Hamdi Ulukaya, a businessman of Kurdish origins has been selected as the new chair of the US Chamber of Commerce’s US-Turkey Business Council.
“Chobani and its founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya represent the shared entrepreneurial spirit of the American and Turkish business communities,” said President of the chamber, Suzanne P. Clark in her announcement.
Ulukaya will bring to the council “his dynamic leadership and commitment to innovation to one of our most important bilateral relationships”, Clark said.
With an estimated net worth of $2 billion, Ulukaya is listed among the most successful business people in the United States. Born in Kurdish populated east Turkey, he moved to the United States in 1994 and created the famous Chobani brand after he purchased an abandoned yogurt factory in upstate New York.
The businessman is also the founder of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, an organisation made up of 300 major multinational companies pooling efforts for economic integration of refugees.
Launched in 2013 under the leadership of then chairman and the CEO of the Coca Cola Company Muhtar Kent, the US-Turkey Business Council has a prominent role in business relations between two the countries.
