Aurelio Lopez is a lecturing instructor of Hospitality and Service Management within The Bocuse Restaurant at CIA in Hyde Park, NY, bringing more than 35 years of leadership experience in hospitality operations, restaurant management, and experiential workforce training. His career spans luxury hotels, fine dining restaurants, banquet operations, and high-volume food and beverage environments across the United States.
Lopez has held executive leadership roles with organizations including the Alain Ducasse Group, W Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Union Square Hospitality Group, and the LifeWorks Restaurant Group, where he led large-scale operational teams, restaurant openings, and service-focused organizational development initiatives. His experience includes oversight of complex hospitality environments ranging from intimate fine-dining service to large-scale events serving thousands of guests.
At CIA, Lopez brings this industry expertise into the classroom through instruction grounded in real-world application, team-based collaboration, adaptability, and professional decision-making under dynamic conditions. His teaching emphasizes the development of service-oriented leadership, operational awareness, and hospitality professionalism within immersive learning environments.
His background in hospitality operations and workforce development contributes to CIA’s important perspective of experiential learning, competency development, and professional readiness in a performance-based educational setting.
When he’s not in the kitchen or classroom, he enjoys the theater with his wife Susan and daughter Ally, finding a parking spot in midtown, coffee with Sweet ’N Low, quiet while reading the newspaper, and learning every day.