Charles Clarence Butt (born February 3, 1938) is an American heir and

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

. He inherited his family's

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

–based

H-E-B H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held company, privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, with more than 435 stores throughout Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market (Texas) ...

supermarket chain in 1971. The privately held company has more than 400 stores and $38.9 billion in sales, according to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''.

Early life

Charles Clarence Butt was born on February 3, 1938, the son of Howard Edward Butt Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Holdsworth, and the grandson of Florence Butt, who founded

in 1905. Butt graduated from

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

with a bachelor's degree, where he joined the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American social Fraternities and sororities, fraternities. The fraternity has 244 active undergraduate chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has ...

fraternity. He earned an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Career

Butt became chairman, CEO, and president of the H-E-B Grocery Company in 1971.H-E-B Official Website - History
" HEB.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2010. In late 2019, Butt and his family had a net worth of over US$10 billion, according to ''Forbes''.

Awards and recognition

In 2013, AdvisoryCloud ranked Butt as the No. 5 CEO on its Top Chief Executive List. In November 2001, the Mexican government awarded Butt the Aguila Azteca medal for his philanthropic involvement and business dealings in Mexico.

Philanthropy

Butt pledged $50 million to the Raising Texas Teachers scholarship fund to support the training of Texas public school teachers. In January 2017, he pledged $100 million to Texas public education and created The Holdsworth Center, named after his mother Mary Elizabeth Butt (née Holdsworth). In September 2017, Butt donated $5 million to J. J. Watt's Houston

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating tropical cyclone that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cy ...

relief fund. As of May 2018, Butt pledges to

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 ...

and writes in his release that he intends to help children and teachers. In March 2024, Butt donated $500,000 to the State of Texas Agricultural Relief (STAR) Fund to aid Texas farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural businesses affected by the wildfires there.

Personal life

Butt is single. Butt and his family were excluded from the annual Forbes list of the world's top billionaires beginning in 2016. The magazine changed its methodology to exclude individuals from families that share their fortunes. Butt frequently donates to political campaigns, primarily those of Republicans but has donated to various Democratic campaigns as well.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butt, Charles 1938 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American philanthropists American billionaires American chief executives of food industry companies American grocers Butt family Harvard Business School alumni Living people Wharton School alumni