Hamdi Ulukaya was raised in a dairy-farming family in a small village in eastern Turkey. After moving to the U.S., he founded Chobani in 2005 with the mission of making high-quality food more accessible. Five years after selling the first cup of yogurt, Chobani was a billion-dollar brand and today, the #1 selling U.S. yogurt brand. In 2023, Chobani acquired leading coffee roaster La Colombe.

Ulukaya built Chobani on the foundation that it would do well by doing good. As part of this, he has been at the forefront of the movement to hire refugees, having discovered first-hand “the minute a refugee gets a job is the minute they stop being a refugee.” 

He founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees (Tent) in 2016 with the mission of mobilizing the world’s largest companies to connect refugees to jobs. Today, Tent is a network of 400+ businesses across the Americas and Europe that are committed to hiring refugees and helping them become job-ready.