As Vice President of Sales, East Coast & Director of the Grape Category, Josh Leichter coordinates the sales and marketing force in Oppenheimer's Eastern offices - including Wilmington, DE, Chicago, IL and Tampa, FL and is responsible for the go-to-market approach for our grape category. He reports to Vice President, East Coast Gerry Smirniotis.

Josh joined our company in June 2002 as a sales representative in the Los Angeles office. He was promoted to East Coast director of sales in September 2005, and relocated to Wilmington later that year with his wife Nancy. Josh was promoted to his current position in January 2010.

In his time with us, Josh has successfully forged and strengthened business relationships with retailers, suppliers, and interdepartmentally within our own company. He managed supply and built demand for our Mexican greenhouse vegetables and for premium air-shipped berries and stone fruit from Chile and New Zealand. Additionally, Josh is key account manager for a popular organics and specialty retailer, known for product innovation and exacting quality standards.

With an agri-business degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Josh has close to 15 years of produce industry experience. He began his career with C.H. Robinson Co., Eden Prairie, MN. From there, he went on to work as a broker / sales representative for F.P.D. Inc., Sherman Oaks, CA, and then to the high tech food distribution sector in technical sales / project management for World Commerce Online (WCO), Orlando, FL, before joining Oppenheimer.