George Eversman, executive vice president of business and retail, received the Convenience Distribution Association's Dean of the Industry Award for 2019.
The award recognizes industry leaders who have demonstrated a firm and steadfast partnership with the Convenience Distribution Association (CDA). The award designates Eversman's excellence in industry relations, initiative, and understanding of the distribution industry.
"George has been a prominent figure in the industry and dedicated to CDA in which he is very involved," said CDA's President and Chief executive Officer Kimberly Bolin. "He epitomizes what the Dean of the Industry award represents."
Eversman has served on CDA's Warehouse Delivered Snacks Committee (WDSC), Education Committee, and Board of Directors, which he has been on for 12 years. When Dot Foods started its relationship with CDA in 2002, Dot was a much smaller company and sold to less than 50 of its members. Today, Dot sells to every convenience distributor.
"In 2002, only a handful of convenience retails and distributors had foodservice offerings," Eversman said. "But today, foodservice is a big part of what we provide since there are a lot more foodservice and ready-to-eat products sold by these retailers."
Rob Sincavich, president at Team Sledd and past chairman of CDA, said Dot and Eversman have been instrumental in the c-store industry's success.
"He was my first exposure to Dot Foods, and I think he contributed to the c-store industry by allowing us all to get further ahead in our foodservice business than we would've otherwise," Sincavich said. "George deserves this award for being an innovative thinker, getting ahead of the curve with us in flattening out our business with manufacturers, and helping us access more products."
Dot Foods President Dick Tracy also had praise for Eversman and his career at Dot.
"George is a class act and has been an important part of our organization," Tracy said. "He started out on the ground, worked his way up, and is now responsible for manufacturer relationships in all channels. He has been integral to our success."
Eversman has been in his current role as executive vice president of business and retail since 2013. In 1995, he started working for Dot as a business development manager. George has his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa and his master's degree from Arizona State University.
When asked about the recognition, Eversman said, "I am certainly excited about the award, but this is more of a testament to Dot overall, and not really me. We have been pretty engrained now for 20 years in both the c-store distributor industry, and in particular the Convenience Distributor Association. Others (within Dot Foods) like Devin Fogleman, Lee Leffers, and Mandi Clark have spent similar amounts of time building our brand in this segment and really recognition of our entire Dot team and business model."
*Some quotes and information for this article came from CDA's Magazine for the Convenience Products Distributor