World Central Kitchen, a non-profit specializing in delivering food relief in the wake of natural and humanitarian disasters. Since serving nearly 4 million meals to the people of Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, World Central Kitchen has responded to dozens of major disasters worldwide and distributed hundreds of millions of meals in the process. A decade after he introduced his pioneering college course “The World on a Plate," Andrés launched the Global Food Institute, a partnership with George Washington University to develop innovative new food policies and train the next generation of leaders. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Spain, Andrés has been a tireless advocate for immigration reform and on July 4, 2014 was named by President Barack Obama as that year’s “Outstanding American by Choice.”


Following the conclusion of the fireside chat, the RMC Industry Trends panel will take the stage.