Srijata Chattopadhyay
Srijata Chattopadhyay, VP: Americas EV Charging
Shell Recharge
Srijata Chattopadhyay is a leader in the clean energy space. Currently, she serves as the general manager of the EV charging business at Shell, which owns and operates over 4,000 chargers in North America. She and her team are accountable for the charging P&L, driver experience, digital product, and marketing. In the clean energy space, Srijata has been a member of the executive team at Volta Charging, worked in Google's energy services and renewables division, and at Tesla. In her decade in the industry, she has served in a wide range of functions - global strategy, capital markets, head of technology and head of deployment. Srijata holds a BA in Economics from Barnard College and an MBA from Wharton. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons (4 and 1).
Jeffrey Carpenter
Jeffrey Carpenter, Director
Cliff's Local Market
Starting his career in the convenience store industry, Carpenter joined the well-known Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes team, after graduating high school in 2005, while earning both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Syracuse University. Carpenter went on to teach publicly at a high-ranking ‘Newsweek School’ while still working with Nice N Easy, but after two years found his niche as Director of Education and Training with the well-known c-store brand.
During Carpenter’s time at Nice N Easy he grew into the role of Senior Director of Program Development overseeing multiple areas of the business. Nice N Easy was acquired by CST Brands in 2014 and Carpenter continued with the training and development team. When CST was acquired in 2017, he sustained his employment as Training Manager in the Great Lakes Business Unit of Circle K. Upon an opportunity to apply his expertise and remain local with Cliff’s Local Market in 2018, Carpenter gladly accepted a senior-level position where he has helped evolve the NY-based chain with 400+ employees.
A natural leader with a passion for his community, Jeff has also served as Trustee, as well as Deputy Mayor, in his local area. Carpenter is married and has two children.
Tom Bush
Tom Bush, President
Food Concepts Inc.
Tom Bush is the President of Food Concepts Inc. and is focused on building growth and continuous improvement. Tom has been a speaker at industry events and has presented research that FCI conducted to provide insight about what makes a coffee shop what it is, and the relative importance of those elements in driving sales in the convenience store marketplace.
Prior to working for FCI, he spent the bulk of his career in the food industry primarily with food manufacturers. He co-founded a startup venture marketing pre-cooked bacon to consumers nationwide. This startup was listed at #38 on INC Magazine’s list of America’s fastest-growing private companies in 1999, and later was sold to ConAgra Foods, Inc. Previously Bush worked for Oscar Mayer Foods in operations, finance and marketing roles including a brand manager role leading the test marketing and national launch of Lunchables.
Bush has a bachelor’s degree in food science, and an MBA.
Ben Burds
Ben Burds, Managing Partner
Kunoco Food Mart
Ben Burds, Managing Partner of Kunoco Food Marts (a four store c-store chain in St. Lawrence County, NY). Our company also includes a fuel delivery business for wholesale and retail clients.
Scott Burchfield
Scott Burchfield, Chief Operations Officer
Impact 21
Chief Operations Officer
Strategic Planning, Organizational Leadership, Project Management, Optimization and Change Management, Revenue & Profit Improvement
With his broad experience in retail, grocery, petroleum, and convenience, Scott Burchfield, Impact 21’s Chief Operating Officer, has the tools needed to help Impact 21 clients. He utilizes his expertise and strategic vision to build and energize companies’ organizational infrastructures, product & services, processes, and sales & marketing strategies which lead to optimized results. A decisive customer and results-driven Executive, Scott applies his track record of driving revenue and profit improvements in challenging environments to client engagements. Scott builds strong teams by effectively communicating, gaining consensus, and creating/executing plans that deliver measurable results.
Scott believes in professional growth through team development. On the receiving end of this philosophy, Scott was mentored by a former District Manager (DM), developing him into the youngest DM in Eckerd history. In turn, he has guided many team members into senior leaders of highly successful companies through his various senior leadership roles. His aptitude for managing teams has served him well. As Vice President of Operations for Giant Oil, Scott was responsible for direct oversight of company operations, merchandising & Pricebook, regional and area management, store operations, dealer/tenant relationship, IT, fuels, maintenance, construction, and training. He was brought in to develop a company operated model, as well as a franchise model, for the company’s tenants. He helped develop a brand and a full assortment of product and services, developing policies and procedures, training program and materials, and a new staff of Area Managers, Category Manager, Price Book Manager, Training Manager and a Construction Manager to support the growth.
As Director of Strategy, Optimization & Acquisition Integration for Sunoco LP, Dallas, TX, Scott led the Strategy & Integration team through several other acquisition processes, including Sunoco’s Mid Atlantic Convenience Stores (MACS) acquisition. His Strategy & Integration team worked with all business units on process optimization, acquisition integration and overall business strategy, identifying opportunities, assessing investment and ROI requirements, recommending strategic plans, working with the business leaders to implement projects. As Vice President of Operations Services & Process Improvement for MACS, Scott provided Executive leadership in all Field Operations Support, Strategic Operations planning and budgeting, Loss Prevention and Risk Management as well as identifying and developing process improvements for retail and wholesale operations. Scott served in executive leadership roles for The Pantry Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond, Winn-Dixie, and started out in the industry by working his way from part-time employee at Eckerd Drugs to Senior District Manager.
Scott obtained both his Bachelor of Business Administration and his Master of Business Administration from Alameda University in his state of origin, Texas. He has contributed his time and talent as Board of Director for the South Carolina Association of Convenience Stores (SCACS) and the American Widow Project (AWP) Charity. Though born in Texas and raised in Singapore, Scott has called seventeen different places home over the years. He now calls Florida home with his four children where he spends some much-valued family time.
Joe Brumfield
Joe Brumfield, Sr Category Manager - Beverages
La Lomita Inc
Sr Category Manager for Packaged Beverages, Beer/Wine and Dispensed Beverages for La Lomita Inc. Based in Edinberg TX, La Lomita is the parent company of El Tigre Food Stores and Tex-Best Travel Centers located in Central and South Texas.
He is responsible for the overall sales and profit growth of those categories, develops promotional programs, oversees the product assortment, retail pricing, negotiates CMA agreement, and manages the vendor relationships. He has been with La Lomita Inc since May of 2022.
Prior to taking this role, Joe was a National Account Manager with Eternal Beverages. Prior to that role, Joe was the Packaged Beverage Category Manager for Circle K – Texas. Circle K acquired Valero/CST Brands in 2018, where Joe had previously been the Dispensed Beverage Category Manager since 2014.
Before relocating to Texas, Joe spent 14 years at BP Products North America in various roles, including Category Manager, National Merchandising Manager and Marketing Programs Manager.
Joe began his career with 7-Eleven (The Southland Corp) in 1986. His roles during his 14 years with 7-Eleven included Operations, Franchising and Merchandising.
Joe earned a B.S. in Business from the University of Redlands, Redlands CA. He is also NACS certified in Category Management, AMA Certified in Project Management and has completed formal CPCM Training through CMKG.
He is divorced and has a 24-year-old son. After living in six different states, Joe calls Boerne TX, (just outside San Antonio), home. His hobbies and passions include golf, concerts, and live music (Red Dirt and Texas Country) fishing and photography.
Lorne Brockway
Lorne Brockway, Chief Operations Officer
Fikes Wholesale / CEFCO
H Lorne Brockway has served as CIO of The Fikes Companies since 2015 and was VP of Information Technology prior to that. His background includes forty years spent in retail, distribution and ecommerce. He has worked on both the technology side and the business side, which provides him a different perspective of how technology is really used versus how it was intended to be used.
Jon Bratta
Jon Bratta, SVP - GM
Rock Solid Capital Investments
Jon Bratta is a 30 -year CPG veteran holding various Senior Leadership positions within Marketing, Merchandising, Category Management, and Private Brand Development for Convenience Retailers such as 7-Eleven, ampm, and Kangaroo Express, as well as West Coast Alcohol retailer: BevMo. Jon also spent nearly 5 years at Core-Mark, leading Marketing, Merchandising, and Advertising.