Casey's Honored for Advancing Gender Parity

ANKENY, Iowa — The Women's Forum of New York honored Casey's General Stores Inc. during its Breakfast of Corporate Champions on Nov. 7.

The convenience store retailer received recognition for advancing gender parity in the boardroom, where women occupy 55 percent of the seats on its corporate board, far exceeding the national average of 23.4 percent.

The Breakfast of Corporate Champions is a benchmark biennial event that brings together more than 600 thought leaders — including CEOs, board directors and government officials — who support the goal of achieving 50/50 gender parity in the boardroom by 2025.

"At Casey's, we are committed to gender parity and are honored to be part of an outstanding group of organizations that are reshaping the makeup of America's boardrooms," said Darren Rebelez, president and CEO of Casey's. "We also recognize that there is still work to be done and we challenge leaders to continue championing gender parity throughout their organizations."

Casey's current board of directors includes five women:

• Diane Bridgewater, executive vice president and chief financial and administrative office of LCS
• Cara Heiden, retired co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
• Larree Renda, retired executive vice president of Safeway Inc.
• Judy Schmeling, former chief operations officer of HSN Inc., and former president of Cornerstone Brands
• Allison Wing, chief consumer officer of Bright Health

"On behalf of the Women's Forum of New York and our more than 500 members who have achieved at the highest levels in every professional sector, we salute Casey's General Stores for actively enhancing its boardroom diversity and increasing its percentage of woman-occupied board seats to 55 percent," said Janice Ellig, CEO of the Ellig Group and chair and founder of the Breakfast of Corporate Champions. "Casey's is part of a growing number of forward-thinking companies which are raising the bar and accelerating the U.S. towards the goal of gender parity by 2025."

Co-chairs at the 2019 Breakfast of Corporate Champions included Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., president and CEO, TIAA, and Maggie Wilderotter, former executive chair and CEO of Frontier Communications. Casey's joined 323 S&P 500/Fortune 1000 companies at the event.

Ankeny-based Casey's operates more than 2,100 convenience stores in 16 states throughout the Midwest.