People on the Move: CHS, MillerCoors & Good2grow

NATIONAL REPORT — Retailers, wholesalers and suppliers in the convenience store industry are only as good as their management teams and employees. In this special roundup, Convenience Store News runs down the most recent executive changes, new hires, promotions and people achievements happening in the industry.

Andronico's Community Markets

Convenience store industry veteran Cheryl Hughes joined the Andronico's Community Markets executive team as chief financial officer. Hughes formerly held the role of controller for Chemoil, a global oil trading organization and a retail maritime fuel supplier, based in San Francisco. Prior to this role, she was CFO at Pacific Convenience & Fuels, based in Pleasanton, Calif. 

Her career in food and retail dates back to her role as director of U.S. Finance with Circle K Stores Inc. During her 15-year tenure there, she was responsible for accounting, finance, tax and risk management with more than $12 billion in annual revenue.

Buddy's Kitchen Inc.

Thomas "Pres" Colwell joined Buddy's Kitchen Inc., a producer and co-packer of custom food products, as president of the company's Convenience and Co-Pack Business Group. Colwell also made an equity investment in the company, alongside current owners CEO Dave Smith and the family of the late founder Buddy Eian.

Colwell has had a more than 25-year career in the foodservice industry including serving as general manager and vice president of sales and marketing at American Food Group as the company entered the cooked meat industry.

Certus Manufacturing

Chris Frost, an 11-year veteran with VerticalXchange LLC, has been named president of Certus Manufacturing. Dave Bobert, the entrepreneur who started the coin-operated tire inflation business, is retiring, but will continue to serve as a consultant.

Bobert formed AIR-vend Inc. in 1981 and developed the AIR-vend, AIR-serv and VAC-serv brands. He grew AIR-vend Inc. to nearly 5,000 locations, $20 million in annual sales, and sold all those assets to Prometheus Partners LLP in 1998.

In 2009, Bobert reactivated his company ARV Inc. In March 2015, he sold the assets of ARV Inc. to a group of entrepreneurs and investors based in Eagan, Minn. This buyer group also owns and runs VerticalXchange. The new company was named Certus Manufacturing and is planning to carry on the rich traditions of service and innovative technology that Bobert pioneered.

CHS Inc.

John Lenzi joined CHS Inc. as vice president, Corporate Compliance. He comes to CHS from KPMG in New York, where he was a director in its Fraud Risk Management group.

Prior to KPMG, Lenzi spent five years at ITT Corp., including four years as vice president, Corporate Responsibility, and chief ethics officer. He also spent the previous 15 years at The Altria Group Inc. in both the corporate compliance function and the government affairs function, including leading Altria's public affairs team in Europe. 

Lenzi has been very active in the ethics and compliance profession, including serving on the board of directors of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, one of the nation's leading organizations for ethics professionals. 

CHS Inc. operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes the Cenex brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.

Good2grow

Good2grow hired Dustin Snyder as its new vice president of sales to lead the company's convenience channel division. Effective Sept. 1, Snyder oversees all sales-related functions, including the management of the good2grow convenience channel team. He reports directly to the company's president, Gunner Olson. 

Snyder comes to good2grow from Eby-Brown Co. LLC where he worked since 2010. Most recently as a senior vice president of sales, he was responsible for all new business development, including a 19-person team that averaged $200 million per year in new sales, contract extensions for 80 of the companies’ largest customers, all chain and independent sales and merchandising for four distribution centers, as well as industry relations and trade shows.  

Snyder is currently a member of the NACS Supplier Board. Prior to his time at Eby-Brown, he held various management and vice president positions within the convenience store industry.

MillerCoors 

The board of directors of MillerCoors, the United States and Puerto Rican joint venture between SABMiller plc and Molson Coors Brewing Co., named Gavin Hattersley to the role of CEO.

Former CEO Tom Long retired June 30. Hattersley had been serving as interim CEO of MillerCoors since July 1, in addition to his role as chief financial officer of Molson Coors.
 
"Gavin is the right person to lead MillerCoors forward," said Pete Coors, chairman of the MillerCoors board and vice chairman of Molson Coors. "Gavin has a great handle on what needs to be done to achieve growth at MillerCoors and he has the complete confidence of the board, the employees and the distributor network to achieve this aspiration."

Hattersley's appointment was effective immediately. Molson Coors has begun the process of identifying his successor as CFO. Hattersley will remain in a dual capacity as MillerCoors CEO and CFO of Molson Coors until mid-November.

Redbox

Redbox appointed Matt James as senior vice president of operations and merchandising. Based out of the company's Chicago-area headquarters, he is responsible for driving the strategy that will continue to evolve Redbox's operational network, which generated an average of 2 million rentals per day in 2014, or about 723 million rentals.

With more than 40,000 Redbox kiosks at nearly 34,000 retail locations nationwide as of June 30, James leads a team of more than 1,400 employees across Redbox's Field Operations, Machine Support, Inventory, Logistics, and Strategy & Analytics teams. His team oversees inventory stocking and optimization, title merchandising, kiosk repair and preventative maintenance across the network. 

Before moving into his current position, James was vice president of Inventory and Logistics for Redbox. Prior, he was senior director of Strategy & Analytics, a position held from his start with the company in 2011.

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