Faces of Ace: Rod Moyer

November 30, 2021

 A few years ago, we introduced our series, “Faces of Ace,” to help customers and vendors get to know the team at Ace better—who we are, why we love being a part of the natural foods world, what we do when we aren’t working, and the recipes we cook while relaxing at home. We profiled CEO Tor Newman, COO Alberto Gonzalez, Director of Procurement Kathy Lavigne-Gonzalez and Truck Driver Keymen Gonzalez, Ace’s late founder Larry Vierling, and many others. Now, a few years later, we’re bringing “Faces of Ace” back in order to introduce more of our awesome team members. This month, we chatted with Ace’s Director of Sales, Rod Moyer, about his sweet cats, his love of basketball, and macrobiotic cooking. Keep reading!

“I’m kind of a wanna-be New Yorker, but I grew up in and around Philly,” says Rod, who originally joined Ace as a part-time consultant five years ago, and began commuting to the city a few days a week. In July of 2019, he joined the Ace team full-time as Director of Sales and began renting an apartment in New Rochelle. But when the novel coronavirus forced the Ace offices to close, Rod left New York and began working remotely from his home in Delaware.

In terms of hobbies, Rod can often be found on the basketball court. “I’m passionate about basketball,” says Rod. “I’m not actively coaching now, but I still play and I consider myself a coach. I also compete every two years in the National Senior Games, sometimes called the Senior Olympics. And my team is very good. I have great teammates.”

Rod also likes to spend time with his two cats, Khaleesa and Matilda. “They’re amazing cats. I was at a really low, lonely point last year when Khaeeisa snuck into my basement. She was down there for three weeks and I almost starved her to death because I didn’t know she had snuck in. It was really dramatic. And then I found her on Halloween last year. So she’s been with me for a year. She’s such an amazing companion, and we’ve become great friends.”

Before working for Ace, Rod worked for large national distributors: Albert’s Organics and United Natural Foods (who acquired Albert’s). And while Rod is now a big proponent of natural food, this wasn’t always the case. “I was a cigarette-smoking, fast food-eating, child of the sixties and seventies,” remembers Rod. “In my mid-twenties, I wasn’t preparing much of my own food. I didn’t have a passion around cooking.” Then he began studying Tai chi and Kenpo, two different types of martial arts. “The community I trained with was really into natural foods. That was my first exposure and it was very, very interesting to me because even though they were into natural foods, they were just avoiding everything: no tap water, no meat, no chemicals. I was like, ‘Okay, so what do you eat?’ And they didn’t know what to eat—just not those things.” 

Rod started studying macrobiotics, which relies on a system that tells followers exactly what to eat, why they should eat those foods, and how to prepare them. This was comforting to Rod, and his interest in cooking developed from there. “I just became highly committed to food preparation—selecting and preparing the highest quality foods. I took a job doing healing cooking for a man who was ill, and I cooked for his entire family.” That experience fostered a love of cooking that’s continued to blossom over the last 35 years. “I prepare all my own food and as much food for loved ones and family and friends as I can,” says Rod. “Not because I think there’s anything magical about my food or cooking. It’s just that I know what they’re eating most of the time! And whatever I do is a slight improvement in food quality.”

Rod has always loved sales and leadership, which he names as the two major themes of his professional expression. He says he’s lucky to have always worked for companies where he’s passionate about the products and services that they offer. As Ace’s Director of Sales, Rod says that he “loves to see the new products that we’re bringing in. Ace is great at bringing in innovative, cutting-edge, natural food items. So that’s also a real treat for me to get to try those products.”

As a self-described “old produce vet” he also gets a kick out of trying unusual fruits and veggies for the first time. “I experienced kiwi berries recently,” says Rod, “I ate this fruit for the first time and it was wonderful.” He also lists southern California mangoes, Nutty Bunny ice cream, and Plant Provision’s deli slices as other delicious products he recently enjoyed.

Because Rod has been a part of—and dedicated to—the natural foods world for so many years, we were curious what he would tell himself if he could go back fifteen years (to when he was 48) and give himself some advice from the future. “Take a hiatus from your job and career and spend two years reconnecting with my family,” says Rod after some consideration. He’d also tell his younger self to spend some time “thoughtfully reconsidering how to best express yourself in the ‘second half’ of your career.”

Thank you for helping us re-launch Faces of Ace, Rod! Readers can check back soon to meet more of the Ace team. Happy reading!