Hamdi Ulukaya (born 26 October 1972, Iliç) is a Turkish billionaire businessman, activist, and philanthropist of Kurdish ethnicity based in the United States. Ulukaya is the owner, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of

Chobani Chobani is an American food company specializing in strained yogurt. The company was founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish businessman. Chobani sells thick, Greek-style yogurt with a higher protein content than traditional yogurt and is o ...

, the #1-selling strained yogurt brand in the US. He established production facilities first in upstate New York, and since then has expanded. According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

,'' his net worth as of October 2022 is US$2.1 billion. On 26 April 2016, Ulukaya announced to his employees that he would be giving them 10% of the shares in Chobani. In an interview with

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

''Money'', Ulukaya said that he was very serious about

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

rights and left Turkey due to the Turkish state's oppression of its Kurdish minority group. In 2002, he started a modest feta-cheese factory on the advice of his father. His larger success came after Ulukaya purchased a large, defunct yogurt factory in upstate New York in 2005, in a region that had been the center of a dairy and cheese industry since the mid-nineteenth century. Chobani achieved over $1 billion in annual sales in less than five years after launch, becoming the leading yogurt brand in the U.S. by 2011.Winograd, David
"Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya: Startups Are 'Cool' But Let's Focus On People Who 'Make Things'"
'' Huffington Post''. 18 June 2013.

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

named Ulukaya as the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2013,"Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani named EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013"
.

. 9 June 2013. and Inc. magazine named him one of the most important entrepreneurs of the past decade in 2019. In July 2022, the

UN Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

António Guterres announced him as an additional advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Early life and education

Hamdi Ulukaya was born to a dairy-farming Kurdish family in 1972 in İliç, a small village in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Erzincan Province Erzincan Province ( tr, ; ku, Parezgêha Erzînganê) is a province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. In Turkey, its capital is also called Erzincan. The population was 236,034 in 2018. Geography Erzincan is traversed by the northeaste ...

. He had six siblings and his family owned and operated a sheep, goat, and dairy farm near the Euphrates River in

İliç İliç is a town and district of Erzincan Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It covers an area of 1,397 km² and the elevation is 1,060 m. The district has a population of 6,349 of which 2,503 live in the town of İliç ( ...

, where they made cheese and yogurt.Gross, Daniel
"It's All Greek to Him: Chobani's Unlikely Success Story"
''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

''. 12 June 2013.Weisul, Kimberly
"How Turkish 'Dairy Boy' Hamdi Ulukaya Started $600 Million Chobani"
'' Inc.'' 17 October 2012.Mead, Rebecca
"Just Add Sugar: How an immigrant from Turkey turned Greek yogurt into an American snack food"
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. 4 November 2013. The family often led a seasonally semi-nomadic existence tending and herding their flocks. Ulukaya is uncertain of his exact birth date because he was born during one of the family's mountain treks, although he uses 26 October as his birthday. After studying political science at Ankara University, in 1994 Ulukaya moved to the United States to study English at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

on Long Island, New York."Honorary Degree Recipients: Hamdi Ulukaya, Doctor of Humane Letters"
Colgate University, 2013. ''Colgate.edu''. In 1997 he moved upstate and transferred to the

University at Albany, State University of New York The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

where he enrolled in a few business courses.Prasso, Sheridan
"Chobani: The unlikely king of yogurt"
'' Fortune''. 12 December 2011. He ended up taking a job on an upstate farm. During a visit, his father persuaded Ulukaya to import the family's

feta cheese Feta ( el, φέτα, ) is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it is ...

from Turkey, after tasting the inferior cheese available locally. When the imported cheese proved popular, Ulukaya opened a small wholesale feta cheese plant of his own, called Euphrates, in

Johnstown, New York Johnstown is a city in and the county seat of Fulton County in the U.S. state of New York. The city was named after its founder, Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York and a major general during the Sev ...

in 2002.Fifield, Anna
"Founder follows his gut instincts"
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

''. 9 April 2013. The venture was modestly successful but by the two-year mark it had just barely broken even. Ulukaya later recalled, "It was two years of the most challenging days of my life."

Chobani

Inception and development

In the spring of 2005, Ulukaya noticed a piece of junk mail advertising a fully equipped yogurt factory for sale in South Edmeston, New York, west of his feta cheese factory. The 84-year-old factory had been closed by

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

.Gruley, Bryan
"At Chobani, the Turkish King of Greek Yogurt"
''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. 31 January 2013. Although he initially threw the flier away, Ulukaya toured the plant the following day and decided to buy it, against the advice of his attorney and business advisor. Ulukaya financed the purchase within five months with a loan from the

Small Business Administration The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and stre ...

, plus local business-incentive grants.Needleman, Sarah E
"Old Factory, Snap Decision Spawn Greek-Yogurt Craze"
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. 20 June 2012. He initially named his new company Agro Farma, and hired a handful of the former Kraft employees. Ulukaya decided to make an alternative to American-style yogurt, preferring the yogurt he grew up with in Turkey.Ulukaya, Hamdi
"Chobani's Founder on Growing a Start-Up Without Outside Investors"
. ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Ma ...

''. October 2013. (alternate posting

. He hired a yogurt master from Turkey, Mustafa Dogan, with whom he spent nearly two years developing his own yogurt recipe. To manufacture strained yogurt, Ulukaya needed a million-dollar commercial machine called a milk separator, which the American-style Kraft factory did not have. He found a used one in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and negotiated to buy it for $50,000. On his trip to pick up the separator, the name "Chobani", a variation of ''çoban,'' the Turkish word for shepherd occurred to him. Ulukaya made

yogurt without preservatives. Since he could not afford advertising, he invested time and money on the product's packaging, using a distinctive new bowl-style shape to differentiate the brand.

Launch

In October 2007, he shipped his first order of Chobani, a few hundred cases, to a grocer on Long Island. The store repeated the order the following week. Ulukaya's early business approach included strategies larger companies did not use. Rather than pay stores a slotting fee, which his start-up company could not afford, he paid stores in yogurt rather than in cash to stock his wares. He also negotiated to pay off the slotting fees over time as the yogurt sold.Walden, Mark
"Hamdi Ulukaya tells his story at Entrepreneur Weekend"
Colgate University – ''Colgate News''. ''Colgate.edu''. 8 April 2013. He also implemented in-store samples so customers could taste the product and purchase it immediately. Lacking the budget for traditional marketing, after hearing customers phoning in to say that they loved Chobani, Ulukaya had his small team reach out to bloggers, Facebook, and Twitter to have constant and direct communication with consumers. In 2010 he also created a sampling truck, the CHOmobile, which handed out free cups of Chobani yogurt at festivals, parades, and other family-friendly events all over the U.S."Chobani Founder: Why Quality & Community Are they Keys To Brand Success"
''PSFK.com''. April 2013. In its first year, the sample truck gave away 150,000 full-size containers of Chobani.Walters, Kath
"CMI Industrial door closes, Chobani Australia opens"
. '' Leading Company''. 3 May 2012.

Expansion

After BJ's and Costco began carrying Chobani in 2009, the company doubled its sales every year through 2013.Grenoble, Ryan
"Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani Yogurt Founder, One Of The World's Newest Billionaires"
'' Huffington Post''. 14 September 2012. In December 2012 the company opened the world's largest yogurt factory in

Twin Falls, Idaho Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 51,807 as of the 2020 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a radius, and is the regiona ...

, a $450 million investment. In 2012 Chobani had more than $1 billion in annual sales,Pride, William; Hughes, Robert; Kapoor, Jack
''Foundations of Business''
Cengage Learning, 2014. p. 232. and in 2012 it became the world's leading yogurt brand. By 2017, Chobani reached a US market share of Greek yogurt of over 50%. Chobani expanded internationally to Australia in 2011, into Mexico in 2016 and by 2021 it exported also to China, Malaysia and Thailand.

La Colombe Coffee Roasters

In mid-2015 Ulukaya became the majority investor in

La Colombe Coffee Roasters La Colombe Coffee Roasters (originally La Colombe Torrefaction) is a US coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in Philadelphia. The company currently has cafés in Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C, and elsewhere. La Colombe is representat ...

Business philosophy

Ulukaya has stated that higher wages for employees leads to greater corporate success. In an interview with Ernst and Young Global chairman & CEO Mark A. Weinberger, Ulukaya said that businessmen should promote a sense of purpose in their corporate culture to create a climate of positive change in business and the world. He stated that companies should focus on humanity and not just on their bottom lines. When Ulukaya opened his second yogurt manufacturing plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, he created a job training program together with the

College of Southern Idaho College of Southern Idaho (CSI) is a public community college in Twin Falls, Idaho. It also has off-campus programs in Jerome, Hailey, Burley and Gooding. Until the foundation of the College of Western Idaho in 2007, CSI was one of only two ...

and the Chobani Foundation (formerly known as Shepherd's Gift Foundation.) He has also worked to improve the community in Twin Falls by supporting the Southern Idaho Children's Learning Center, Twin Falls Rapids Soccer Club, and other community programs. In March 2017 the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

reported Ulukaya's efforts to work with

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

colleges to offer technical training for workers to solve the area's labor shortage. The Chobani yogurt plant in Twin Falls is the largest in the world and pays its workers in the area on average twice minimum wage. Additionally, he raised the starting wage to $15 per hour as of spring 2021. In the fall of 2017, Chobani announced a brand evolution that featured new packaging and positioned the company as a "food-focused wellness company." In 2017, Chobani started offering six weeks of paid leave to new parents as a result of Ulukaya's own experience when his son was born in 2015. The policy ensures that Chobani employees have the needed time to bond with their newborns, and it covers adoption, foster care and same-sex couples as well. In the spring of 2018, Ulukaya appeared on

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...

and Good Morning America to announce that the company was celebrating its 10th anniversary as a national brand by giving a Chobani yogurt to every person in America. In March 2017, Ulukaya was featured on the cover of

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

magazine. The cover story was titled "How Chobani's Hamdi Ulukaya Is Winning America's Culture War." Later that spring, Ulukaya was featured by CBSNews' '' 60 Minutes'' on 9 April 2017, in a segment called "Chief of Chobani" that focused on his approach to business and philanthropy. In April 2019, Ulukaya gave a

TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

on the TED conference main stage in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, entitled "The anti-CEO playbook." In June 2019, Ulukaya launched Milk Matters, a program to support the future of dairy farming in America. Part of the program includes a new collaboration with Fair Trade USA to explore developing the first standard and certification program of the dairy industry.

Philanthropy

In 2014 Ulukaya pledged to donate $2 million to the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

. He has also donated to many Muslim charities associated with Iraq and Syria and has explored philanthropic avenues for helping refugees around the world. He signed up for

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has 236 signatories from 28 countries. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, a ...

, a philanthropic initiative by

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...

and

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

Ulukaya visited the Greek island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the nar ...

in September 2015 to see first-hand the situation of the mostly Syrian refugees there. In 2015 he launched the Tent Foundation to help refugees. At Chobani's plants in Upstate New York and Idaho, Ulukaya has long hired refugees from around the world from regions across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In 2015, Ulukaya attended the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in Davos, Switzerland, and launched several new initiatives to help refugees while also encouraging world and business leaders to do more. In 2016, Ulukaya was invited to join the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

International Board of Directors. He is part of the volunteer Board of Directors which determines international policy along with other business leaders, sport leaders, professional athletes, educators and others. In July 2017, Ulukaya launched the Hamdi Ulukaya Initiative (HUG) to train Turkish entrepreneurs who are running existing startups or planning on starting a new venture. HUG has a $5 million budget over five years. In May 2019, it was reported that the Warwick school district in Rhode Island would be instituting a policy whereby students who had outstanding school lunch debt would only be served sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwiches, causing an uproar that they were essentially "school lunch shaming" students who had delinquent accounts, aside from denying them nutritionally balanced lunches. Many of these families were struggling and this was harmful to the students on many levels. Ulukaya stepped in and paid the US$77,000 to cover all the students' outstanding school lunch debt.

Influence and adviserships

Ulukaya has been noted both for his entrepreneurial skills and also his commitment to making affordable and nutritious foods using only natural ingredients. In addition to receiving awards for entrepreneurship, in April 2014 he was named by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

as an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative – 11 selected business leaders who will encourage entrepreneurship in the U.S. and abroad.Harrison, J.D
"Meet Obama's new ambassadors for entrepreneurship"
''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

''. 8 April 2014. Ulukaya was a member of the Upstate Regional Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and previously served as vice chair of the corporate fund board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is on the board of the Pathfinder Village (Community for Down Syndrome) Foundation in Edmeston, New York. From establishing Chobani, Ulukaya has given 10% of his company's net profits to charitable causes. In 2010 he established the company's charitable arm, the Chobani Shepherd's Gift Foundation, now called the Chobani Foundation, to manage this philanthropy."Chobani Selected as SBA's 2012 National Entrepreneurial Success of the Year"

. May 2012. Donations have included major grants to support famine relief efforts in

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

,Malone, Chris and Susan T. Fiske
''The Human Brand: How We Relate to People, Products, and Companies''
John Wiley & Sons, 2013. p. 83. and to underwrite the New York City Pianos project launched by Sing for Hope. Hamdi Ulukaya pledged to donate most of his wealth, at the time of the pledge at least 700 million dollars, to help the Kurdish refugees, as well as refugees from all around the world.

Honors

Ulukaya's success and entrepreneurship has garnered him numerous awards, honors. These include: *

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

Economic Development Corp.'s Outstanding Business Award 2008 *''

The Business Review American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

''s 40 Under Forty Award of 2009 *

American Advertising Federation The American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest national advertising trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry ...

's Advertising Hall of Achievement (inducted 2011) *

's 2012 Entrepreneurial Success of the Year Award *Ernst & Young U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 *Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards (2013) *Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year 2013"Chobani Founder Named World Entrepreneur 2013"
''QSR Magazine''. 17 June 2013. *Brand Genius Award from

Adweek ''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...

in 2013, in the Consumer Packaged Goods category * Sing for Hope honoree at 2013 Art for All Gala *Honorary

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Humane Letters from Colgate University (2013) *Honorary

in Humane Letters from the Sage Colleges (2013)Sweeney, Charles
"Sage Colleges' commencement celebrates graduates hard work"
''

The Troy Record ''The Record'' (also known as ''The Troy Record'') is a broadsheet daily newspaper once published in Troy, New York. The paper has been published regularly since 1896. It covers all of New York's Capital Region and specifically the city of Troy ...

''. 18 May 2013. *Honorary

in Humane Letters from the

University at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

(2014)Viccaro, Haley
"2,116 receive degrees at the University at Albany"
'' Daily Gazette''. 19 May 2014."Noted Upstate New York Entrepreneurs to Deliver UAlbany Commencement Addresses, May 17 and 18"
.

. 17 April 2014. *

Culinary Institute of America Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs or ...

Leadership Award for Health and Wellness (2014)"2014 CIA Leadership Award Honorees Represent 'The Power of Food'"

. 24 January 2014. *Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (2014) Pritzker, Penny:

United States Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

"Announcing President Obama's New Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship"

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...

. 10 April 2014.Abdullahoğlu, Eren
"Obama Honors Turkish Entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya"
. '' Daily Sabah''. 9 April 2014. * 2015 UN Global Leadership Award *In November 2015, Ulukaya was honored by the

Children's Aid Society Children's Aid, formerly the Children's Aid Society, is a private child welfare nonprofit in New York City founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace. With an annual budget of over $100 million, 45 citywide sites, and over 1,200 full-time employees ...

with their Corporate Leadership Award. *In October 2015, Ulukaya was honored with a humanitarian award by the

American Turkish Society The American Turkish Society (ATS) is the oldest non-for-profit, apolitical organization based in America dedicated to building bridges between the United States and Turkey. The Society hosts a broad spectrum of programming, including lectures, wor ...

(ATS) for his personal work in helping to relieve the suffering of Syrian refugees. * 2016 Eminent Advocate honor from the

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrat ...

* 2016 Women's Refugee Committee Voices of Courage Corporate Leadership Award *2016, Disruptor Awards' Christensen Prize. He was a 2013 honoree for the same award. * Named one of

TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017 * Featured on the cover of

in 2017 as a model for 21st century leadership * Featured in Fortune magazine's third annual list of 50 companies that are changing the world in 2017 * Selected by Forbes as one of the 100 greatest business minds as part of the Forbes' centennial celebration * Included in Fast Company's list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2017 *

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

's Humanitarian Award (2017) * Named one of

Foreign Policy Magazine A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through m ...

's Global Thinkers (2017) * Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ Ripple of Hope Award (2017) * Named one of the

National Retail Federation The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, chain restaurants, grocery stores, and multi-level ma ...

s’ People Shaping Retail's Future (2018) * Accepted Chobani's Salute to Greatness Award by The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (2018) * Refugees International's McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award (2018) *Honorary Ph.D. in Humane Letters from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(2018) *Honored by

Lycée Français de New York The Lycée Français de New York (LFNY), commonly called the Lycée (in English, "The French High School of New York"), is an independent bilingual French school serving an international community of students from Nursery-3 to twelfth grade based ...

with the

Charles de Ferry de Fontnouvelle Charles Hippolyte Marie de Ferry de Fontnouvelle, more commonly known as Count Charles de Ferry de Fontnouvelle or Charles de Fontnouvelle (March 21, 1877 – April 25, 1956), was a French diplomat and pedagogue, who was the Consulate general of F ...

Award (2019) *Honorary Ph.D. in Humane Letters from

Boise State University Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...

(2019) *Honorary Ph.D. in Humane Letters from

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

(2019) *Recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award from the Business for Peace Foundation (2019) *Anti-Defamation League's Courage Against Hate Award (2019) *

Global Citizen Prize The Global Citizen Prize is an awards show organized by Global Citizen (formerly known as the Global Poverty Project), aimed at celebrating activists and leaders around the world. It began in September 2016 with the George Harrison Global Citizen A ...

for Business Leader (2019) *Honorary Ph.D. in Global Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University (2022)

Personal life

Ulukaya lives in

New Berlin, New York New Berlin is a town in Chenango County, in central New York, United States. The population was 2,682 at the 2010 census. The town contains the village of New Berlin. The town is at the eastern border of the county and is northeast of Norwich. ...

, near Chobani's South Edmeston factory and headquarters."Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO, Chobani, Inc. and EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Award winner, interviewed by Mark A. Weinberger, EY Global Chairman & CEO"

. 2013. He was briefly married in the late 1990s to New York City doctor Ayşe Giray. In 2012, Hamdi Ulukaya's Turkish ex-wife Dr. Ayşe Giray sued him for a 53 percent stake in the company claiming her family lent him $500,000 for the business. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. Other claims that emerged from the divorce proceedings included her accusations that Hamdi stole the recipe for his yogurts. These accusations were proven unfounded and dropped. Ulukaya joined the world's billionaires in the early 2010s. In 2015, he had a son, Aga, with Alida Boer. In January 2018, Ulukaya married Louise Vongerichten, co-founder and president of Food Dreams Foundation, founder of sustainable's kids clothing line Mon Coeur and daughter of famous French-American chef

Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jean-Georges Vongerichten (; ; born in Alsace, France, on 16 March 1957) is a French chef.

. Ulukaya has additional offices in Manhattan and

."Chobani Opens World's Largest Yogurt Manufacturing Plant in Twin Falls, Idaho"
'' Turk of America''. 19 December 2012.

References

External links

2014 Keynote speech (interview)
at Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year ceremony (53 minutes) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ulukaya, Hamdi 1972 births Living people 21st-century Turkish businesspeople American drink industry businesspeople American food company founders American food industry business executives American investors American people of Kurdish descent Ankara University alumni Businesspeople from New York (state) Giving Pledgers People from İliç Turkish billionaires Turkish emigrants to the United States Turkish Kurdish people Turkish people of Kurdish descent Turkish philanthropists University at Albany, SUNY alumni