NACS State of the Industry Summit

Anirban Basu is Chairman & CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., an economic and policy consulting firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland with offices in Pennsylvania and Cambodia. The firm provides strategic analytical services to energy suppliers, law firms, medical systems, government agencies, and real estate developers among others.

In 2014, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan appointed him Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission. He also serves as chairman of the Baltimore County Economic Advisory Committee. He is also the Chief Economist to Associated Builders and Contractors and Chief Economic Advisor to the Construction Financial Management Association. He serves similar functions for Visit Baltimore, the Maryland Association of Realtors, and Marcum, LLC.

He lectures at Johns Hopkins University in Global Strategy and has also taught international economics, urban economics, micro- and macroeconomics at Hopkins. His radio show can be heard weekdays on 88.1FM, WYPR, Baltimore.

In both 2007 and 2016, the Daily Record newspaper selected Mr. Basu as one of Maryland’s 50 most influential people. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010.

Mr. Basu has been on many boards over time, including First Mariner Bank, the Baltimore City Public School System, Port Discovery, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and Union Memorial Hospital. He is currently on the boards of St. Mary’s College, the University System of Maryland Foundation, the Center for Emerging Media, the Lyric Opera House and the Archdiocese of Baltimore School System.

Mr. Basu earned his B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1990. He earned his Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Master’s in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His Juris Doctor was earned at the University Of Maryland School of Law.

Andy Jones is the president and CEO of Sprint Food Stores and MB Jones Oil Company. He is currently on the Executive Committee of Georgia Oilmen’s Association Board and is a member of SIGMA. Andy is also active in the community, serving on Augusta Tomorrow Board, Augusta Exchange Club, and is a past chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Episcopal Day School of Augusta, as well as a board member of the Augusta Country Club. Jones graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in finance. He currently serves on the NACS Board of Directors.

Kloza was among the founders of OPIS nearly 30 years ago. He is regularly cited for his no-nonsense, non-partisan comments on oil and gasoline by most of the major U.S. newspapers and has commented specifically on oil prices to major network news. He is also a frequent guest lecturer on fuel price economics at colleges and universities as well as for key petroleum associations. Kloza serves on the Turner Mason & Co. Advisory Board and the Fuels Institute Board of Advisors. He earned a degree in English and has worked with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

A Training & Development veteran for 30+ years, Jim Knight facilitates on a variety of interactive topics, including sessions around organizational culture, world-class service, building rock star teams, hiring & retaining “rock stars”, employee branding, performance management, philanthropy and facilitation training.

Jim cut his teeth in the training field through the Hospitality industry, starting out in the snack bar at Gatorland Zoo and as a restaurant staff-level employee for Olive Garden and then Hard Rock Cafe. He eventually became the head of the School of Hard Rocks, running point on all learning & development functions for Hard Rock International.

Although part of a small training group that supported all cafe, hotel and casino properties, Jim Knight’s role at Hard Rock involved many facets of organizational training, including creating/managing all staff and management training materials & programs, facilitating its corporate university, overseeing management training locations, producing training DVD’s, directing company e-Learning initiatives, facilitating leadership transitions and traveling to property locations to deliver on-site classes & measure standards.

Jim has put his experience and creativity to work, which has consistently developed cutting-edge training concepts. During his time with the Hard Rock brand, his team won coveted Telly Awards in 2000 for their “guest service” video, took top honors in 2007 for their “menu rollout” video, garnered Training Directors Forum’s 1998 prize for “Reengineering Training” and won Brandon Hall’s Gold Best in Class Award for their “Service Recovery” e-Learning course. Jim Knight was also recognized by Training Magazine as representing one of the Top 125 training companies in the world out of all industries & businesses. Jim has since been featured in Forbes Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Nation’s Restaurant News, Business News Daily and Fox Business News.

Jim has a music degree in Vocal Performance & Education and taught in the Florida public school system for 6 years, before catching the “hospitality bug”. He is a long-time member of CHART (The Council of Hotel & Restaurant Trainers), previously sat on the Certification Governing Board of the National Restaurant Association and started a local networking group (The Training Summit) with over 100 active members in Central Florida, to share best practices and discuss common issues with other industry professionals. Networking is a big part of his success.

Jim is the Founder & Owner of Knight Speaker, which positions him to facilitate at any association or company event, in any industry, as a keynote or breakout speaker. Additionally, Jim provides an innovative monthly report called Rock-N-Grow, which offers up proven best practices, thought leadership and cool tips & resources for subscribers. He is also a Founding Partner/Owner in CareersForward, a restaurant management recruiting company.

Jim Knight is also the best-selling author of Culture that Rocks!: How to Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture. A portion of his book, monthly report and speaking proceeds goes to No Kid Hungry to eliminate childhood hunger in the U.S. and the LEAP Foundation, which supports severe trauma victims through wilderness therapy.

Jim Lecinski is an educator and marketing advisor. He is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University; and a visiting professor in Notre Dame’s Executive MBA program. His focus areas are Marketing Strategy, Digital Transformation and the Application of AI to Marketing.

Prior to this Jim spent over twelve years at Google, where he was Vice President of Customer Solutions for the Americas. And he's previously held leadership roles at major advertising agencies including Young & Rubicam and DDB.

"Winning the Zero Moment of Truth" (“ZMOT”), Jim's book about the new marketing model, was published in June 2011, and has been read by over 300,000 marketers worldwide and featured in the New York Times and Advertising Age."

His next project, "Winning the AI Moment of Truth" is currently in development, expected to be published in 2019.

Charlie McIlvaine is the Chairman & CEO of Coen Oil Company, LLC, a diversified holding company. Together with his brother Andy, they manage Coen Markets (a convenience retail chain in the Tri-State region of Pittsburgh, PA) and Coen Tire (a retail tire platform). Charlie is also Managing Partner of Thomaston Capital, LLC, a private investment firm that invests in growth or later stage companies primarily in the consumer/retail sector.

Charlie was previously a member of Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in New York with $4 billion under management, where he focused on investments in the consumer sector. Prior to working in private equity, Charlie was Co-Global Group Head and Managing Director of the Global Consumer Group for Deutsche Bank. In this capacity, he had responsibility for managing a group of 50+ professionals across three global investment banking offices which generated revenues over $300 million. DB’s Global Consumer Group advised on mergers & acquisitions and raised debt and equity capital for clients in the food/beverage, household products/personal care, retail/restaurant and business services sectors. Previous to DB, Charlie was a senior member and Managing Director of J.P. Morgan’s Global Consumer Group in investment banking. While at J.P. Morgan, he executed financings and mergers and acquisitions for a wide range of consumer companies. He began his career as an investment banking analyst for Merrill Lynch based in New York and London.

Charlie holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, attended New College of Oxford University, and earned a BA in economics from Duke University.

In June 1997, Billy joined RaceTrac as a Real Estate Analyst, focusing primarily on expanding the company’s presence within the Florida and Georgia markets. Over the next several years, he had the opportunity to assist in developing new RaceTrac and RaceWay locations in all of the company’s primary markets. In March 2002, he was promoted to Vice President of Real Estate, and in the years that followed, he was granted additional responsibilities that included Engineering, Design, Maintenance and Construction. In 2009, Billy was promoted to Senior Vice President of Store Development, as well as increased leadership responsibility of the company’s RaceWay Division.

On December 31, 2012, Billy was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and granted responsibility of both of the company’s retail divisions – RaceTrac and RaceWay. Specific areas of responsibility are: Technology, Human Resources, Marketing, Merchandising, Operations, Store Development Supply Chain and Store Support. On January 1, 2015, assumed the role of President.

Billy has served on the International Council of Shopping Centers since 1997, is the former President of the Atlanta Clemson Club, a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO) and a Board member of Clemson University/IPTAY. He is active in supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research as well as Camp Twin Lakes. He and his wife, Pam, have three children, Will, Macie and Madison and live in Peachtree Corners. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf and tennis.

Todd Hale, former Senior Vice President, Consumer & Shopper Insights with Nielsen, is a frequently sought-after industry and client speaker. Todd shares his insights on consumer shopping, buying and media consumption behaviors and attitudes to provide manufacturers and retailers with strategic visions to facilitate brand, category and retail sales growth.

Todd has more than 40 years of experience in the consumer research industry, including 30 years with Nielsen, where he held various marketing and sales management positions within advertising/product testing, advanced analytics and consumer panel practice areas.

Todd earned an MBA and a BS in Business from Wright State University.

Gray literally grew up in the convenience store industry with the opening of the family’s first convenience store in 1963. Involved in the family business, comprised of 87 stores, he gained experience in all phases of convenience store and chain retail operations.

Gray has been involved on a variety of projects, including heading global product management for three of the world’s largest retail petroleum equipment and systems suppliers and Vice President of Research & Technology for the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). Gray managed product portfolios that included payment platforms for EMV migration markets from Malaysia to Canada, as well as mobile/RFID payments initiatives. Gray also established NACS’ card payments program which saved the industry $60M in its first year of operations, and currently serves over 1,500 stores, doing 100m transactions annually.