Project Angel Food has named Arun Baheti as its first-ever Chief Operating Officer, creating a new executive leadership role to strengthen the people, systems and infrastructure behind the organization’s rapidly growing mission to provide medically tailored meals to people living with serious illness.

Baheti will report directly to CEO Richard Ayoub and oversee Project Angel Food’s core operations, including finance, human resources, facilities, technology and kitchen operations. He will also serve as the organization’s General Counsel, bringing legal and risk-management expertise to a role designed to strengthen operations across the organization.

The appointment comes during a period of extraordinary growth for Project Angel Food. Over the past decade, the organization has grown from serving approximately 1,000 people a day to 3,000, while its annual budget has increased from $3.8 million to approximately $20 million and its staff has grown from 37 employees to 122. Today, Project Angel Food serves nearly 7,800 clients annually and prepares and delivers more than 1.5 million medically tailored meals each year.

“Project Angel Food has grown tremendously, and the infrastructure behind our mission has to grow with it,” said Richard Ayoub, Chief Executive Officer of Project Angel Food. “Arun brings an extraordinary combination of operational leadership, legal expertise and experience guiding organizations through growth and change. He will be a key thought and operational partner to me and our leadership team as we build the systems that will allow us to serve more people while protecting the quality, compassion and culture that have always defined Project Angel Food.”

The creation of the COO position comes as Project Angel Food continues its most ambitious expansion in its history. The organization recently opened the first phase of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus, dramatically increasing meal-production capacity, and is moving forward with its second building, which will bring together client and nutrition services, a teaching kitchen, research and policy initiatives and additional community programming.

As COO, Baheti will work across departments to strengthen systems, support staff, manage risk, and prepare the organization for continued growth. He will work closely with kitchen leadership to develop scalable production practices while protecting Project Angel Food’s standards for quality and individualized care.

“What drew me to Project Angel Food is how directly the work touches people’s lives,” Baheti said. “Strong operations may happen behind the scenes, but here they ultimately mean that someone facing a serious illness receives the right meal at their door with care and dignity. Los Angeles is home for me, and being able to use what I’ve learned over the years to make a difference here is especially meaningful. I’m excited to work with Richard and this remarkable team to build on what Project Angel Food has accomplished and help prepare the organization for what comes next.”

Baheti brings more than two decades of executive and operational leadership across the nonprofit, philanthropic, government, technology, and civic sectors. Before joining Project Angel Food, he served as Vice President of Operations at The California Wellness Foundation, where he was a member of the executive leadership team and helped build the organizational infrastructure needed to support the foundation’s mission, growth, and statewide work. His role focused on integrating people, systems, operations, governance, and risk across the organization.

Earlier in his career, Baheti held senior leadership roles spanning nonprofit operations, technology, and government. He led operations and finance at the Writers Guild Foundation, held senior executive roles at Marshall & Swift/Bluebook and The Bluebook International, and served as California’s first Director of eGovernment in the Governor’s Office. He also consulted for Covered California during the launch of the Affordable Care Act, leading statewide outreach and field operations focused on minority and underserved communities.

Baheti is board chair of the Program for Torture Victims and serves on the advisory board of Coro Southern California. He earned a B.A. with double majors in Political Science and Science, Technology and Politics from Macalester College and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Baheti officially begins Sept. 14, although he got an early introduction to the organization by volunteering in Project Angel Food’s kitchen over Labor Day weekend, working alongside staff and volunteers preparing meals for clients.

His appointment follows Project Angel Food’s hiring in March of LaShanda Maze as its first-ever Chief Development Officer, another newly created executive leadership position. Together, the additions reflect Project Angel Food’s continued investment in the leadership structure needed to support its growing reach, expanding campus and increasing demand for medically tailored meals.