Hamdi Ulukaya

About Hamdi Ulukaya

As the founder, chairman, and CEO of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya is a pioneer of the natural food movement. Raised in a dairy-farming family in a small village in eastern Türkiye, Ulukaya founded Chobani in 2005 with the mission of making better food more accessible. Five years after selling the first cup of yogurt, Chobani became a billion-dollar brand, and today is America’s best-selling yogurt. The company has since expanded into an innovative modern food portfolio, adding creamers and oat milk. In 2023, Chobani acquired La Colombe, a leading coffee roaster with a shared commitment to quality, craftsmanship, and impact, selling cold-pressed espresso and lattes on tap at 32 cafes, as well as Ready to Drink (RTD) coffee beverages at retail stores. As a leader in the food & beverage industry, Ulukaya built Chobani with the mission of using food as a force for good in the world. The company’s philanthropic efforts prioritize giving back to our communities and beyond, working to bring nutrition security to its local communities. Since 2022, Chobani has donated over 6.4 million pounds of food to combat hunger in America, supporting immigrants, refugees, and underrepresented people, honoring veterans, and protecting the planet. Ulukaya is well-known for his employee-first policies, including instituting innovative profit-sharing and paid parental leave programs for Chobani’s employees and implementing competitive hourly wage increases well above the federal rate. He has also become a leading voice in the movement to hire refugees, having discovered through his own experience with hiring that “the minute a refugee gets a job is the minute they stop being a refugee.” Chobani has been named to Fortune’s ‘Change the World’ list of companies, was honored with a Salute to Greatness Award by The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and named one of the ‘Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality’ by the Human Rights Campaign. Ulukaya founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees to mobilize the private sector to improve the lives & livelihoods of refugees around the globe, with over 350 corporate members as of 2024. He also signed the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of his personal wealth to this cause. For these efforts, he was named an Eminent Advocate by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Ulukaya 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.

Experience

1. Founder and CEO

   Chobani

   Aug 2007 — Present

Skills

• Strategic Planning
• Product Development
• New Business Development
• Food Industry
• Food Processing
• Dairy
• Marketing Strategy
• Management
• Consumer Products
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Food
• Haccp
• Marketing
• Food Safety
• Business Strategy
• Start-Ups
• Strategy
• Ingredients
• Sales Management
• Visionary
• Business Planning
• Fmcg
• Thought Leadership
• Customer Insight
• Grocery
• Product Innovation
• Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (Fmcg)
• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (Haccp)
• Leadership
• Brand Development
• Entrepreneurship
• Change Management
• Project Management
• Business Development
• Gmp
• Budgets
• Marketing Management
• Manufacturing
• Charitable Giving