Pilot names new DEI leader as c-stores focus on improving their culture

Dive Brief:

Pilot announced Thursday that earlier this summer it hired Angie Cody as its director of inclusion, diversity and equity, according to a recent press release.
Cody joins Pilot’s newly established Team Member Experience department, where she heads its inclusion, diversity, equity and awareness (IDEA) efforts; develops action plans to foster an accessible, equitable and inclusive work environment; and helps broaden the company's diversity recruitment pipeline.
Cody’s hiring underscores the c-store industry’s focus on DEI initiatives, which have increasingly become a priority over the past few years.

Dive Insight:

One of Cody’s highlights since joining Pilot is the creation of the company’s new IDEA Council — a committee of 15 senior leaders from across the business — which led to Pilot receiving the American Trucking Associations’ 2022 DEI Change Leader Award.

Additionally, Cody has helped Pilot create five new business resource groups: Emerging Leaders, Building Relationships in Diverse Group Environments (BRIDGE), Pride of Pilot, Women of Pilot and Veterans of Pilot. Each group aims to help educate and inform diversity change efforts across the company, Pilot said in the announcement.

"Diversity strengthens our company as it expands our horizons and helps us learn from others' perspectives to bring new ideas and initiatives that make Pilot Company a more inclusive and welcoming place to work and shop,” Cody said in the announcement.

Prior to joining Pilot, Cody spent 16 years at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where she held a variety of roles related to DEI, including director of inclusion and diversity. Additionally, she co-founded the St. Louis Diversity and Inclusion Consortium, which aims to advance DEI within organizations in and around St. Louis.

Cody is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

DEI has become more of a priority in the c-store industry over the past few years. Besides Pilot, brands such as Circle K, 7-Eleven, Casey’s General Stores, GetGo and others have utilized employee resource groups and added various roles to help build a culture that encourages and supports DEI at both the corporate and store levels.

“We’ve been able to educate ourselves, but also educate our team [from] shared experiences and listening from those that are on our team and what they’ve had to go through in their lives,” Erik Moore, director of human resources for GetGo said during a recent DEI webinar. “That was a huge eye opening moment for most of our team as they learned a little bit of empathy.”