Whitaker said: “It was a difficult decision, but I felt the time was right for me to focus on my family more and give additional time to my own business projects. I am still continuing with my responsibilities as a CEDA board director by contributing to Marketing and Education initiatives.
“As a team all the CEDA board directors and employees have worked together making considerable and dynamic changes to the association. These changes will continue into the future making a positive difference to CEDA members, partners and of course the customers that we serve.”
Kevin Davis will now take up the position of CEDA vice-chairman and the board has two openings for vice-chairman posts for the Northern and Southern regions.
Jack Sharkey, CEDA chairman, said: “Kevin takes over from Vita as we move up another gear with Adam Mason as our new director general working on developing member and partner benefits and raising our profile across the foodservice industry.
“We are all working hard to deliver a new website for early 2015 and an exciting annual conference on April 23-24th.”
The changes also see Catering Design Group’s managing director Philip Howard joining the CEDA board.
CEDA represents almost 100 catering equipment distributors in the UK and also partners with catering equipment manufacturers.