“I have the highest respect for Kris’ advice, judgment and counsel. He carefully guided USA Gasoline through the negotiations and documentation of its sale of 135 gas station sites to Tesoro.”

Mark Conant,
former President and
Director of USA Gasoline

“I have known Kris Qualls for over 30 years and implicitly trust his strong sense of judgment, both for his professional advice as well as his personal advice.”

Craig Stevens,
Owner and CEO of
Mar West Real Estate

Experience

Background
Kriston D. Qualls is a native Californian. He grew up in rural La Habra Heights and later attended San Diego State University, where he graduated with honors. He received his Juris Doctor degree in San Diego from California Western School of Law, with honors, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

Law Firm Experience
Los Angeles. Mr. Qualls practiced law for 12 years in downtown Los Angeles with Graven Perry Block Brody & Qualls. This practice focused on general business, commercial and loan transactions, real estate (sales-purchases and leasing) and employment matters.

San Diego. Mr. Qualls practiced law for his first few years in San Diego with Miller Ewald & Monson and then briefly at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch before moving to Los Angeles. At these firms, Mr. Qualls focused on business, real estate and financing transactions.

General Counsel Experience
Dansk Investment Group, Inc. (“Dansk”) (formerly USA Gasoline and USA Petroleum). Mr. Qualls served as the General Counsel, an Executive Officer and a Director of Dansk and its various affiliated companies from 1999 to January 2011. Prior to the sale of its gasoline stations and convenience stores, it was the largest independently branded gasoline station operator in California and had approximately 1500 employees and operated up to 200 gas stations and convenience stores in 12 states. Separate from the gas station business, the companies also owned real estate investments, operating businesses and other interests. Mr. Qualls has structured and documented the purchase and sale of over 300 gasoline stations-convenience stores and the leasing of countless stations-convenience stores.

At these companies, Mr. Qualls was responsible for these diversified businesses’ comprehensive legal strategies, including:

• Buying, selling and leasing of various real estate
• Buying and selling of numerous businesses, equipment and assets, including a quarry business, a trucking company, a compost business, a freight shipping business, etc.
• Forming various entities to own and operate these businesses
• Advising on employee and HR matters for over 1500 employees
• Negotiating and structuring significant banking and loan agreements
• Managing environmental issues at over 100 sites
• Managing litigation from routine slip and falls to high exposure matters
• Advising on risk management and insurance needs
• Managing finance, tax and audit related matters

Eltron International, Inc. (“Eltron”). Mr. Qualls also served as General Counsel, Vice President and Secretary to Eltron, a fast growing NASDAQ-listed company, which designed and manufactured bar code printers, smart card printers and related accessories. Eltron merged into Zebra Technologies Corporation in 1998. Similar to his experiences at USA Gasoline, he was responsible for a wide range of projects.

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