People on the Move: Parker's, Sunoco, NCA & Eby-Brown

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, Convenience Store News runs down the most recent executive changes, new hires, promotions and people achievements happening in the industry.

Cashmaster

Cashmaster appointed Jim Stone as president of Cashmaster USA, a newly created position. He is based at the company's Orlando, Fla., headquarters. "With the release of our exciting new Cashmaster One product line, we have brought Jim onboard to grow the North American market, where we see considerable opportunity. His industry experience will be key in accelerating our growth," said Gordon McKie, CEO of Cashmaster.

Stone is an experienced technology industry veteran with more than 30 years in consulting, software and hardware in both North America and Europe. Most recently, he was vice president of marketing, North America with Tellermate, a Cashmaster competitor.

Conexxus

Conexxus, the technology standards and advocacy group, named new members to its board of directors and elected new members to its board of advisors.

Kevin Smartt, president and CEO, Kwik Chek Food Stores Inc., will continue to serve as the Conexxus board of directors chair. Also re-elected were Hubert Williams, chief information officer, Maverik Inc.; Margaret Akins, business analyst, Pilot Travel Centers LLC; Dae Kim, vice president of research, NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing; and Paige Anderson, director of government relations, NACS.

New officers elected to the board of directors are Blake Benefiel, director of trade and state relations, Altria Group Distribution Co., and Drew Mize, president, The Pinnacle Corp.

New members to the Conexxus board of advisors are:

• Vice Chair: Mike Lindberg, payment solutions director, CHS Inc. (Cenex)
• Secretary: Liz Sertl, senior manager of global strategy and standards, The Coca-Cola Co.
• Standards Quality Assurance Committee Chair: Sue Chan, senior retail payment consultant, W. Capra Consulting Group
• Technical Advisory Committee Chair: Bill Wade, senior system analyst, PDI
• Electronic Business2Business Committee Chair: Alvin Fortson, senior principal consultant, Impact 21
• POS/Back Office Committee Chair: David Ezell, principal software architect, Verifone Inc.
   

Convenience Distribution Association

Kimberly Bolin has been named president and CEO of the Convenience Distribution Association (CDA). She has been acting in the roles on an interim basis since Feb. 19.

Bolin is in her seventh year with CDA and was previously its executive vice president and was instrumental in the transformation of the association enacting the aggressive agenda put forth by the board of directors in early 2015, beginning with a name change from American Wholesale Marketers Association.

"There is no doubt that Kimberly Bolin is the right person to be president of CDA. She has the strong leadership and management skills we know are necessary to allow CDA to continue to be a leading voice in the convenience distribution industry. She has the passion and vision to carry the association into the future," said CDA Chairman Chad Owen, of Chambers & Owen in Janesville, Wis.

Eby-Brown Co. LLC

Eby-Brown added three sales and marketing executives who will enhance the company's bench strength for growth in the convenience distribution and foodservice markets. Joining the company are Scott Kolat as senior vice president of business development; Paul Pierce as vice president of national accounts; and Christina Dokos as vice president of marketing and communications.

Kolat brings more than 25 years of experience in the foodservice industry, most recently with US Foods where he served as director of sales deployment and was responsible for the integration of sales, category management and deployment.

Pierce has more than 30 years of experience ranging from consulting in the foodservice industry to serving as a vice president for 7-Eleven Inc. where he led fresh foodservice. He also formerly served as vice president of marketing at Delek US, the parent company of MAPCO.

Dokos spent the last 25 years of her career in consulting and as a chief marketing officer and senior vice president for Fiserv and Accretive Health.

Innovative Control Systems

Jason Sears joined Innovative Control Systems (ICS) as communications manager. He will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the marketing department, heading e-learning initiatives for customers and employees, and innovating customer-facing communication across multiple channels including digital, print, video and trade shows.

Sears began his car wash industry career at Hamilton Manufacturing in 2001 where he served as national sales manager. In 2006, he was recruited into Sonny's as equipment sales manager. He joined Ecolab in 2008 and rose to the position of key account executive.

Jack Link's Protein Snacks

Jack Link's hired Tom "TD" Dixon as the company's first chief marketing officer (CMO). As the global CMO, Dixon will oversee strategic planning for all marketing and innovation functions across the Jack Link's family of brands. The chief marketing officer position is a new addition to Jack Link's and an indicator of the company's continued growth and dedication to expand the protein snacks category.

Dixon comes to Jack Link's with more than 19 years of global marketing experience. Most recently, he served as chief marketing officer at Welch's and previously held roles at Kimberly Clark and The Schwan Food Co.

National Confectioners Association

The National Confectioners Association (NCA) made three additions to the organization's executive team. Elise Fennig was named to the newly created position of chief of staff, while Karen Horan was promoted to vice president of global business development, and Laura Shumow was promoted to vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

As chief of staff, Fennig will work closely with NCA President and CEO John Downs on priority special projects related to the annual business plan and strategic plan, as well as provide oversight for the association's industry affairs, membership, global business development and human resources functions to ensure the successful implementation of the organization's strategic plan.

Horan will continue to foster international presence for American candy brands and build upon the association's successful participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Market Access Program.

Shumow, who has served NCA for seven years, will oversee the association's scientific and regulatory agendas.

PDI

PDI appointed Jimmy Frangis as chief operating officer. Frangis spent the last 18 years holding multiple roles at NCR Corp. and Radiant Systems, which was acquired by NCR in 2011. While there, he served as vice president of several divisions, including payment services, retail services, grocery and convenience retail, and petroleum and convenience retail.

Parker's Corp.

Parker's recently hired Andrew R. Udinsky as construction project manager. In this new position, he is responsible for overseeing the construction of new Parker's convenience stores and the renovation of existing stores. He previously worked as a project manager for NorSouth Constructs, a national general contractor headquartered in Savannah, Ga. Prior to that, he was owner of A. Ramon Inc., a residential construction company.

In other Parker's news, the Grand Lodge Order of Elks recently presented Greg Parker, president and CEO of Parker's, with the 2015-2016 Distinguished Citizenship Award. This award recognized Parker for his generous contributions to the Savannah community, as well as leadership of various community organizations.

Parker is founder of the Fueling the Community program at Parker's, which supports education and health care by donating a portion of the proceeds from every gallon of gas sold on the first Wednesday of each month. This charitable initiative launched in the fall of 2011 and currently distributes more than $100,000 annually to public and private schools throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

Parker's also donated $1 million to Memorial Health to fund the expansion of the Parker's Emergency and Trauma Center at Memorial, which serves as the region's only Level 1 Trauma Center. The chief executive is currently leading a citywide anti-litter campaign; serves as chairman of the Mayor's Business Roundtable; and contributes to the Mayor's Crime Task Force.

PepsiCo Inc.

PepsiCo Inc. has made several personnel changes in recent weeks that include the departure of Tom Greco, CEO of Frito-Lay North America (FLNA).

Changes announced by the organization also include:

• The promotion of Al Carey, CEO, North America Beverages (NAB), to CEO, North America
• The promotion of Kirk Tanner, chief operating officer (COO), NAB and president, Global Foodservice, to president and COO, NAB 
• The promotion of Vivek Sankaran, COO, FLNA, to president and COO, FLNA
   

Seneca Cos.

Seneca Cos. promoted Chris Haggard to vice president of sales. In this new role, Haggard will have direct responsibility of all field sales personnel throughout the organization and indirect responsibility of account managers. In addition, he will be working closely with marketing to ensure that sales is aligned with and leveraging marketing systems.

Haggard joined Seneca Cos. in 2011 as branch manager for Tulsa's Fuel Systems division and brings a substantial amount of industry and sales related experience to this new role.

Sunoco LP

Sunoco LP appointed Thomas R. Miller as chief financial officer (CFO) of Sunoco GP LLC, the general partner of Sunoco. Miller most recently served as senior vice president, CFO and treasurer of Cleco Corp., a position he was appointed to in 2013. He joined Cleco in 2012 as vice president and treasurer.

Prior to Cleco, he served as senior vice president and treasurer of Solar Trust of America from 2010 to 2012, and vice president of treasury and capital markets financing director at Exelon Corp. from 1999 to 2010. Earlier in his career, Miller spent 12 years at Conoco Inc.