Eight individuals have been newly elected to leadership roles for Conexxus.

At the Conexxus Annual Conference, which took place from May 1-5, the company named two new members to its Board of Directors and elected six new members to its Board of Advisors.

Kevin Smartt, president and CEO, Kwik Chek Food Stores Inc. (Austin, Texas), will continue to serve as the Conexxus Board of Directors chair, with the following members also re-elected:

• Hubert Williams, chief information officer, Maverik Inc.
• Margaret Akins, business analyst, Pilot Travel Centers LLC
• Dae Kim, vice president of research, NACS
• Paige Anderson, director of government relations, NACS

New officers elected to the Board of Directors are:

• Blake Benefiel, director of trade and state relations, Altria Group Distribution Co.
• Drew Mize, president, The Pinnacle Corp.

New members to the Conexxus Board of Advisors, a group comprised of 16 convenience and fuel retailing industry stakeholders, were also elected:

• Vice Chair: Mike Lindberg, payment solutions director, CHS Inc. (Cenex)
• Secretary: Liz Sertl, senior manager of global strategy and standards, The Coca-Cola Co.
• Standards Quality Assurance Committee Chair: Sue Chan, senior retail payment consultant, W. Capra Consulting Group
• Technical Advisory Committee Chair: Bill Wade, senior system analyst, PDI
• Electronic Business2Business Committee Chair: Alvin Fortson, senior principal consultant, Impact 21
• POS/Back Office Committee Chair: David Ezell, principal software architect, Verifone Inc.

A member-driven organization, Conexxus is led by an eight-member Board of Directors. In addition, the 16-member Board of Advisors includes one Conexxus and NACS staff representative.

Both Boards recently approved an increase in annual membership dues to reflect the increased scope of the Conexxus mission, to take effect on June 1, 2016, for new members, and on Jan. 1, 2017, for members in good standing renewing for the 2017 membership year.