By Kate Quackenbush, Managing Editor

Mike Leake may have had eight years of experience servicing convenience stores while working for Frito Lay and then McLane Grocery Distribution as a DSD sales representative, but it wasn't until DesMoines, Wash.-based Emanuel Inc. recruited him that he found a truly unique operation.

Leake met owner Sami Said while working for McLane and, at the time, Said had one store and was finalizing the purchase of a second. When Shell introduced its multi-site operator (MSO) program almost three years ago, Emanuel Inc. was poised to vault into chain status. Said put together a plan of what he would need when he was afforded 13 MSO stores. One of those things was Mike Leake.

"We had worked a few years together and had a lot of the same ideas," said Leake, Emanuel Inc.'s operations manager. "I had been in and out of stores with Frito Lay and McLane and I had never seen an operation like this one. Sami developed it, and it works. This was an excellent opportunity for me and I had to take it."

As operations manager, Leake knows his job is never dull