Tim Massa, Executive Vice President and Chief Associate Experience Officer at The Kroger Co., will retire on September 18, the Cincinnati-based grocery giant confirmed on May 26. His departure closes a 16-year chapter at one of the country's most closely watched food retail employers and caps more than three decades of human resources leadership across two major consumer companies.
Massa joined Kroger in 2010 after a 21-year tenure at The Procter & Gamble Company, bringing with him deep expertise in talent development at scale. He entered Kroger as Vice President of Talent Development and steadily advanced through roles including Group Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Chief People Officer, and Senior Vice President before reaching his current EVP title. The arc of his career mirrors an industry-wide elevation of the HR function — from back-office support to board-level strategic priority.
For food and hospitality operators watching the broader labor landscape, Massa's tenure offers a case study in how large-scale food businesses have repositioned workforce management as a competitive differentiator. Kroger operates hundreds of store locations and employs a massive hourly workforce, making its associate experience strategy a bellwether for workforce trends across food retail and hospitality. The company's framing of his role as "Chief Associate Experience Officer" — rather than a traditional HR title — signals how far the industry has moved toward treating frontline employee engagement as a brand and retention imperative.
Kroger has not yet named a successor. The transition comes as food retailers and restaurant operators alike continue navigating elevated labor costs, union negotiations, and mounting pressure to reduce turnover among hourly workers — challenges that restaurant and foodservice operators track closely as they benchmark their own people strategies against food retail peers.
Industry observers note that C-suite HR transitions at companies of Kroger's scale often signal strategic resets in compensation philosophy, benefits structure, or workforce technology investment. For operators across food and beverage, the leadership change at Kroger's people function is worth monitoring as the company charts its next move on associate experience.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
