Our Team

Steve is President of b2b Solutions.

Steve has over 35 years of experience that spans top management positions in both entrepreneurial and large corporate business environments. He has served as President and Member of the Board of Directors for Dairy Mart Corporation, and as General Manager for Convenience Stores and Manager of Convenience Retail Strategies and Programs for Amoco Oil Company.

Doug has over 38 years of experience that spans top marketing and operations management positions in number of large C-Store businesses. Led the Marketing and Field Merchandising teams for United Pacific with more than 360 convenience stores in 4 states. Also served in a dual role as VP of Operations and VP of Marketing for 18 months. While working at Shelvspace Doug helped brand / product owners get their products “Retail Ready” and then improved their opportunity to get on the shelf and in stores. Doug also served as the VP of Marketing at Circle K as well as an operator in Arizona as the Region VP. While at 7-Eleven Doug merited repeated promotion to oversee the execution of operations and develop marketing communications for franchised stores, ensuring adherence to franchise agreements. Doug established this own successful enterprise providing consultation and management services to clients at Philipe’s Pizza and JH Equipment Leasing. The position entailed running day to day business operations; interacting with product manufacturers, wholesale distributors, retailers and managing the Philipe’s Pizza outsourced broker network.

Doug is a Certified Coach from the Coach Training Alliance and attended marketing and business development work at Thunderbird American Graduate School of International Business and an Advanced Marketing Course at the University of Texas, Austin. Graduated from Cerritos Community College and Cal State Los Angeles.

Jerry has 45 years’ experience in marketing and operations for Convenience Stores and Restaurants. From 1972 to 2018; he owned and operated 2 Deli’s in West Palm Beach Florida. Worked for 5 Convenience store companies in multiple operations and marketing roles; 7-Eleven, National Convenience Stores, Crown Central Petroleum, Mapco, and Rutter’s. Worked for Marriott in their Host division where, as Director of Food &Beverage, he operated several different restaurants and bars as well as QSR brands; Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, Mrs. Fields Cookies, TCBY, & Nathan’s.

Ed has more more than 30 years of retail systems experience in the convenience store and grocery retail channels. Most recently as The Pantry’s Vice President of Information Technology. Ed led The Pantry’s technology plans through their rapid growth from 400 stores to over 1500 stores.

Lou Maiellano has 25 years experience and is a broadly experienced marketing/sales manager with significant credentials in the convenience store and tobacco business. Most recently he was National Category Manager for Sunoco Inc. where he created and managed strategy and profitability for the $395 million tobacco category. Lou has also held operational positions at Sunoco, Mobil, Macaroni Grill and Wawa.

Avry has 30 years experience in the convenience retailing / petroleum marketing industry. As a retailer, he has held positions ranging from store manager through the president and C.E.O. In addition to his extensive retail experience, he led NRC Financial Advisers M&A practice. In this area, Avry performed evaluations of over 5,200 retail locations including over 20 chains ranging in size from 20 sites to some of the largest chains in the industry with over a dozen chains of 100 locations or more.

Patrick has 22 years of IT experience in the manufacturing and convenience retail / petroleum marketing industries. He has extensive experience as part of senior management teams at BP and Amoco. He directed the development and implementation of IT consolidation and integration efforts required to support two successive multi-billion dollar mergers. He managed the design and implementation of Amoco’s retail systems including their site networking and card processing platforms.

Terry has over 30 years’ experience in the convenience retail / petroleum marketing industry. He began his career in 1979 with Mobil Oil Corporation, U.S Marketing Division where he held numerous field and headquarters positions in marketing, training, advertising, and planning, working with all classes-of-trades. Terry led the development and implementation of a Mobil’s retail national customer service strategy, in addition to leading the achievement of ISO-9002 certification for customer service for convenience stores for Mobil’s Singapore marketing affiliate.

Deborah has over 20 years food industry experience, with specialized expertise in new concept development and turn-around/revitalization situations. She has served in a number of key positions in the foodservice industry, including Steak And Ale Restaurant Concept Management for the Metro Media Group; The New Concept Development Team Eatzi’s while at Brinker International; National Director Of Food-Service Operations for Whole Foods Market, Inc.; Director Of Meal Solutions Departments for The Tops Markets Division of Ahold USA Inc.; and President and Founder of Food Sense.

For the last four years Linda has been facilitating the Convenience Store Leadership Academy to clients large and small across the United States. This industry specific customized offering is transforming managers and supervisors to leaders and coaches. Linda’s been a top rated and requested speaker at NACS and CSP events as well as various state associations.

Bill Ritter is a native of Toledo, Ohio where after graduating from high school he served in the United States Air Force. After receiving an honorable discharge in 1972 Bill returned to Toledo and attended the University of Toledo majoring in Criminal Justice. In 1974, Bill attended Gormac Polygraph School, Pasadena, California and after graduation began Ritter & Associates. Bill’s career has been devoted exclusively to retail loss prevention and specific loss investigations for the convenience store industry. During his 43-year career he has conducted in excess of 9,000 investigations and interviewed over 47,000 employees for various convenience store companies. These investigations and interviews have led to successful prosecutions and well over $8,000,000 in restitution.

Brian has nearly 20 years of experience in convenience retailing and petroleum related real estate and financial analysis. Formerly a Manager of Business Development with NRC Realty and Capital Advisors, he has been involved with sales of thousands of convenience stores and gas stations representing clients ranging from major oil companies like Sunoco and BP to regional distributors. Brian has participated in the valuation of businesses over $2B. Additionally, Brian has significant experience working with banks and other financial institutions on dispositions and management of distressed assets, and has served as a court appointed receiver in many foreclosure matters. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is a Licensed Real Estate Managing Broker in Illinois.

Bob has almost 50 years experience that encompasses positions ranging from Territory Sales and Field Marketing Manager to President and Owner. After holding a series of ever going more responsibly sales positions with the Lever Brothers Company, Bob joined Gallo Wineries as the Field Marketing Manager for all chain accounts headquartered in the Southeast.

Dean has had a long career in foodservice and c-stores that began in his father’s grocery stores at age eight (8). He worked his way through college at Safeway. After graduating from Washington State University in 1983, Dean accepted a position in retail foodservice with Marriott. In this role, he supervised branded concepts including Starbucks, Dominoes Pizza, Godfather’s and Little Caesars as well as proprietary food service. As a consultant Dean has worked with Arby’s, Church’s Chicken, Qdoba’s as well as many proprietary foodservice concepts.