Tuesday,
May 3, 2022 – The Energy
Marketers of America (EMA) is pleased to
announce that Mark McBride, President and CEO of Cox Oil Company, Inc., Union City, TN, has been chosen to receive
EMA’s prestigious 2022 Distinguished Service
Award (DSA). Serving on the DSA Committee
included: Chair, Mike Downs, Downs Energy,
Corona, CA; Matt Bjornson, Bjornson Oil Company,
Cavalier, ND; Jim Lipscomb, Lipscomb Oil
Company, Greenville, MS; Frank Marcello,
Marcello Distributors Thibaut Oil Co,
Donaldsonville, LA; Kris DeLair, Empire State
Energy Association, Albany, NY; past EMA Chair
Aaron Littlefield, Littlefield Oil Company, Fort
Smith, AR and EMA Chair Tommy Thompson, Thompson
Energy, Dalton, GA.
Mark grew up in
rural West Tennessee on a small family farm. At
the early age of 4, he began to learn the value
of hard work and integrity by hand picking corn
and tending livestock on the family farm for his
dad. His mother and multiple generations of his
family were employed with a regional grocery
chain for many years to help support the family.
Mark recalls at the age of 14 getting to help
his mom do things at the grocer. That's where
his love for the food service business began. He
became officially employed by the regional chain
at age 16 and continued through his college
years at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
After college, he entered the grocers’
management program and worked in every facet of
the food service business over a span of 18
years.
In 1995, an opportunity arose
that allowed Mark to enter the oil and
convenience store business as Director of
Operations for Cox Oil Companies’ 22 sites.
Since that time, McBride has progressed through
the company leadership ranks and was promoted to
President and CEO in 2009. Cox Oil Company is a
family-owned business that was founded by
Michael E. Cox in 1970. Today, the company and
its’ affiliated companies own 54 locations, of
which it operates 52 under the Little General
and other trade names, throughout the West
Tennessee and Western Kentucky markets,
employing 600 associates. In addition to its
retail locations, the company operates a
Tennessee statewide alcohol online training
company. Over the past 27 years, McBride has
been afforded the privilege, by founder Mike
Cox, of acquiring varying degrees of equity
interest in 36 of the company’s retail
locations, and online training company. He is
also co-owner of KYTN Transport, LLC., a
commercial fuel transport company serving West
and Middle Tennessee as well as Western
Kentucky.
Over the past 26 years, Mark
has served the energy marketing industry through
the Tennessee Fuel & Convenience Store
Association (TFCA) and had the honor of being
appointed TFCA President in 2013. He served as
the Tennessee State Director for the Energy
Marketers of America (EMA), EMA Southeast Region
Chair, EMA Convenience Store Chair, EMA
Strategic Planning Task Force member and EMA
Chair in 2018. He currently serves on Marathon’s
Jobber Advisory Council.
Locally, Mark
has served as a board member of the Obion County
Chamber of Commerce and continues to serve as a
Rotarian in the Union City Rotary Club of which
he was President in 2019 and is a Paul Harris
Fellow through his local Rotary Club. Mark and
his wife of 42 years, Donna, live just outside
of Union City, Tennessee. They have two
children, Brittany Allen, and Dustin McBride,
and three grandchildren, Keegan McBride, Madelyn
Grace and Sophie Marie Allen. Spending time with
family is of the utmost importance to the
McBride's. Other hobbies include golf,
gardening, and duck hunting. The family worships
at the Bishop Street Church of Christ in Union
City and supports various charitable and
benevolent organizations both locally and
throughout the State. |