New PCATS Board of Director Chair, Vice-Chair for 2010

STAFFORD, Va. -- The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) announced Patrick Lewis, partner of Oasis Stop 'N Go Convenience Stores, based in Twin Falls, Idaho, will take the helm as chairman of the board and Avsha Klachuk, director of marketing technology, Alon Brands based in Dallas, will serve as PCATS vice chair.

The appointments were made following a Jan. 21 election during the board of directors meeting at the 2010 PCATS Annual Conference in New Orleans.

As PCATS chair, Lewis will lead the association as it works to facilitate c-store industry technology standards initiatives and educate the retailer and supplier community about how utilizing common industry standards can provide significant business process improvements, the association reported.

"PCATS is well-known for its robust collection of standards, built upon a simple to understand, develop, and implement language, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which has been tested and employed by various players within the industry," said Lewis. "However, PCATS does more to advance convenience and petroleum retailers by addressing current issues such as data security and payment card industry (PCI) compliance. As a retailer, it is important to have the essential tools to remain successful and profitable. In my role as chair of the association, I plan to carry out the PCATS mission and assist with enabling connections and finding solutions."

Lewis has been a member of PCATS since 2005 and has held elected positions giving him a full background and working knowledge of the alliance's goals and agenda. He co-founded Oasis Stop 'N Go Convenience Stores in 1995, and served on the NACS Leadership Board since 2006 and chairs NACS' Technology Board Committee. Lewis is also CEO of KickBack Points LLC, founded in 2000 as a way for Oasis Stop 'N Go to cultivate customer loyalty.

Additionally, in his new role, Klachuk will concentrate his efforts on growing the membership base by ensuring PCATS delivers valuable industry solutions and provides members with excellent customer service.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to play a leadership role with a key association at such a challenging economic time," Klachuk said. "I'm looking forward to working with the board, building on the association's success to date, and enhancing the quality of PCATS membership. My involvement with PCATS since its inception and participation on various PCATS committees will serve me well in contributing to the growth of such a valued organization."

Klachuk is director of marketing technology at Alon Brands, a subsidiary of Alon USA, which operates more than 300 convenience stores in Texas and New Mexico primarily under the 7-Eleven and FINA brands, and is the largest 7-Eleven licensee in North America. He has served as a member of the PCATS Implementation Committee, Retail Business Requirements Committee (RBRC), Electronic Business-to-Business (EB2B) Committee, Retail Financial Transactions Committee (RFTC) and the Loyalty Working Group since their establishment, and he is a current member of the Ad-Hoc Data Security Committee. Klachuk has also held various management positions in the oil and energy industry for more than 25 years. In his current position, he independently led the development and integration of cutting-edge fueling and point-of-sale systems, which incorporates radio frequency vehicle identification and cellular-based mobile commerce technologies into the petroleum/c-store network as part of a comprehensive new state of the art marketing management system.

Klachuk will succeed current PCATS Chair Patrick Lewis when he steps down on completion of his term of office in 2011.

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