Industry Leaders on 24/7, EVs, Labor, Policy and AI

“ [With capstone projects] you have to be very, very specific about what you are trying to solve. You can’t make it so open-ended. So if we’re going to do something with AI, I think it has to be very specific. We’re after these things, these efficiencies, these particular labor savings, these particular ways to track and talk to customers or whatever, because otherwise they just kind of go. The check-ins are very important, too, to make sure they’re not going somewhere that just frankly doesn’t make sense, because you’re sort of renting very large brains that know a lot about technologies that most of us, at least at my age, don’t know about, but they really don’t understand the business at all. And you need both. Joe Sheetz , Executive Vice Chairman, Sheetz Inc.

Building on Past Experience

specificity and oversight. Both rejected the idea of university-led hackathons with Sheetz cautioning they yield “half-baked ideas.” James Hervey , head of petro at Verifone, described how capstone projects they initiated with the University of Florida succeeded only when sponsors were en- gaged and guidance was consistent. Workforce Development and Talent Pipelines Several participants also stressed the op- portunities with academic partnerships in building future talent. Mark Samuels , EVP of convenience retailing at Dash In/ The Wills Group, highlighted his company’s internship program with the University of Maryland, which both seeded recruitment and gave students exposure to the busi- ness. Keith Slater , chief financial officer at Family Express Corp., shared similar expe- riences, noting that projects allowed com- panies to identify student leaders and even hire directly from the programs, like they have done with Valparaiso University. Both emphasized that strong pipelines could reshape perceptions of convenience retail as a technologically advanced industry.

The discussion reflected widespread enthusiasm for academic collaboration, tempered by lessons learned. Eva Stras- burger , president of StrasGlobal, CEO of Compliance Safe and VGN co-founder, recalled earlier conversations within CLVG, especially referencing Greg Parker , ex- ecutive chairman of Parker’s, on a past student project analyzing electric vehicle drivers. In this meeting, Parker made a compelling case for artificial intelligence, arguing that “the people that are going to be the most successful are the ones that are going to be in the forefront of using this.” He suggested focusing capstone projects on AI applications and partnering with top-tier universities and stressing the importance of matching the right project with the appropriate university, not forcing the project topic because the institution is already chosen. Joe Sheetz , executive vice chairman of Sheetz Inc., and Darren Rebelez , chair- man, president, and CEO of Casey’s Gen- eral Stores, both reinforced the need for