Cindy McCain

Cindy Lou McCain (née Hensley; born May 20, 1954) is an American diplomat, businesswoman, and humanitarian who is the executive director of the World Food Programme. McCain previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2021 to 2023. She is the widow of U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona, who was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

McCain was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a daughter of wealthy beer distributor Jim Hensley. After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California, she became a special education teacher. She married John McCain in 1980. The couple moved to Arizona in 1981, and John McCain was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives the following year. The couple had three children together, in addition to adopting another. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and reelected several more times. From 1988 to 1995, Cindy McCain operated a nonprofit organization, the American Voluntary Medical Team, which organized trips by medical personnel to disaster-stricken or war-torn third-world areas.

Upon her father's death in 2000, McCain inherited majority control and became chair of Hensley & Co., one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States. She participated in her husband's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. She continued to be an active philanthropist and served on the boards of Operation Smile, Eastern Congo Initiative, CARE, and HALO Trust, frequently making overseas trips in conjunction with their activities. During the 2010s, she became prominent in the fight against human trafficking. Her husband died in 2018.

A Republican, McCain made a cross-party endorsement of Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election. She was nominated to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture ambassadorship by President Biden in June 2021 and was confirmed by the Senate in October 2021. Much of her tenure in that position focused on the 2022–2023 food crises largely caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change on agriculture. United Nations officials appointed her as executive director of the World Food Programme in March 2023, and her efforts in that role have revolved around the humanitarian impact of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks. In February 2026, she announced that she would soon be stepping down from the post due to health reasons.