The convenience industry knows Frank Gleeson for numerous roles over his decades-long career. Among them: president and CEO of Aramark Northern Europe, 2018-2019 NACS chairman of the board and executive positions at Topaz Energy Group and Statoil Ireland. His latest leadership role—made official on January 1, 2026—is president and CEO of NACS. 

A role he’s less well known for? A Gaelic football player in Ireland, where he’s from. 

If you ask Gleeson, he was never the best player on his team or the most talented. “But I was absolutely the most committed,” he said. “I was just the most competitive person you ever met. I wanted people to say, ‘Frank never gives up. He shows up early and stays late. Down to the last kick of the game, he’s still competing even if we are losing.’”

As only the fourth CEO in NACS’ 64-year history, Gleeson is now our team captain. “After 30-plus years in a business I’m so passionate about, it’s like winning the lottery for me to lead NACS and have this position in an industry that I have been part of for so long,” he said. “We are already very well placed to navigate the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities for more market share. I’m optimistic our stores and the industry as a whole will become even harder to compete against.”

On the Frontlines

Gaelic football is the number one sport in Ireland. It’s a hybrid of soccer, rugby and basketball. “It’s a contact sport with no pads,” said Gleeson. He started playing at age 12 and continued until he was 35, rising through the ranks. A highlight was being selected to play for a team that represented Ireland in a series of games played in Australia. He played fullback earlier in his career before moving up the field into the forward position. “I’d say I’ve broken every bone in my fingers over the years. As a defender, I put my hands, face and everything on the line to stop somebody from scoring.” 

Fittingly, Gleeson’s off-the-field career in retail started on the frontlines of his family’s restaurant business. 

“I was serving customers tea and coffee in the restaurant or washing dishes in the kitchen,” he said. “It gave me an appreciation for the importance of challenging work and customer loyalty.” 

One of Gleeson’s mottos is: “If you’re not serving a customer directly, you’re serving someone who is serving a customer.” He believes that the best leaders, especially those in the retail business, must have a hospitality mindset.  

“If we treat our people well, they will in turn deliver for customers—that’s really where the moment of truth happens and where loyalty is built,” he said. “Leaders exist to support their people and create the culture and environment for success. The culture of an organization is defined at the frontline, and leaders must never lose sight of that.”

Coaching and Leadership 

One of the highlights of Gleeson’s football career wasn’t as a player—it was coaching his sons when they started playing the sport. “It’s hard to beat the feeling of playing in a big game. When the national anthem is played in the stadium and you are out on the field and then you win, the whole thing is just brilliant. But my kids following in my footsteps … that would rival it. We won the all-Dublin under-14 competition and went on into the all-Ireland series getting to the final in Leinster, and that win was probably even better for me than my son who played in the game, because I was the coach while he was playing. With coaching, you’re not playing yourself but you’re giving back all the things you’ve learned.”

Gleeson has always had a coaching mentality, but even after years of job experience he had a “profound change” when he attended the NACS Executive Leadership Program at Cornell University. “I was a very strong manager with great technical ability, but the course at Cornell turned me into a real leader of people and a strategist,” he said. “The key difference between management and leadership is people. Management skills are tactical, but leadership requires empathy, listening and the ability to bring the best out of others. As my career progressed, I learned that success comes less from giving direction and more from creating the conditions for others to succeed and be their best selves.”

In his teams, he looks for those who are willing and able: “Attitude is number one—when someone is willing, you can teach them a lot if they want to learn and develop themselves. They also must have a certain level of ability, capability or potential to do the job.” 

Calm in a Crisis

Save for broken thumbs and a few knee injuries, “the sort of stuff you’d expect,” Gleeson said he remained free of serious injuries during his football career. The companies he has led over the years, meanwhile, have faced more substantial challenges, from the financial crisis to Covid. Gleeson is no stranger to leading through tough times. 

He was at the helm of Topaz in 2008 when the markets crashed. “I remember it quite distinctly—they crashed hard in Ireland. The banks were bankrupt and Europe had to come in and bail us out. We had no liquidity and were heavily leveraged with business loans,” he recalled. 

Ireland imports all of its fuel. In July of that year, when his end-of-month sales tax bill came due at the same time as a payment for a fuel shipment from Norway, Gleeson found himself at an impasse. “I think we estimated we had about ten days’ worth of fuel left in the country, so if we didn’t pay for that shipment—in cash, because there was no credit available due to the banking crisis—we would run out. We didn’t have the credit, so I had to ring up the finance minister. I asked if we could delay our tax bill, and he said no. I said, ‘Sir, if you want to have cars on the road and planes flying in the sky, we have to pay for this tanker of fuel coming in or we’ll all be in trouble.’ It’s those kinds of moments when you are forced to confront issues that you learn from. If you work well with the stakeholders involved, you find that you can get an outcome that works.” 

Keeping calm under extreme pressure is one of the things Gleeson has learned is essential to being a successful leader. 

“When there’s chaos around you, you have to bring clarity and purpose. You can only deal with situations as they arise or evolve and work with what’s in front of you, so your ability to analyze, understand and then pivot is absolutely critical,” he said. “Keep calm and rely on the team members around you to gather information to help you make the right decisions and work your way through things systematically.” 

The Next Season

These days, Gleeson is fully focused on the future of NACS and the convenience industry.

“I have a really positive outlook. That’s based on past performance, which as they say is usually an indicator of future performance. Our industry has grown exponentially year on year—we have broadened our categories and services with all of the amazing offers you see today,” he said.

He sees three factors as key to winning. 

Foodservice: “Foodservice, in particular, is a significant repeat opportunity for our industry. Fuel demand is evolving, primarily driven by adoption of EVs and greater efficiency of ICE vehicles; however, foodservice offers multiple daily occasions to serve customers. I often say, ‘You fuel your car once a week, but you fuel your body three or four times a day.’ That creates enormous growth potential that our member retailers and suppliers can capitalize on. Executed well, foodservice in our industry can rival or surpass quick-service restaurants. Our industry has the huge advantage of location, value for money and trusted customer relationships. This will make foodservice a cornerstone of long-term sustainability and profitability for most progressive c-store operators.”

Advocacy: “The biggest threat we face as an industry is regulation. As NACS and as the convenience and fuel retailing industry, our job is to educate legislators, proactively and constructively, to help find solutions that work for the consumer and for the retailers, because we must coexist. What I have found during my time in advocacy is the more you have the conversation, the better chance you have of a good outcome. We need to make sure we share our voice and perspective. That’s really crucial. Grassroots efforts of retailers sharing their voices works. I’ve seen it work. And that’s how we get favorable outcomes for the industry going forward.”

Technology: “In order to be innovative, ready for new categories and able to scale your business, you must have technology in place. The most progressive retailers start with what problem they’re trying to solve and how to use technology to help with it, whether that’s at checkout or in back-office operations. There are so many opportunities to deploy technology. You’ve got to do it in a way that helps your employees do a better job or reduces your cost but doesn’t diminish the customer experience. A great example is TruAge®—I worked closely with the TruAge team for over a year before becoming CEO of NACS. With TruAge, NACS looked at the future of age verification and how digital tools were developing. It came up with a solution that’s made both for today and can evolve in the digital ecosystem going forward.”