Hamdi Ulukaya is a Turkish-born Kurdish-American businessman, the self-made billionaire Founder, Owner, and CEO of Chobani, the dominant Greek yogurt brand in the United States. Born in 1972 in İliç, Erzincan, Turkey, to a Kurdish family engaged in dairy farming, his early life was seasonally semi-nomadic, herding sheep and making cheese near the Euphrates River.

Ulukaya left Turkey in 1994 due to the Turkish state's oppression of its Kurdish minority, moving to the U.S. to study. He pursued business-related studies at Adelphi University and SUNY Albany. His entrepreneurial journey began modestly with a feta cheese factory in 2002, before his pivotal discovery of a closed, abandoned yogurt factory in New York state in 2005.

Hamdi Ulukaya purchased the closed yogurt factory in 2005 with a small loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA). He relaunched his brand as Chobani in 2007 (named after the Turkish word for shepherd). His strategic vision was audacious: introduce authentic, strained Greek yogurt to the mass American market. By 2011, Chobani became the leading Greek yogurt brand in the United States, achieving massive sales success and transforming the entire dairy aisle.

Ulukaya's success is tied to his immense social activism. He adopted the motto: 'the moment a refugee gets a job, they stop being a refugee.' In 2019, he distributed up to 10 percent of the company's shares to employees. He founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees, guiding other businesses on refugee employment. His wealth is secured by his majority ownership of the private, global agri-food giant.

Hamdi Ulukaya is a major global philanthropist and activist. His structural social impact is tied to Chobani's role in setting a high standard for employee treatment (share distribution) and refugee employment (Tent Partnership). His personal donations and aid campaigns, especially following the 2023 Türkiye–Syria earthquake, demonstrate his profound humanitarian commitment.

His career is a powerful narrative of a minority immigrant entrepreneur who successfully leveraged his heritage and social mission to build a globally dominant food brand.

Hamdi Ulukaya maintains the functional, passionate style of a food industrialist and activist. His attire is consistently pragmatic, favoring simple shirts and casual wear. His aesthetic is one of grounded humility and profound mission, reflecting his deep commitment to his employees and humanitarian causes.

Residing in the United States, his luxury is the immense security and autonomy derived from his multi-billion dollar fortune. His life is dedicated to food quality, social justice, and scaling his vision of business as a force for good.