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Brian Hannasch

Brian Hannasch

President and Chief Executive Officer

Brian Hannasch joined the Corporation in 2001 and was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Couche-Tard in September 2014. Mr. Hannasch was previously Chief Operating Officer since 2010 and Senior Vice‑President, U.S. Operations from 2008 to 2010.From 2004 to 2008, he was Senior Vice-President, Western North America and Vice‑President, Integration from 2003 to 2004. In 2001, he was appointed Vice‑President Operations, U.S. Midwest where he was responsible for all aspects of U.S. operations.

Mr. Hannasch was Vice President of Operations for Bigfoot Food Stores LLC, a 225-unit convenience store chain in the U.S. Midwest acquired by Alimentation Couche‑Tard in 2001, from 2000 to 2001. Prior to that, he was at BP Amoco from 1989 to 2000, and held various positions of increasing responsibility including Vice-President of Marketing for the U.S. Midwest Business Unit. Mr. Hannasch was named CEO of the year by The Globe and Mail in 2016. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing (NACS) since 2016. He has a master of business administration in marketing and finance from the University of Chicago and a bachelor of arts in finance from Iowa State University.

Darrell Davis

Darrell Davis

Executive Vice President, Operations, North America

Darrell Davis was appointed Executive Vice President, Operations, North America, in Spring 2019, after occupying the position of Senior Vice-President, Operations, since May 2012. Prior to that, Mr.  Davis has been Vice President, Operations, Florida, since March 2011. He was previously Vice-President Operations, U.S. Midwest, since December 2005.

Previously, he has served Couche-Tard as Director of Operations, and later as Director of Marketing within the U.S. Midwest business unit. Mr. Davis joined Couche-Tard in 2002 when it acquired Dairy Mart, where he held the position of Vice-President, Operations of such corporation. Mr. Davis began his career in the convenience store industry over 30 years ago.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from the University of Louisville.

Hans-Olav Høidahl

Hans-Olav Høidahl

Executive Vice President, Operations, Europe

Hans-Olav Høidahl was appointed Executive Vice President, Operations, Europe, in Spring 2o19. He joined Couche-Tard in June 2012 when it acquired Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA and has held the position of Executive Vice President, Scandinavia, since October 1, 2010. He was formerly Vice President for Energy Europe in the Statoil Group, since 2006.

He joined Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA in 1992 and has held a variety of positions including Director for Customer Service in Norway, Manager for Regional Sales in Scandinavia, Sales Director in Norway, Country Manager for Energy in Norway and Vice President for Energy Operations.

Mr. Høidahl holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Norwegian School of Management.

Deborah Hall Lefevre

Deborah Hall Lefevre

Chief Technology Officer

Deborah Hall Lefevre was appointed Chief Technology Officer in Spring 2019. Prior to that, she held the position of Chief Information Officer, since April 2017. She has a vast expertise of almost 30 years in senior information technology leadership.

She began her career with Motorola in 1989 as Senior Manager, Information Technology and joined the McDonald’s Corporation in 2002, where she held several upper management positions in the Information Technology including Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Segment and Corporate Vice President, Global Enterprise, Solutions and Business Transformation.

Ms. Lefevre holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science, Computer Information Processing from Southern Illinois University.

Kevin A. Lewis

Kevin A. Lewis

Chief Marketing Officer

Kevin Lewis joined Alimentation Couche-Tard as Chief Marketing Officer in July, 2017 and is responsible for marketing, merchandising and category development activities worldwide.

Mr. Lewis has held multiple executive roles in digital and physical retail and technology companies across the globe.  He was most recently Chief Marketing Officer at Total Wine & More. Previously, Kevin ran the digital, kiosk and subscription businesses while Senior Vice-President of Digital at Blockbuster Entertainment.  From 2004 to 2008, Kevin was a member of the executive committee and Chief of Strategy and New Business for Philips Consumer Lifestyle, a division of Royal Philips Electronics.

Earlier in his career, Kevin held multiple leadership positions during a ten-year career at the Boston Consulting Group focusing on CPG, retail and technology clients worldwide.

Mr. Lewis is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Voltari, a real estate investment company.

Mr. Lewis holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Stanford University and an MBA (with Distinction) from INSEAD.

Alex Miller

Alex Miller

Executive Vice President, Commercial Optimization

Alex Miller was appointed Executive Vice President, Commercial Optimization, in Spring 2019, after occupying the position of Senior Vice President, Global Fuels, since February 2016. Prior to that, he held the position of Vice President, Fuel, since October 2012. Mr. Miller joined Couche-Tard in January 2012, as Director of Fuels, Real Estate and Facilities.

Prior to, he was with BP Plc. for 16 years in a variety of operational, supply, business development, and strategy roles in the US and Europe.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Southern Illinois University.

Ina Strand

Ina Strand

Chief People Officer

Ina Strand holds the Chief People Officer position since April 2017. Ms. Strand was previously Senior Vice-President of Special Projects since 2014, working on many global projects, including the development and introduction of the new global Circle K brand.

Ms. Strand joined Statoil Retail Norway AS in 2003 as a People Development manager, and was later appointed Human Resources Director, Customer Offer Director and deputy Vice-President of Operations in Norway before she joined Statoil Fuel & Retail’s Executive leadership team as Executive Vice President of Market Development when the company was publicly listed October 1st, 2010. After the acquisition by Couche-Tard, Ms. Strand held the position of Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Europe until 2014. Prior to joining Statoil, Ms. Strand worked five years as analyst, consultant and project manager at the Norwegian office of UK based PA Consulting Group.

Ms. Strand holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Economics and Technology Management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.

Claude Tessier

Claude Tessier

Chief Financial Officer

Claude Tessier joined Couche-Tard as Chief Financial Officer on January 28, 2016. Prior to joining Couche‑Tard, Mr. Tessier held the position of President of the IGA Operations Business Unit at Sobeys Inc. from 2012 to 2016 and was a member of Sobeys Inc. Executive Committee.

He joined the management team of Sobeys Quebec Inc. in 2003 as Senior Vice President, Finance & Strategic Planning. Mr. Tessier has spent most of his professional career in the Food industry after serving in several finance positions. Prior to his position with Sobeys Inc., Mr. Tessier gained more than 15 years of experience in senior financial leadership positions with Fly Furniture, Provigo and Costco, including in CFO and Vice President roles. He has also held management positions in Mallette International and PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand).

Furthermore, he has been involved with various social and community organizations, most notably the Fondation Charles‑Bruneau. He also participated in the fundraising campaign of the Fondation de l’Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec.

Mr. Tessier holds a Bachelor degree in Accounting from the Université du Québec à Montréal (1986) and has been a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants since 1987.

Niall Anderton

Niall Anderton

Senior Vice President, Operations

Niall Anderton was appointed Senior Vice President, Operations, Central and Eastern Europe & Ireland in August 2019.

Mr. Anderton joined Topaz Energy Limited in Ireland as Chief Financial Officer in April 2015 and has held the position of Vice President of the Ireland business unit since its acquisition by Alimentation Couche-Tard in early 2016.

Brian Bednarz

Brian Bednarz

Senior Vice President, Operations

Brian Bednarz was appointed Senior Vice-President, Operations, in May 2019.  Previously, Mr. Bednarz held the position of Vice President, Operations, Gulf Coast, since February 2013. He joined Couche-Tard in April 2012. 

Prior to joining Circle K, Brian joined the Hess Corporation in 1988 and held various roles of increasing responsibility, including Retail Manager, Branded Retailer Representative, Division Manager, Florida, and Division Manager, Metro NY/NJ. He also held the role of Senior Vice President for Dattilo Petroleum from 2004 to 2005. Brian was employed by CVS Pharmacy as Region Manager, Texas/Oklahoma, from 2005 to 2012.

 Brian obtained a B.S. Criminal Justice from The College of New Jersey and an MBA from Long Island University.

Kathleen K. Cunnington

Kathleen K. Cunnington

Senior Vice President, Global Shared Services

Kathleen K. Cunnington was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Shared Services, in January 1st, 2018, after holding the position of Vice President, Shared Services. North America, since February 2013. In this role, she has oversight for the Accounting and Information Technology services supporting all global sites.

She was formerly Vice-President Benchmarking and Administration from 2011 to 2013 and prior to that Director of Finance and IT, Midwest Shared Services. She has been with the Corporation since 2003 and has 18 years of experience in the convenience retail industry in various financial leadership positions.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Kentucky. She is a Certified Public Accountant and spent her early career in public accounting with the firm of Ernst & Young and as internal auditor for a global fortune 500 corporation

Rick Johnson

Rick Johnson

Senior Vice President, Operations

Rick Johnson was appointed Senior Vice President, Operations, in July 2019.  Previously, Mr. Johnson held the position of Vice President, Operations, Northern Tier, since December 2017 when Holiday Stationstores was acquired by Circle K.

Prior to joining Circle K, Rick was Senior Vice President of Operations for Holiday Stationstores, since 2008.  Rick enjoyed a 41-year career with Holiday Stationstores and held various roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President of Operations, Regional Vice President of Operations, Director of Administration, Regional Manager, District Manager, Store Manager and Assistant Manager.

Mr. Johnson has completed various programs with St-Thomas University, Cornell University and the American Management Association, ranging from Finance & Accounting, Leadership and Executive programs.

Jørn Madsen

Jørn Madsen

Senior Vice President, Operations

Jørn Madsen has been appointed Senior Vice President, Operations, in Spring 2019. He joined Couche-Tard in June 2012 when it acquired Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA and held the position of Executive Vice-President, Central & Eastern Europe, since October 1, 2010. He was formerly Vice President for country operations in Statoil Energy & Retail ASA, since 2007.

He joined Statoil in 1990 and held several management positions including Vice President for retail operations Europe, Director of Retail Operations in Denmark, Director of Retail Operations in the Baltic countries, Director of Category Management in the Baltic countries, Regional Manager of Retail Operations in Denmark, and Controller in Denmark.

Mr. Madsen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Copenhagen Business School.

Dennis Tewell

Dennis Tewell

Senior Vice President, Merchandising

Dennis Tewell was appointed Senior Vice-President, Merchandising, in Spring 2019. Prior to his current appointment, he held the position of Vice President, Operations, since June 2013, and the position of Vice-President, Worldwide Franchise, as he joined Couche‑Tard in January 2011.

In 1978, Mr. Tewell began his convenience industry career with Conna Corporation. He has served companies in the U.S. and the UK in a variety of marketing and operations positions, such as Conna Corporation, BP Oil (London, England), Dairy Mart, Swifty Services and recently at CVS/Caremark. These positions include Director of Franchising, Regional Director of Operations and Strategic Planning Coordinator, Vice-President of Operations, Vice-President of Franchising, Business Development, Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Area Vice-President.

Mr. Tewell holds a MBA and a BA in Accounting from the Bellarmine University in Kentucky.

Stéphane Trudel

Stéphane Trudel

Senior Vice President, Operations

Stéphane Trudel was appointed Senior Vice President, Operations, in January 2018.  Prior to that, Mr. Trudel held the position of Vice President, Operations – Quebec West business unit, since June 2017, leading one of the 4 Canadian business units of the company, following the acquisition of CST Brands by Couche-Tard.

In this role, his responsibilities included leading Operations, Merchandizing, Real Estate, Human Resources, Food Services and the Distribution Center.

Throughout most of his 26-year career, Mr. Trudel worked for large oil companies, from IT manager at Petro-Canada up to Principal Vice President, Growth and Strategy under CST Brands, after having spent 16 years at Ultramar and Valero Energy from 1997 to 2013.

Mr. Trudel sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (CIPMA) and on the Convenience Industry Council of Canada (CICC).

Mr. Trudel holds a bachelor degree in business administration, with a specialty in information and system management, as well as an MBA, both from Sherbrooke University.

Executive Committee


Brian Hannasch
Brian Hannasch
President and Chief Executive Officer
Darrell Davis
Darrell Davis
Executive Vice President, Operations, North America
Hans-Olav Høidahl
Hans-Olav Høidahl
Executive Vice President, Operations, Europe
Deborah Hall Lefevre
Deborah Hall Lefevre
Chief Technology Officer
Kevin A. Lewis
Kevin A. Lewis
Chief Marketing Officer
Alex Miller
Alex Miller
Executive Vice President, Commercial Optimization
Ina Strand
Ina Strand
Chief People Officer
Claude Tessier
Claude Tessier
Chief Financial Officer



Executive Leadership Team


Niall Anderton
Niall Anderton
Senior Vice President, Operations
Brian Bednarz
Brian Bednarz
Senior Vice President, Operations
Kathleen K. Cunnington
Kathleen K. Cunnington
Senior Vice President, Global Shared Services
Rick Johnson
Rick Johnson
Senior Vice President, Operations
Jørn Madsen
Jørn Madsen
Senior Vice President, Operations
Dennis Tewell
Dennis Tewell
Senior Vice President, Merchandising
Stéphane Trudel
Stéphane Trudel
Senior Vice President, Operations
Couche-Tard
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