Larry Hughes shares innovations developed by the 7-Eleven, Inc. as well as his own unique perspective on business leadership with Dr. Kathy Gosser on this week’s episode of FranchiseU!.

Here is a short biography of Mr. Hughes:

Larry Hughes is the Vice President, Corporate Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at 7-Eleven, Inc. In this capacity, he is the lead human resource business partner for all functions reporting in to the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Merchant, and Chief Marketing Officer, as well as responsible for leading and coordinating all enterprise diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Prior to this assignment, Larry has served in many different leadership roles across the 7-Eleven enterprise. He has twice served as a Division/Zone Vice President of Operations, leading operational business units in both the Northwest and the Southwest regions of the United States, with store counts ranging from 700 to 1300 units and annual revenues reaching $2.5 billion. He has also twice served as Vice President, Training and Development, responsible for the design and delivery of all training activity and materials for all associates and 7-Eleven Franchisees, as well as organizational leadership development initiatives. He has also served 7-Eleven as the Vice President, Franchise Systems, responsible for development of franchise policies, franchise marketing and sales, and franchisee engagement platforms. He joined the company in 2009.

Prior to joining 7-Eleven, Larry served in a variety of leadership assignments in the retailing and hospitality sectors. He managed a retail division for T-Mobile USA, earning the coveted “Fire in the Belly” award for the top performing division two years in a row. Prior to that, he was a Regional Manager with Bath and Body Works, where he led turnaround operations in multiple regions.

Larry has also launched and led a not-for profit organization which focused on accelerating the growth of inner city-based businesses. As the Managing Director of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City – Kansas City, he led efforts that assisted more than 30 urban core-based entities with strategy development, systems evaluations, and identification of growth capital resources. He later applied the expertise he developed working with small and diverse businesses at ChevronTexaco, where he developed strategies to support $1.1 billion in purchasing from small businesses across 24 domestic business units while coordinating their Small Business and Supplier Diversity Program.

Larry earned his Doctor of Education in Human and Organizational Learning from the George Washington University and his Master of Business Administration in Strategy and Managerial/Organizational Behavior from the University of Chicago. He also earned a Master of Science in Management from Baker University in Kansas. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as a Field Artillery Officer in both active duty and reserve components. His military leadership experiences include two separate company-level command assignments.

Larry’s doctoral dissertation, “Exploring the Experience of the African-American Male Worker Assigned to the African-American Male Leader” offers insight into the dyadic relationship between minority leaders and their minority associates while illustrating the need for greater racial diversity on organizational leadership teams. His 2021 book, “Challenging Goliath: Leadership Lessons from the Life of King David” explores leadership truths drawn from the life of one of the most widely known figures in the Bible.