Frank Beard is an industry advocate and public speaker who serves as an analyst/evangelist for convenience store trends at GasBuddy. Through this role, he discusses industry trends with the media while also contributing thought-leadership, product marketing support, and analysis to GasBuddy Business Pages—a "software as a service" (SaaS) platform used by leading fuel and convenience retailers to maintain their station information, manage their reputation, and promote to their target consumer audience.
As an advocate, Beard works to promote ways in which fuel and convenience retailers contribute to their communities. In particular, he has raised awareness of the industry's move towards "fresh" and "healthy". His "30 Days of Gas Station Food" experiment received widespread attention and proved that convenience retailers do, in fact, support those who live a healthy, active lifestyle. Beard continues to support this message by working with organizations such as the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative.
Beard is a regular contributor to NACS Daily, NACS Magazine, and a frequent guest on the Convenience Matters Podcast. His analysis and awareness campaigns have been featured in publications such as USA Today, the Washington Post, People.com, Men's Health, and Thrillist. He has also presented at the NACS Show, the Partnership for a Healthier America's 2017 Building a Healthier Future Summit, Outlook Leadership, Convenience Retailing University, and numerous regional and corporate events.