CHICAGO-- NACS announced the election of five retail members to serve on its board of directors. The association also announced that Scott Hill, vice president of convenience sales for Jack Link's Beef Jerky, has been named 2011-12 chairman of the NACS supplier board.
The new board members assumed their positions during the NACS board of directors meeting at the 2011 NACS Show in Chicago.
The NACS retail members elected to serve on the board:
- Graham Bennett, president, Quality Oil Co. LLC, dba Quality Mart. Winston-Salem, N.C. Quality Oil operates 89 Quality Mart stores in North Carolina. He began his career in 1975 working in the administration of North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. Bennett has been president of Quality Oil since 1978. He is a member of the NACS member services committee.
- Sam Hirbod, CEO, Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC, San Ramon, Calif. PC&F, which operates 252 stores in a five-state area largely on the West Coast and also owns another 60 fee-operated sites in the Pacific Northwest and Nevada. Through a series of acquisitions Pacific Convenience & Fuels is now one of the largest five privately owned companies in the convenience and fuels industry. He began his career in the industry in 1997. He is a member of the NACS research committee.
- Julie Jackowski, senior vice president, corporate general counsel and human resources, Casey's General Stores Inc., Ankeny, Iowa. Casey's operates 1,665 convenience stores under the Casey's General Store and Just Diesel brand names in 11 Midwestern states. Jackowski joined Casey's in 1994 as legal counsel. She was promoted to vice president of human resources/legal counsel in 2003, and was named to her current position in 2010. Before joining Casey's, Jackowski was an attorney for Shearer, Templer, Pingel & Kaplan. She is a member of the NACS member services committee.
- Jared Scheeler, director of retail operations and partner, Bobby & Steve's Auto World, Minneapolis. Bobby & Steve's Auto World is a chain of eight stores located in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. He joined the company as a freshman in college and became a partner in 2006. Scheeler was named to the Phillip Morris USA Retail Sales Associate Council in 2008. Scheeler is a member of the NACS member services committee.
- Kevin Smartt, CEO, Kwik Chek Food Stores Inc., and owner of McCraw Oil Co. & Affiliates (Austin, Texas). Kwik Chek Food Stores operates 43 stores in Texas. He began his career with Frito-Lay and then joined Kwik Chek/McCraw Oil Co. as vice president of operations and marketing in 1992. In 2001, Smartt and a partner bought Kwik Chek/McCraw Oil Co. and he has served as CEO since then. He is a member of the NACS research committee and NACSPAC committee.
NACS Supplier Board
Scott Hill, vice president of convenience sales for Jack Link's Beef Jerky, has been named 2011-12 chairman of the NACS supplier board. Lucia Romanello Crater, vice president of retail sales for Cardtronics Inc., was named chair-elect and will succeed Hill as 2012-13 chairman.
Hill and Crater were named to their positions during the NACS supplier board meeting at the 2011 NACS Show in Chicago.
The NACS supplier board is comprised of individuals from NACS supplier member companies that represent different product and service categories in the convenience store industry. Board members are nominated by the supplier board nominating committee and elected by the board.
Hill joined Jack Link's Beef Jerky as director of national sales in 2000. As vice president of convenience sales, he concurrently manages the World Kitchen's Beef Jerky business.
Before joining Cardtronics in April 2011, Crater spent nine years at US Nutrition, the last three years as director of sales. She has been active in NACS since 1989, and was a founding member and executive committee member of the Network of Executive Women.
As chair and chair-elect of the NACS supplier board, Hill and Crater also serve as members of the NACS board.
Three vice chairmen were elected to the five-member supplier board leadership team:
- Wendy Redmond, director of sales-convenience format, Snyder's-Lance Inc.
- Robert Sears, director of trade relations, Altria Group Distribution Co.
- Joseph Vonder Haar, managing partner, iSEE Store Innovations Inc.
In addition, five new members were elected to the NACS supplier board:
- Andy Carr, executive vice president of sales & marketing, Air-Serve Group LLC.
- Tony Gaines, director of national accounts, E&J Gallo Winery.
- Elizabeth Jarocki, regional vice president of convenience national accounts, Kraft Foods Global Inc.
- T.J. Powers, senior manager of business development, Kellogg Co.
- David Riser, vice president of external relations-trade marketing, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
A member-driven organization, NACS is lead by a 30-member board; 28 industry retailers are elected to the board, including two retailers from non-North American countries. In addition, the chairman and chairman-elect of the NACS supplier board also serve on the board of directors.
Founded in 1961 as the National Association of Convenience Stores, Alexandria, Va.-based NACS is celebrating its 50th anniversary as the international association for convenience and fuel retailing. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than 146,000 stores across the country, posted $575 billion in total sales in 2010, of which $385 billion were motor fuels sales. NACS has 2,100 retail and 1,600 supplier member companies that do business in nearly 50 countries.
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