STAFFORD, Va. -- The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) has announced that Patrick Lewis, partner of Oasis Stop 'N Go Convenience Stores, Twin Falls, Idaho, will take the helm as chairman, and Avsha Klachuk, director of marketing technology, Alon Brands, Dallas, will serve as vice chair.
The appointments were made following an election on January 21 during the board meeting at the 2010 PCATS Annual Conference in New Orleans.
As chair, Lewis will lead the association as it works to facilitate c-store industry technology standards initiatives [image-nocss] and educate the retailer and supplier community about how using common industry standards can provide significant business process improvements.
"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."
In his new role, Klachuk will concentrate his efforts on growing the membership base by ensuring that 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. I'm looking forward to working with the Board, building on the Association's success to date and enhancing the quality of PCATS membership," Klachuk said. "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 will succeed Lewis when he steps down on completion of his term of office in 2011.
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 in 1995. In addition, he has served on NACS leadership board since 2006 and chairs NACS' Technology Board Committee.
He is also CEO of KickBack Points LLC. KickBack was founded in 2000 as a way for Oasis Stop 'N Go to cultivate customer loyalty. KickBack has grown into a loyalty program provider that is now used by nearly 200 companies spanning 49 states and Canada.
He began his career in the convenience store industry in 1987 with Circle K Corp.
Klachuk 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.
He has 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 fueling and point-of-sale systems that incorporate radio frequency vehicle identification and cellular-based mobile commerce technologies into the petroleum/c-store network as part of a comprehensive marketing management system.
Klachuk has been an active leader involved with many industry initiatives, work groups and organizations within NACS, Retalix Users Group, Israeli Petroleum Institute and the Israeli c-stores/petroleum industry.
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