<p><strong>EAGLE, ID</strong> - Midwest retail promotion director Larry Whiteside has spent 22 years with Idaho Potato Commission playing up the power and taste of the Idaho Potato preference. Mr. Whiteside will be leaving the industry, retiring at the end of December. At 21-years-old, as a college student in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Whiteside landed a job in the produce department of a local Safeway. After 21 years with the company, making his way up the management ladder in Omaha, Neb., Dallas and Salt Lake City, Mr. Whiteside interviewed for a retail promotion director position at IPC where he relocated to the Kansas City area to keep up his Tulsa ties.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “It was an advantage to be able to sit down and discuss potatoes or basically any commodity with produce buyers and directors,” Mr. Whiteside says. “I had the experience of having sat in their chair as a buyer, as a merchandising manager, and I know what they’re going through on a day-to-day basis in their operation—buying, selecting items for ads, merchandising.” One of Larry Whiteside's most treasured facets of the job has been meeting people and getting to know them. The personal relationships he has made throughout the industry have been a priceless aspect of his career in the business. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>www.idahopotato.com</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
