COVER STORY
MENTORS
• McDermid founded the company’s mentorship program, which established a formal process to pair mentees with likeminded leaders within the broader organization. The inaugural cohort included more than 20 mentor volunteers, accounting for 10 percent of CROSSMARK’s leadership staff, and drew hundreds of mentee applications. The program was so successful that it doubled in size in its second year.
Angela Pimental
• A three-time President’s Circle winner and project management specialist, she drives more than $26 million in annual direct purchases and 35 million product units. • Recognizing the need for young women to have female mentors within sales, Simon founded Professional Women Rising (PWR), Swedish Match’s first-ever women’s resource group. PWR consists of five female board members who mentor two mentees each. Simon leads the development, recruitment and training of mentor peers and is responsible for developing the mentee curriculum.
Executive Director of Environmental & Licensing RaceTrac Inc.
• Pimental leads RaceTrac’s environmental and licensing functions, which support its convenience stores, franchise division, and wholly owned subsidiaries. Functioning as a shared service, she provides support and guidance to all divisions of the company relative to environmental and licensing. She plays a pivotal role in ensuring that RaceTrac is a steward of environmental, tobacco, lottery and alcohol laws in the communities it serves. • She is the former chair of LEAD, RaceTrac’s business resource group for women. While in the role, Pimental oversaw a group of approximately 50 RaceTrac team members who carry out LEAD’s mission by planning events, programs, internal communications, and development seminars for women and women’s allies throughout the company. • Pimental is also an ally for RaceTrac’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, and participates as an instructor in the company’s new Leader Development Training program.
Stephanie Simon
Vanessa Turner Executive Team Leader GetGo Café & Market
• Turner is responsible for all aspects of store operations for her location, while leading 31 team members. Her location is a pilot for the GetGo Forward project, which challenges the status quo and promotes process improvements and simplifications for day-to-day tasks and a more robust training program for new team members. • She has mentored dozens of team members who are now current leaders of the organization as district leaders, store leaders, café leaders, and assistant store leaders. Over the course of her 18-year career at GetGo, Turner has held many roles and can relate to the team members she mentors because she’s been in their shoes. • Turner is a key member of GetGo’s Store Leader Council, where she gives vitally important feedback and direction on key issues. She is also a member of the company’s Women’s Business Resource Group. CSN
Business Development Manager Swedish Match
• Simon has dedicated 17 years of her career to the CPG industry. PepsiCo’s fast-paced DSD environment prepared her for seizing retail opportunities at Swedish Match, where she has worked for the past 11 years.
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