Parker’s announced that Senior Director of Information Technology (IT) Scott Smith has been named a “Future Leader in Convenience” by Convenience Store News for his impressive professional achievements. Smith is one of 33 industry professionals age 35 and younger who are being honored in 2022.

“Scott is one of the most uplifting, optimistic people I have ever worked with,” said Parker’s founder and CEO Greg Parker. “A quintessential team player, Scott understands that technology is key to our success at Parker’s and strives to make technology a priority in everything we do.”

Smith was named to the fifth annual class of Convenience Store News’ Future Leaders in Convenience, an honor that celebrates the next generation of convenience industry leaders and provides a forum for talented young professionals to develop their leadership skills.

At Parker’s, Smith leads the company's IT operations and maintains the security and efficiency of the company’s payment systems, which process more than 125,000 transactions per day. He also ensures that the Parker’s Rewards app is up-to-date and efficiently serving the loyalty program’s 300,000+ members and manages the company’s round-up for charity technology, self-checkout systems, cloud infrastructure and servers.

Before joining Parker’s in 2021, Smith worked as the Director of Information Technology at convenience and fuel retailer Royal Farms in Baltimore, Md., where he led the IT department in security, infrastructure and retail operations initiatives for hundreds of stores across multiple states. He also served as a Systems and Network Administrator as well as a Project Manager at Royal Farms before being promoted to Director of IT. He earned an associate’s degree in Managed Information Systems from Villa Julie College (now Stevenson University) in Baltimore, Md. and currently resides in Savannah, Ga.