Jenny Bullard, the chief information officer of Flash Foods in Waycross, Ga., was named chairwoman of the board of directors of the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS), succeeding Devin Bates of Stripes Convenience Stores in San Angelo, Texas. Bullard, who oversees the technology systems at 176 stores, is the first female to hold the post of PCATS Chair. Bates will continue to serve on the PCATS Board as immediate past chair.

"PCATS just completed a very productive year under Devin Bates leadership and as we move into 2008. I look forward to working with the PCATS board of directors, staff and members to keep this strong momentum going," Bullard said.

In addition to serving on the PCATS board since 2004, Bullard served as vice chair in 2007. She has been a staunch supporter of technology standards and has implemented various PCATS standards in her own stores such as PCATS-NAXML EB2B invoicing. "Receiving electronic invoices from our suppliers utilizing the PCATS standards has improved efficiencies at store level with more accurate information and reduced the manager’s time spent doing data entry," she said. "It is on Flash Foods roadmap to expand this process to other suppliers in 2008. Over the past years as Flash Foods moved forward with different technology initiatives the need for industry standards became very evident."

For the last four years, Bullard has also served as Track Chair of NACStech Shows where the benefits of PCATS standards are demonstrated. In 2005, Bullard was one of five retailers who participated in an industry eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standards benchmarking study, "Boosting Your Bottom Line: Driving Business Value Through PCATS-NAXML EB2B," to document the value companies were realizing by invoicing and managing data electronically.

PCATS also announced that Gabriel Olives, information systems director of Turkey Hill Minit Markets in Lancaster, Pa., was elected vice chair of the board. Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives Ann Dozier of the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta was re-elected to a two year term as secretary and Lisa Stewart, president of Impact 21 Group, was reelected to a similar term as technology advisory committee chair.

In addition to these executive committee appointments, other PCATS members serving on the Board of Directors are:

Certification Committee Chair: Gregg Peele, president and CEO of CMi Solutions (Charlotte, N.C.)

Implementation Committee Chair: James Maxey, senior manager of store systems development and maintenance of Valero Retail Holdings Inc. (San Antonio)

Membership and Marketing: Scott Rockafellow, senior manager of e-business solutions of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (St. Louis)

Retailer Business Requirements Committee Chair: Patrick Lewis, partner and CEO of Oasis Stop ‘N Go LLC Convenience Stores and KickBack Points Rewards Systems (Twin Falls, Idaho)

Device Integration/OSA Committee Chair: Kenneth Ringeman, system architect of Gilbarco Veeder-Root (Greensboro, N.C.)

Point of Sale (POS)/Back Office Integration Committee Vice-Chair: Bill Wade, Senior Systems Analyst of PDI (Temple, Texas)

Retail Financial Transactions Committee Chair: Brad McGuinness, vice president of product development of VeriFone, Inc. (Clearwater, Fla.)

NACS Representative: Hank Armour, president and CEO of The Association for Convenience & Petroleum Retailing (Alexandria, Va.)