Hamdi Ulukaya

Hamdi Ulukaya General Information

Description

Mr. Hamdi Ulukaya is the Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at Chobani Incubator. He is a Co-Owner of Shepherd Futures. He is the Co-Owner of Anchor Brewers & Distillers. He is a Co-Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at Chobani. Mr. Ulukaya serves as Chairman at La Colombe Coffee Roasters. He serves as an Advisor at Acumen Fund. Raised in a dairy-farming family in a small village in eastern Turkey, he launched Chobani in 2007 with the mission of making better food more accessible. In less than five years, Chobani became the No. 1-selling Greek Yogurt brand in the U.S. with more than a billion dollars in annual sales. Chobani has been named to Fortune's 'Change the World' list of companies, was recently honored with a Salute to Greatness Award by The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and was named one of the 'Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality' by the Human Rights Campaign. He has always made helping people and having a positive impact on communities a priority for Chobani. From the beginning, the company has donated a portion of its profits to charitable causes, many of them in Idaho and New York where its products are made. A champion of reducing income and wealth inequality nationwide, he advocated in support of a proposal to increase the minimum wage in New York that ultimately became law. In addition, he implemented a groundbreaking profit-sharing program for the company's 2,000 employees. He also took the rare step in the manufacturing of instituting a six-week, fully paid parental leave program for all of the company's mothers and fathers. In 2016, he launched the Chobani Food Incubator to mentor and support socially responsible food entrepreneurs and further deliver on the company's mission to provide better food for more people. A devoted humanitarian, he founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees to mobilize the private sector to improve the lives & livelihoods of the more than 25 million refugees around the globe. He also signed the Giving Pledge and committed the majority of his wealth to the cause. For these efforts, he was named an Eminent Advocate by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and received the United Nations Foundation Global Leadership Award, among other recognitions. He is also a recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award and was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World for his work on the refugee crisis and his innovative approach to business. He sits on the board of the Pathfinder Village and The American Turkish Council. Most recently, he became a member of the B Team, a collective of global leaders working to inspire dialogue and business action for a fairer, greener, and more humane economy.