Ernie Harker
We are thrilled to announce Ernie Harker as a keynote at this year’s Retail Technology Conference.
Ernie is the expert behind the successful rebrand of regional c-store chain Maverick, Inc. where he led the transformation from the traditional old country store brand into an exciting multi-billion-dollar adventure-themed brand.
Ernie has been igniting businesses and convenience stores for nearly 30 years with his accelerated branding approach articulated in his book, “Your Brand Sucks".
- Author and illustrator of 3 children's books. "They're Waiting For Me" "Monster Factory" and "Making Faces"
- IronMan athlete
- Climbed Kilimanjaro-The highest peak in Africa.
Clifton Dillman
Clifton Dillman serves as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Family Express. In this capacity, he oversees the management and advancement of technology solutions across the company's diverse operations and corporate headquarter.
Renowned as a trailblazer in retail technology, Clifton has spearheaded transformative initiatives spanning forecourt, merchandising, marketing, supply chain, and operations within Family Express. His primary focus, shared by his team, centers on streamlining workflows for company operations, distribution center functions, and corporate staff by harnessing existing technologies and integrating innovative solutions to drive business growth.
Jennifer Johnson
Jennifer Johnson is the NACS Director of Business Development – Localized Marketing Solutions and leads the sales and development of THRIVR, NACS localized marketing platform powered by SOCi. Jen joined NACS in early 2023 after a 20+ year career with NCR Corporation. Jen is responsible for bringing awareness to the convenience and fuel industry on the importance of digital visibility and understanding the tools and resources available to retailers on their digital journey. A graduate of Indiana University, Jen holds a Bachelors in Computer Information Systems and Business Process Management. She currently resides in Austin, TX, and is doing her part to Keep Austin Weird.
Jonathan Langlois
Jonathan is a Managing Director in KPMG’s Strategy practice with 19 years of industry and consulting experience in the payments industry. Jonathan’s primary area of expertise is providing strategic guidance, M&A support, value creation, and business and operating model transformations to his clients, who span across payment processors, merchant processors, card issuers, banks and fintechs. His extensive work within the payments’ space has resulted in him gaining deep expertise across most business functions and processes.
Melissa Durbin
As Digital Application & Innovation Leader for Microsoft U.S. Manufacturing, Melissa is responsible for the Microsoft Cloud Azure Application portfolio for over four hundred customers spanning discrete, process, semi-conductor, and defense industrial base manufacturing. Azure Digital and Application spans cloud native applications, platform engineering, devops, application modernization and generative AI. Melissa and her team focus on driving new go to markets for our customers onto Azure. The portfolio of Azure services, GitHub, Power Platform, Visual Studio and Data & AI services.
Sam Ganga
Sam is the National Consulting Sector Leader for Consumer & Retail at KPMG. With over 25 years of experience, he has led cross-functional teams that help clients with the entire journey of launching a digital business – define, build, launch, grow and scale – with proven outcomes. Sam is responsible for bringing together solutions for clients across multiple disciplines, competencies, and capabilities within KPMG.
Sean Gately
Sean has over a 13 years experience in the payments security industry. He has worked with companies such as ROAM Data now Ingenico, Magtek, Samsung Pay and leads the C-store-Petro team as VP of Security Solutions for Bluefin. He has expert level knowledge on PCI Validated P2PE as well as the benefits and challenges of implementing it in a C-Store environment.