People on the Move: Gulf Oil, Shop24 & NRC Realty
NATIONAL REPORT — Retailers, wholesalers and suppliers in the convenience store industry are only as good as their management teams and employees. In this special roundup, CSNews Online runs down the most recent executive changes, new hires, promotions and people achievements happening in the industry.
Gulf Oil LP
Two industry veterans, Christopher Gannon and Careyann Robleski-Chmelik, joined the Gulf Oil team. Focused on the South and Midwest regions, the new account managers bring expertise, area contacts and focused energy to accelerate the company’s growth in these key markets.
Gannon, senior account manager for the South region, is focused on business development and expansion efforts across the southern states of Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri. He brings more than 15 years of experience in the industry to the Gulf team, including management positions with brands such as Getty, Apache Oil and Lukoil North America.
Robleski-Chmelik, account manager for the Midwest region, joins Gulf with more than 12 years of industry experience, most recently with Capra Consulting Group, where she focused on technology, payment, security and loyalty solutions for the firm’s petroleum and c-store clients. She will draw on this experience on behalf of Gulf Oil in Midwest states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Kretek International Inc.
Kretek International added five key account sales managers in the Central and Northeast regions, and announced new headquarters sales roles. The company is importer and marketer of Djarum and Cuban Rounds cigars, Voodoo and EZ Cig e-vapor products, DjEEP lighters, Nuvino wines and VirMax male performance products.
The new sales managers will focus on serving distributors and retail headquarters in their territories. They are: Mark Ford, Central region key account manager serving Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas; Kevin Klyszek, Central region key account manager serving Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan; Cheryl Stinchfield, Central region key account manager serving Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin; Kevin Malloy, Northeast region key account manager serving Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont; and Kevin Dunn, Northeast region key account manager serving Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.
Additionally, Kretek promoted Rick Sherlock to inside sales manager, Patty Nuno to sales supervisor, and Louie Lerma to customer account manager for the Southeast region; and added Britany Kane to the new position of business development manager.
Mars Inc.
Todd Lachman, current president of Mars Global Petcare, has decided to leave the company at the end of 2014 to relocate his family to San Francisco. He has been with Mars for eight years, first leading the Chocolate North America and Latin America business before moving into the lead role of the Mars Global Petcare business.
Poul Weihrauch will become president of Mars Global Petcare, effective Jan 1. He is currently global president of Mars Food. He also has accountability for Mars Drinks and European Multisales. Weihrauch joined Mars in 2000 after six years with Nestle.
Fiona Dawson, regional president of Chocolate UK and Global Retail, will step into the role vacated by Weihrauch. Dawson began her Mars career in sales in 1988 as a graduate trainee. After many years in Multisales in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium, she became head of the UK Chocolate business in 2005 and has since added responsibility of the Mars Retail Group.
In addition, Andrew Clarke, currently regional president of Petcare for Latin America, will become Mars' new chief customer officer and a member of the Mars leadership team, effective Feb. 15. He will be responsible for driving strategic initiatives related to customers.
Bruce McColl, Mars’ chief marketing officer, is also being made a member of the leadership team. He joined Mars in 1992 in Australia as a brand manager. Over his 22 years in marketing at Mars, McColl has worked across Mars’ business brands, categories and geographies.
NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC
Two prominent convenience store industry professionals, Jeff Kramer and Thomas H. Wilky, joined NRC Realty & Capital Advisors as managing directors.
Kramer brings more than 30 years of experience in petroleum and convenience store retailing, as well as extensive experience in refining, wholesaling and distribution. His most recent experience was as managing member and CEO of Prima Marketing LLC, owner and operator of 89 7-Eleven convenience stores in the eastern United States. Most of these locations were sold to 7-Eleven Inc. in 2012, with the assistance of NRC.
Wilky has nearly 30 years of marketing, operations and leadership experience, most recently as founder of Southwest Pacific Partners, an investment advisory and marketing consulting firm that was formed to make strategic investments and facilitate financial transactions in the retail convenience store, energy and the outdoor apparel industries.
Both Kramer and Wilky will focus primarily on new business development.
Shop24 Global LLC
Westerville, Ohio-based Shop24 Global appointed David Brotherton as vice president of marketing and business development. In this new role, he will focus on several interrelated objectives including further defining and activating the Shop24 brand; refining store location selection and selling processes; developing Shop24's CRM capabilities; increasing same-store revenue; and optimizing the category management function.
Brotherton comes to Shop24 from Bob Evans Farms where he was a senior brand manager responsible for marketing and managing Bob Evans consumer packaged goods product portfolio.