WOMAN OF THE YEAR: Stacy Loretz-Congdon

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — With a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from California State University, Stacy Loretz-Congdon started her career as an auditor for Coopers & Lybrand. In May 1990, she joined Core-Mark International Inc. as an accounting manager when the company was going through a restructuring. She eventually moved into financial planning and analysis, but after six years, was looking to take on different responsibilities.

“I started working as the support person for the treasurer and that eventually grew into me becoming treasurer,” she said. “I’ve always had a high learning curve, and Core-Mark always satisfied my need to grow.”

In January 2003, she became vice president of finance and since December 2006, has served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of Core-Mark Holding Co. Inc. She oversees all the company’s financials, and her daily job depends on what strategic initiatives the company is working on at the time.

“Companywide, the finance department is 300 people, and in my direct corporate department there are 70 of us. My job is to make sure we have adequate resources from capital all the way to people,” she explained.

One of the reasons she loves the convenience store industry is because it is always changing. There are always new aspects to learn and new solutions cropping up every day, in both the industry and her job.

“The dynamic, ever-changing growth trajectory makes the industry fascinating to me,” Loretz-Congdon said. “It is evolving and to watch that evolution has been a lot of fun and keeps me engaged.” As a member of NACS and the Convenience Distribution Association, she is involved in the industry outside her company as well, attending roundtables and conventions that help her and her employer stay on top of trends, especially since Core-Mark is a public company and talks about forward-looking trends in its financial statements.

Becoming CFO is one of the accomplishments she is most proud of in her career, along with starting an intern program for Core-Mark. She is currently working on a mentoring program, and knows success is all about the right team and resources. “I’m really proud of these [programs] because it allows us to attract talent, and it’s all about resources. The millennials are looking for that development. The program has been very successful, and I’m hoping mentoring will do the same.”

Loretz-Congdon recently marked her 25th year at Core-Mark, and said longevity is pretty common at the company. There’s even an employee who’s been there more than 50 years.

“When I started, we were around a $1.6-billion company and we [reached] over $10 billion last year,” she said. “Our company is a small company in a big box because we still have the values of a small company. I can pick up the phone and call any one of our 31 divisions and they know me and I know them.”