Great Women of Texas 2019: Ashli Blumenfeld

Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld

Co-president

Standard Meat Co.

There was a time when Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld yearned for a different life than the one she experienced growing up in Fort Worth.

But after living in New York City for five years and pursuing a career in the fashion industry, her husband-to-be convinced her to move home.

She has no regrets.

As scion of the prominent Rosenthal family, long-time successful business operators and philanthropists, Blumenfeld joined the family business. Blumenfeld and her brother, Ben Rosenthal, are the fourth generation of the family to run the business founded by their immigrant Russian Jewish grandfather in 1935.

Standard Meat Co. has evolved since Ben H. Rosenthal began providing meat products to local hotels and restaurants. The company now has more than 600 employees and ships meat products worldwide to restaurants and supermarket chains as well as subscription meal kit businesses.

The company has gone through many changes over the years and now operates subsidiaries and a private investment company, Penrose Group, which focuses on innovation in the food industry.

He duties include overseeing the creative and innovation team at Penrose, which operates Standard Meat and Syracuse Sausage, which produces premium sausages and meatballs. She also co-founded Circa, a division of the company that produces seared poultry, sausage, salmon and oven-roasted vegetables for food service and retail outlets.

A graduate of Trinity Valley School and Tulane University, Blumenfeld continues the family tradition of community involvement, serving on boards and committees of organizations such as Cook Children’s Health Care System, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, the Fort Worth Zoo, Frost Bank, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Ballet Theater and Tulane University.

Marice Richter

What advice would you give young women rising to a position of prominence?

 Anything can happen, you can only control your own attitude and stay strong.  You must not only learn from your past, but you must also set vivid goals for your future.  Make sure you are passionate about and believe in what you do – otherwise you cannot give it your best. 

You could choose to spend your time many ways: why do you choose to spend it the way you do?

I was blessed to be born into an amazing family that has built an amazing multi-generational food business.  I feel a lot of responsibility to carry on what my dad, and his father and grandfather, built.  The Rosenthal culture is so unique and has attracted unbelievably passionate and motivated employees that have become like family to me.  I want to guide them to success and make all their hard work worth it.  We have also built unreal relationships with our customers – I never want to let them down and I want to help them thrive.  Plus, I simply love what I do.  I love working with my brother and my dad and I love food.  I work everyday towards the goal of continually bringing the world better food made in a better way.

What book, movie, TV series, or play influenced you growing up? Why?

Book: Catcher in the Rye.  It is just a great coming of age story all about questioning the norms and the rules set by the generations before us.  We should embrace individuality.  We can learn so much from differing viewpoints and opinions. 

What would you like for us to know that we might now know to ask?

When I was 18, I said I would never move back to Fort Worth and I would likely never work in the family business.  I moved to NYC after college and spent 5 years in the fashion business, which I loved.  My husband encouraged us to move back to Fort Worth before we got married in 2008.  When I arrived home, I did not know what to do for work so by default I went to work in the food business – best move I could have ever made.  I fell in love with my work immediately and I have never looked back.