Gov. Bill Haslam listens to a question during his first news conference on Wednesday in Nashville. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)More than a decade ago, Phillip Adams, the CEO of Utah-based oil company Flying J, called Jimmy Haslam with an invitation.
As Haslam tells the story, Adams suggested the two men and their wives go down to the Florida Keys for a long weekend. Adams’ wife couldn’t go, so the women stayed home, but Adams and Haslam – the CEO of Pilot Corp. – met in February 1998 and spent time diving, fishing and running.
“And he brought it up at dinner one night,” Haslam said. “‘Why don’t we put the two companies’ (retail operations) together?'”
The marriage of Pilot and Flying J didn’t materialize at that time, but the proposal foreshadowed the biggest change in Pilot’s history.
In 2001, Pilot had inked a new deal with its old partner, teaming with Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC as 50-50 partners in a new venture called Pilot Travel Centers LLC. Less than two years later, Pilot grew again, paying $189 million to buy 60 locations from Williams TravelCenters, whose parent company had been hard hit by the Enron debacle.