MEET
TheTeam
Steve Dill
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Aleyda Esteve
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Niurka Vanderhosrt
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Don Barnes
President
Don graduated from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has over 25 years of tortilla production experience. He started Barnes Foods (Pepito Tortillas) in 1992 which became the 2nd largest tortilla brand on the East Coast by 1999. Don sold the company to Mission Foods and became the VP of Eastern Region for Mission Foods handling all manufacturing, distribution and sales. Don left the industry to purse other interests and returned to the tortilla business in 2008 when he started ALTA Foods LLC.
Brianna Palmer
Director of Marketing
Brianna graduated from James Madison University with an education in public relations and creative advertising. She has done advertising work for a large tech company in Reston, VA., PR work for a boutique in Harrisonburg, VA., and social media work for apartment complexes and restaurants in the D.C. area. Brianna is excited to be joining the ALTA Foods team and learning more about the food industry!
Allen Lydick
Director of Sales Retail
Allen graduated from Wake Forest University and has extensive retail background covering over 40 years. He started in the tortilla business with Don in 1996-2001 selling the Pepito brans at retail and Walmart. Allen reentered the tortilla business with Don in 2008 selling retail national accounts and distributors on Celia's and private label Programs. He has a long history of working with national accounts in branded and private label in multiple categories.
Steve Dill
Director of Food Service Sales
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Steve has worked extensively in kitchens for restaurants, hotels, country clubs, gourmet retail and catering including an apprenticeship at Restaurant Lucas-Carton in Paris France. In addition to his strong back of the house education he has worked in food sales for over 20 years – all selling tortillas.