A native of southeastern Tennessee Tyler worked as a Banquet Chef at his home town Country Club while completing his undergraduate studies. Upon completing his undergraduate degree in Food Science from the University of Tennessee he moved to Moscow Idaho to complete his Masters in Food Science. Tyler moved back to the Southeast and worked for Seaboard Farms Poultry Division in one of their Further Processing Plants as a QA Supervisor where he supervised the Quality Systems of fully cooked chicken products. With a love for the outdoors and wanting to get back to the Northwest Tyler found employment in Product Development with Clear Springs Foods. With Clear Springs he worked on development of value added seafood products including nut crusted fillets, minced and breaded items targeted for the school lunch program as well as many other formed and breaded seafood items. Tyler moved from Clear Springs to Great American Appetizers where he oversaw development of numerous breaded and battered vegetable and cheese products for foodservice and retail. Products included breaded and battered onion rings, ovenable cheese sticks, jalapenos and onion rings as well as a line of twice baked and mashed potatoes.