Jan DeLyser: A career of leadership and service to her employers and the industry

Jan DeLyser is quick to credit those women who came before her and blazed the trail that she then followed to an elevated 47-year career in the fresh produce industry. She retired from the California Avocado Commission on Feb. 15 after 25 years with CAC. DeLyser has had a stellar professional career and has been a very visible member of the industry as a volunteer leader in numerous organizations.

“I was often the second woman to serve in various positions,” said DeLyser, speaking of such lofty slots as being the second woman in its history to lead the Produce Marketing Association (now the International Fresh Produce Association) as its chair, which she did in 2012-13.

“I credit a couple of different opportunities I had when I was younger,” she said. “Softball gave me the opportunity to play a team sport, which helped me understand the importance of team in whatever you do.”

She also recalled being a lifeguard at the local pool during her high school years. As she progressed in that job, DeLyser was promoted to a higher position, managing people older than she was. “That was a great leadership opportunity that taught me many valuable lessons.”

She also recalled that working at the National Music Camp in Interlocken, MI, during the summers while at college was another great learning experience. “I started out as a camp counselor for a group of 14-year-old-girls,” she said. “I learned a lot of leadership skills in that role.”

Finally, she credited her parents for teaching her skills and ingraining a work ethic that has been a standard of her career. Her late father, John Noyce, was an insurance executive. “I learned a lot from him… mostly about people and the art of getting along.” Her mother, Ruth Noyce, went back to college with five kids in school, earning a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. in education, obviously being a great role model to emulate. Doc, as she is affectionately called by her grandchildren, taught for more than 20 years.

DeLyser joined the Fresh Produce Council (now Fresh Produce & Floral Council) as the advertising sales representative in 1979 and became its top staff person as executive director in 1981. She spent a dozen years with the FPFC. After departing the council, DeLyser worked for Sun World International and Westlake Produce Inc. before joining CAC in 1998.

“I never had a specific plan or goal of reaching a particular position,” she said. “Each stop led to the next one.”

In fact, while at the FPFC, DeLyser achieved the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential and believed she might lead the council for the rest of her career. “I became the manager of the FPFC when I was only 28,” she said. “It was Bob Carey of PMA who advised me to take the CAE courses. In fact, it was my mother who recommended that I look for a credentialed program in my field rather than go back to school and get my master’s. That was a turning point. There are 15 different components of CAE. I learned a lot.”

Her move from association work to private produce companies came by happenchance. “I was approaching 40 and Sun World came knocking at my door offering an opportunity to get into the game. I figured it was now or never. Mike Aiton and David Marguleas convinced me to join their team after being very persistent.”

The next stop was Westlake Distributors where Dale Liefer was attempting to build a marketing team. “They were a little ahead of their time, but it was a great learning experience. I handled sales of specific items and was also back up to many of the other salespeople.”

Her final stop in her produce career came a bit later when she joined the California Avocado Commission as merchandising director for the Southwest region in 1998. Two years later, she was promoted to vice president of merchandising and then to vice president of marketing in 2003.

DeLyser did not expect CAC to be her last stop. “I figured I would stay there two to three years before moving on, but the commission far exceeded my expectations.”

She has had a front-row seat to the amazing growth that the avocado has achieved over the last two decades and has been instrumental in helping to create a premium position for the California avocado as it saw its market share drop with the ever-increasing imports from Mexico and South America. “Over the years I entertained other offers, but I liked what I was doing, and I got great support from the CAC staff and the commission,” she said, in explaining her long tenure with the organization.

In assessing her career, DeLyser has a list of people that she counts as mentors and friends who guided her along her path. “I have to start with Frieda Caplan, who paved the way for so many women in our industry. She was a great mentor and a great friend.”

DeLyser said early in her career FPFC board members Barbara Robison of Sunkist and Pat Caird of Por La Mar Nursery were successful women in produce who were very important in her development.

“And there were many men, including Joel Nelsen, who hired me at the FPFC,” she said.

In more recent years, DeLyser said she has developed great rapport with industry leaders such as Marty Craner of B&C Fresh Sales and Cathy Burns of the International Fresh Produce Association. “Both of those women are incredible leaders and incredible friends.”

Today, DeLyser gets great enjoyment looking around the room at virtually any produce industry event and seeing more women than she can count. “There used to be only a couple in the room and now there is a line at the women’s restroom,” she quipped.

During her career, DeLyser served on the board of directors of the United Fresh Produce Association (now merged as the International Fresh Produce Association). Recently, she has been serving on the IFPA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, representing CAC on the Buy California Marketing Agreement as a board member, and is a member of the Brighter Bites Los Angeles committee. A former chair of the Produce for Better Health Foundation and the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, DeLyser was appointed to the California State Polytechnic University Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture Dean’s Advisory Council in May 2021.

Awards and accolades have followed from her years of marketing excellence and contributions to the industry. Honors she received include the 2016 Robert L. Carey Leadership Award at PMA’s Fresh Summit in Orlando, FL; 2013 Award of Honor from the California Avocado Society; 2007 Women in Produce Award of Excellence by UFPA; and the 2003 Southern California Produce Achievement Award by the Fresh Produce & Floral Council.

DeLyser has no set plans for retirement but said the timing is right and she does expect to split her time between the California desert and the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and Wisconsin, which has been a favorite vacation spot since she was a child. DeLyser said she has the great pleasure every summer of accompanying her 96-year-old mother to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, which is where the family matriarch was born.

She and her husband, Duane, have two daughters, Carrie and Sally, and two grandchildren: “Connor, who will be 6 in April, and Makenna, who is three-and-a-half years old,” she said.