Hi! I’m Jesse Roque (pronounced like “rock”) and I'm excited to be working with INFRA members in the Mid-Atlantic region as your Business Advisor.
Prior to working at INFRA my natural foods retail career started as many do: accidentally. While in college, I took a job at a natural foods store as a combination grocery worker and cashier, and from there moved to produce, then deli, and then wellness. Later, I became a Wellness Manager, then moved on to Grocery Manager, Center Store Manager, and then Purchasing Manager. I have worked in very small stores, and I have worked in very small stores that went through expansions to become large stores. All in all I have over 20 years of natural foods retail experience, and I look forward to 20 more years in the industry.
I have been at INFRA since September of 2019, and began as a Retail Services and Merchandising Specialist. In 2022 I was promoted to Promotions & Merchandising Advisory Lead. In both roles I was able to work directly with INFRA members in different ways and was fortunate to spend a lot of time learning how INFRA can support our members’ promotional execution and create merchandising solutions to help members get as much out of their promotions as possible. In late 2023 I became the Business Advisor for the mid-Atlantic region, a role I am still learning but that also places me right where I want to be: in a position to learn from and support our members' success.
I look forward to working with you and learning about your community. As always, my goals are to help you to get the most out of your INFRA membership, connect you to programs and services that will benefit you, help foster peer connections, and continue to strengthen the greater INFRA community so we can all succeed together.