Parkland USA Names Interim President
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Parkland USA President Doug Haugh is stepping down from his post, just months after being named Convenience Store News' Retailer Executive of the Year.
Parkland USA, a subsidiary of Calgary, Canada-based Parkland Corp., confirmed to CSNews that Haugh has left the company, and convenience store industry veteran Jay Erickson, currently chief operating officer (COO) at Parkland USA, has been named interim president of the Charleston-based company.
Erickson joined Parkland Corp. as vice president of IT and chief information officer in January 2020. He moved into the COO role at Parkland USA in July 2021. Prior to Parkland, Erickson was president of EG America, the United Kingdom-based EG Group's U.S. convenience store network.
Erickson is well acquainted with the convenience store industry. He came to EG Group through its acquisition of The Kroger Co.'s c-store portfolio in 2018. His resume with Cincinnati-based Kroger dates back more than 20 years, during which time he held several roles in the retailer's convenience business, including president of the Tom Thumb and Turkey Hill c-store chains.
Haugh departs Parkland USA after five years at the helm. Last month, he was honored as the Retailer Executive of the Year at the 36th annual CSNews Hall of Fame gala, held in Charlotte, N.C.
Haugh came to Parkland USA with more than 25 years of experience in the energy and technology fields. He previously served as president and chief strategy officer for Mansfield Energy Corp. in Gainesville, Ga., and was the co-founder of FuelQuest Inc., an enterprise cloud/SaaS provider with more than 750 clients in the retail and energy industries.
During his tenure at Parkland USA, he helped grow the business from 150 team members to nearly 3,000, from 20 company-operated stores to 212, and from three commercial branches to 52.
In a farewell post on LinkedIn, Haugh said he was "looking forward to cheering this winning team on for many years to come," but did not offer any details on his next venture.
In his remarks at the CSNews Hall of Fame gala, Haugh credited his "incredible team" for the recognition and called out the contributions of several team members, including Erickson.
"Jay Erickson joined us last year after helping advance our technology across Canada and when it comes to his ability to select, procure and deploy the scalable platforms needed to run stores well and be efficient across a very broad geography, there are none better," Haugh said, adding that Erickson "is one heck of an operator having grown up in stores from day one."