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Trailblazers: Roxanne Orsak Makes History at H-E-B

If you ask most people to name the most beloved grocery chain in America, there is a good chance a Texan is standing nearby ready to answer before you finish the question. H-E-B is not just a grocery store to the people it serves. It is a cultural institution, a community anchor, and in many parts of Texas, just about the only brand that inspires the kind of loyalty most retailers spend decades chasing. It operates more than 455 stores across Texas and Mexico, employs over 175,000 partners, and generates annual sales exceeding $50 billion. It is also one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. And for 120 years, it had never been led by a woman. That changed in January 2026, when Roxanne Orsak was named President of H-E-B, making her the highest-ranking woman in the company’s history. While she reports to CEO Howard Butt III, her appointment is a genuine milestone in an industry where women at the very top of major grocery operations remain the exception.

CSG’s Trailblazers series spotlights individuals who have forged their own paths and empowered those around them. This Women’s History Month, we’re proud to feature Orsak as part of our celebration of women who lead in retail & foodservice.

Orsak’s path to the top of one of America’s most admired companies starts in Schulenburg, a small ranching town in the Texas Hill Country. Growing up, her family knew real financial hardship. There were stretches when a five-pound block of government cheese was what got them through the week. But what stuck with Orsak wasn’t the difficulty. It was watching her mother stop on the way home one day, pull a box of the family’s own clothes from the trunk, and hand it to a neighbor who had even less. When a young Roxanne asked why, her mother’s answer was simple: We may not have much, but we always have more than someone. That way of thinking never left her, and it shows up in just about every chapter of the career she went on to build.

When Orsak graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University in 1988 with a degree in agricultural economics, she had her pick of job offers. H-E-B was the lowest-paying one on the table. A professor told her to take it anyway, that the company’s culture and growth opportunities were unlike anything else in the industry. She took the advice, started as a store management trainee, and never looked back.

What followed was nearly four decades of building one of the most well-rounded careers in H-E-B’s history. She worked her way through store operations as a manager and district manager, and later transitioned into advertising, then merchandising, and procurement. In 2004, she developed the H-E-B Plus concept, a larger-format store that layered 50,000 square feet of general merchandise on top of H-E-B’s already dominant food operation. In 2010, she launched Joe V’s Smart Shop, a no-frills, deep-discount format created specifically to bring quality groceries to inner-city Houston neighborhoods at prices the community could actually afford. Along the way, she completed executive programs at USC, Cornell, and Harvard Business School. She was named Chief Operating Officer in 2022, and the President’s appointment followed in January 2026.

There is a piece of history worth pausing on here. H-E-B was not founded by a businessman. It was started in 1905 by Florence Butt, who opened a small grocery store in Kerrville, Texas, with sixty dollars and a belief that her neighbors deserved quality food at fair prices. The company that grew from that single store is now one of the most powerful retailers in the country. The fact that it took 120 years for another woman to reach the top of that organization is a statement in itself. The fact that it happened with someone who started as a trainee, built every skill from the ground up, and spent nearly four decades earning that seat makes it feel exactly right.

Outside of work, Orsak is a competitive triathlete and stays connected to Texas A&M, where she returns regularly as a guest professor in the agricultural economics department that helped set her on her path. She lives in San Antonio with her husband Joe and their two daughters, Victoria and Sarah. Follow CSG as we continue celebrating Women’s History Month with more Trailblazers shaping the future of retail and foodservice.

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