Leadership
Sam Hirbod, President and CEO
Sam Hirbod is the President, CEO and owner of Pacific Convenience & Fuels, LLC which, in January 2009, acquired all of the U.S. retail assets of ConocoPhillips Company. Mr. Hirbod led that acquisition which included nearly 500+ company owned, dealer and fee operator sites and made PC&F a major marketer of the 76 and Conoco brands and the largest franchisee of Circle K in the U.S. Thanks to his leadership, PC&F is a company of over 570+ sites with over $4B in annual revenue and is one of the top five privately owned companies in the retail petroleum industry.
A thirteen year veteran of the retail petroleum and convenience store business, Mr. Hirbod is a recognized entrepreneur, executive and leader of the industry. With a commitment and discipline for creative and synergy-producing deal making, Mr. Hirbod has come a long way since purchasing his first service station in 1997 in Menlo Park, California. Even now, Mr. Hirbod is well known for his surprise visits to PC&F’s stores and is rigorous about identifying opportunities to improve all aspects of the service station and c-store experience for customers. One of Mr. Hirbod’s strongest convictions is that intelligent, efficient and responsible entrepreneurism adds tremendous value to our economy, our communities and our daily lives.
Mr. Hirbod was a former collegiate basketball player and completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at San Francisco State University and attended UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Chris Wilson, General Manager of Operations
As General Manager of Operations, Chris is responsible for overall store operations and performance, Maintenance, Compliance and Fuel Pricing.
Chris comes to PC&F from Circle K where he started as a District Manager Trainee, moving to Sales Manager, Category Marketing Manager, Retail Operations Director and Director of Marketing. His well-rounded convenience store experience is an asset to PC&F.
Chris attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration.
Charlene Kovacsik, Director of Marketing
Charlene leads all of our marketing and merchandising initiatives, including strategic partnerships and category management.
Charlene joined PC&F from Circle K, where she spent the last 17 years successfully leading franchise, marketing, and operations teams. Charlene’s experience in both the operations and marketing side of the business gives her comprehensive knowledge to ensure solid execution for all marketing programs.
Charlene has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University.
Hamilton N. Tran, General Counsel
Hamilton leads and manages all aspects of PC&F’s legal needs, including—among other things—its real estate transactions, corporate transactions and corporate governance, litigation/dispute resolution, negotiation of company contracts, oversight of PC&F’s insurance and risk programs, and is involved in providing strategic counsel for environmental, franchise and labor issues impacting the company.
As a former senior associate of Goodwin Procter LLP, an international AmLaw 100 law firm, Hamilton was a key member of the legal team representing PC&F in its acquisition of the Conoco portfolio and joined the company shortly after that transaction closed.
Hamilton earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California, Berkeley (1997) and his Juris Doctor degree from the Stanford Law School (2002). Hamilton was also a United States Fulbright Scholar to Vietnam, 1998-1999.