Lisa Ham, director of merchandising and space planning with Yesway, is leaving the convenience-store chain, effective Aug. 9, to pursue her career in the wholesale pharmaceuticals industry, CSP has learned.
“I’ve decided to take my career in a different direction, moving back to pharmaceuticals on the wholesale side to focus on contract negotiations,” she said in an email note to c-store industry colleagues. “I have enjoyed my time at Yesway immensely, and this decision was challenging to make and even harder to communicate to those I admire and call friends. The c-store industry has always been welcoming and felt like home, so I hope to find my way back one day. … Thank you for all the support and friendship over the years. I will miss this community dearly and hope to stay connected as I embark on this new journey.”
Ham joined Yesway in 2017 as a category manager. The company promoted her to senior category manager in 2019 and to her current position as director of merchandising and space planning in 2021.
Ham (above, front row, second from the right) has been active at convenience-store industry events. She recently participated in a CSP webinar featuring several C-StoreTEC advisory board retailers, including Fort Worth, Texas-based Yesway, and shared her insights and expertise on customer segmentation and personalization. She also provided her insights on snacking, dayparts, trips, loyalty, gamification and cross-merchandising in a 2023 NACS Show education session.
Before joining Yesway, Ham was a sales representative for several pharmaceutical firms and a pharmacy technician at Walmart. Also, between 2012 and 2014, she was a territory sales manager for tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
- Yesway is No. 19 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
BW Gas & Convenience Holdings has approximately 425 Yesway and Allsup’s stores in Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
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