Dive Brief:
- Holiday Oil named Mike Wagstaff, who had been serving as co-president alongside his brother Scott, as CEO and chairman of the board, the company said in an announcement on Monday.
- The retailer also promoted Chief Operating Officer James Peterson to president as part of a broader slate of leadership changes. Scott Wagstaff has been appointed vice chairman of the board.
- Mike Wagstaff will provide leadership and strategic direction across the entire Holiday portfolio while Peterson will report to him and lead store strategy, performance and day-to-day operations.
Dive Insight:
Peterson has been with Draper, Utah-based Holiday Oil, which operates 76 c-stores across the state, for nearly a decade. He started with the company in June 2017 as controller. He held that role for a little over a year before spending more than five years as CFO and more than two as COO, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also spent two years earlier in his career as Holiday’s HR and payroll manager.
Peterson also held accounting and controller roles with bacon purveyor Daily’s Premium Meats; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing company Comfort Systems USA; and lifelong learning company Pearson, according to LinkedIn.
“As I step into this new role, I'm energized by the opportunity to lead our talented team forward,” said Peterson in a LinkedIn post earlier this month. “We'll continue building on our strong foundation while embracing new opportunities to better serve our customers and communities.”
Holiday outlined several additional top-level moves in its Monday announcement.
Heather Salas has been named the company’s director of marketing. She brings roughly a decade of marketing and communications experience in the c-store industry to this role, having worked as senior marketing manager for US channel execution for Parkland for more than four years and marketing and communications manager for Circle K.
With Parkland, she directed the retail marketing strategy for more than 130 stores, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ross Davidson is Holiday Oil’s new general counsel. He’s been an attorney for more than 19 years and has extensive experience in corporate governance, contracts, M&A and real estate.
Chris Buhl has been appointed chief human resources officer. Buhl started with Holiday in September as vice president of human resources, before being promoted to his current position this month, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’s worked for nearly three decades in a variety of HR-focused roles at companies like PepsiCo, glass and concrete manufacturer Corning and beverage company BlueTriton Brands.
Jacob Kimmel is the company’s new chief of staff. He took on his position in December, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before taking this role, he spent more than 15 years in a variety of management roles at Pilot Company. Most recently, he worked for over a decade as a regional manager, where he cut down on turnover and implemented systems to improve consistency and attain measurable performance improvements at the nine high-volume locations he was overseeing, according to his LinkedIn bio.
"We are energized by this leadership team and are confident in the bright future ahead of Holiday Oil," said Mike Wagstaff.
