Background

Hamdi Ulukaya was born in 1972 to a Kurdish family in Turkey. His family owned and operated a sheep, goat, and dairy farm near the Euphrates River in İliç, Erzincan Province, where they made cheese and yogurt. 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 October 26 as his birthday.

Education

After studying political science at Ankara University, in 1994 Ulukaya moved to the United States to study English at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York. In 1997 he moved upstate and transferred to the University at Albany, State University of New York where he enrolled in a few business courses.

Career

After he had moved to upstate New York in 1997, his father visited from Turkey. After sampling the cheese available locally, his father convinced Hamdi to import and sell their family’s cheese. Doing so proved so successful that Hamdi started his own feta cheese factory, naming the business Euphrates in honor of his roots.

Sometimes the Law of Left Field comes into play. Such was the case for Hamdi when, in 2005, he happened to notice an ad featuring an old yogurt factory for sale only about 100 kilometers from his cheese factory. The building had been owned and operated by Kraft Foods before its closing. Hamdi toured the property the next day and decided to buy the factory and start a yogurt business.

His lawyer’s reaction to the call announcing the decision was not surprising. “The property is in deplorable shape. What makes you think you’ll be successful when Kraft wasn’t. Oh, and by the way, you don’t have enough money for the purchase.” Hamdi charged forward.

It took five months, but by putting up 10% of the price, he was able to secure bank funding which was guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. He then brought a yogurt master, Mustafa Dogan, to the U.S. He also hired four former Kraft employees who spent most of their time painting, cleaning and repairing the factory. For eighteen months, Hamdi and Mustafa worked on creating the perfect yogurt, the type Hamdi grew up with back in Turkey. There would be no preservatives, no GMO, nothing artificial – ever. Finally he had the right recipe and went to market in 2007.

Hamdi made a lot of wise decisions. In a bold move, he would avoid the specialty stores in which similar yogurts were sold and sell only in mainstream supermarkets dairy departments. He was determined to go head-to-head with the sweeter, thinner American style products, even though his yogurt sold at a nearly 50% premium.

Today, Hamdi’s Chobani is the third largest selling yogurt in the U.S. The company employs over 2,000 people with revenue estimated to be $746 million this year. The privately owned company is estimated to be worth between $3 and $5 billion. Hamdi himself is said to be worth $1.85 billion. While those numbers are impressive, the real story is that they are the result of the efforts of a truly fearless brand – Hamdi Ulukaya.

In mid-2015 Ulukaya became the majority investor in La Colombe Coffee Roasters, a brand of coffee competing in the relatively new high-end coffee market. After opening Chobani SoHo Café, he tried dozens of coffees before he decided on La Colombe Coffee Roasters for his café. Ulukaya said that he will not have any management role at La Colombe, nor participate in the board.

In 2016, Ulukaya 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. He announced to his employees that he would be giving them 10% of the shares in Chobani.

Ulukaya lives in New Berlin, New York, not far from Chobani's South Edmeston factory and headquarters. He has additional offices in Manhattan and Twin Falls, Idaho.

Achievements

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  Hamdi Ulukaya is a true rags to riches story – a beautiful example of the American Dream come to life. Ulukaya was selected from 47 global candidates to be the World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, an award begun by Ernst & Young. Ulukaya was a candidate as the United States Entrepreneur that year. Many noted the irony of that award being won by a person who is not a United States citizen.
  
  The popularity of his Greek-style yogurt also sparked the rise in Greek yogurt's market share in the U.S. from less than 1% in 2007 to more than 50% in 2013. Ernst & Young named Ulukaya the World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013. The success of his yogurt empire has made Ulukaya a billionaire and developed new employment in several regions. According to Forbes, his net worth as of 2018 is $1.7 billion.
  
  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 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. Also in 2014, the Culinary Institute of America honored him with its Leadership Award (Augie Award) in the Health and Wellness category.
  
  He has delivered commencement addresses at institutions including the Culinary Institute of America, the Sage Colleges, and the University at Albany in New York, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from Colgate University, the Sage Colleges, and the University at Albany.
  
  In 2017 he featured in the Time 100 list of most influential people in the World. He was selected by Forbes as one of the 100 greatest business minds as part of the Forbes' centennial celebration.

Religion

He is muslim and donated to many Muslim charities associated with Iraq and Syria.

Views

Business philosophy. Ulukaya has stated that higher wages for employees leads to greater corporate success. Not only does he promote the position that companies can succeed when they pay their workers more, they also have a moral obligation to do so, stating that, "…for the sake of our communities and our people, we need to give other companies the ability to create a better life for more people."

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. "Business is still the strongest, most effective way to change the world," Ulukaya told Weinberger.

In a forum hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Ulukaya joined other key business leaders in a discussion on "Misconceptions People Have About US Manufacturing." He stated that "Manufacturing can rebuild the modern American economy."

When Ulukaya opened his second yogurt manufacturing plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, he put his beliefs into practice. He created a job training program together with the College of Southern Idaho 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.

Quotations: "I didn't have a business degree. I didn't have experience to work in somebody else's office. I never built or ran a department. So I was on this journey, and when the time came to make a decision, I was just going with my gut."

"Every small business will give you an entrepreneurial way of looking at things. I guarantee you that for every plant that closes, if you gave it to one small-business person in that community, he or she would find a way to make it work. The small-business attitude is you always find a way to make it work."

"What happened was I saw this ad for a yogurt plant for sale. It was in my junk mail pile, and I threw it into the garbage can. And then about half an hour later, with the dirt on it, I picked it up from the garbage can, and I called out of curiosity."

"Growing up in eastern Turkey, I was not really involved with the family business - sheep and cow farming, yogurt and cheese making. But I think I learned from my father the unspoken business language or instincts that go back thousands of years."

"I'm not somebody who is going to build something for a few years, sell it, and then go off and just have fun."

"A manufacturing resurgence is what will give local communities and small towns across America a fighting chance for survival. Many of today's American entrepreneurs come from those very places but make their wealth elsewhere. We need to change that."

"We took a plant that was being closed by a big company thinking there was no good use for it, and we came in with a different perspective. We bought some used equipment, as simple as we could."

"Entrepreneurship is seen as if you're in Silicon Valley or New York City and starting an app business or a social-media business, which is cool. But what we really have to focus on is people who make things, and how can we fund them, and how can we encourage people to stay in their community and make a difference in their community."

"Everyone asks me why someone Turkish is making Greek yogurt. In Greece, it is not called 'Greek yogurt.' Everywhere in the world it is called 'strained yogurt.' But because it was introduced in this country by a Greek company, they called it 'Greek yogurt.'"

"Just about anyone can make a good product, but it's the people that count. In the end, it's the employees who will take it from a kitchen-table idea to the next level. There are a lot of important things in business, but the people portion comes first."

"I brought in a yogurt master from Turkey. I went to Greece. I was always going back and forth, from New York to Turkey and Greece. The recipe we use has been around hundreds and hundreds of years. Growing up in Turkey, not a day would go by that we wouldn't eat yogurt like this."

"A closed plant is like a cemetery; it really is. The walls will talk to you; the machines will talk to you if you really talk to them."

"Unlike the objective of far too many companies, manufacturing is not about a quick 'exit.' It is centered on long-term value creation."

"There are a lot of studies about small businesses and how they make a difference in their community and create a lot of jobs and values. So we need to focus on small businesses or entrepreneurs who want to start manufacturing or making things."

"My mother used to make the most amazing yogurt."

"I came to the U.S. in 1994 to learn English and go to business school, but I took only a few business courses at the State University of New York at Albany and didn't finish."

Membership

Ulukaya was a member of the Upstate Regional Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and he is a 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 and The American Turkish Society in New York City.

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  The American Turkish Society , New York

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  Pathfinder Village (Community for Down Syndrome) Foundation , Edmeston

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  Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Personality

He has two German Shepherds.

Physical Characteristics: He has brown hair and brown eyes.

Interests

• He is a big fan of independent films.
  
  His pastimes when he is not working include sailing, traveling, and spending time with his two German shepherds.

• Sport & Clubs

  Ulukaya sits on the board of the International Board of Special Olympics, the Pathfinder Village, and The American Turkish Council.

• Athletes

  He is a big fan of the Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce.

Connections

Hamdi was briefly married in the late 1990s to New York City doctor Ayşe Giray. In January 2018, Ulukaya married Louise Vongerichten, co-founder and president of Food Dreams Foundation and daughter of famous French-American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Later that year in April, the couple welcomed their son, Miran.

Mother:

Emine Ulukaya

Spouse (1):

Ayşe Giray

Spouse (2):

Louise Vongerichten

She is a co-founder and president of Food Dreams Foundation and daughter of famous French-American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Son:

Miran Ulukaya

(born in 2018)

References

• Fast Company April 2017 Hamdi Ulukaya - Immigrant. CEO. Billionarie.
• Inc. June 2018 Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani Founder and CEO - Lead On
• Time Magazine (May 1, 2017/May 8, 2017) The 100 Most Influential People Riz Ahmed Cover