--- description: Hamdi Ulukaya is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Kenneth Roth wrote about the Chobani CEO. title: Hamdi Ulukaya by Kenneth Roth: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d9793a884c6df0/6988c3340a4a22de7f9cdbf9/time-100-2017-hamdi-ulukaya.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Hamdi Ulukaya by Kenneth Roth  Photograph by Ethan Hill—Redux Hamdi Ulukaya puts the xenophobes to shame. At a time when some accuse immigrants of stealing jobs, the Chobani CEO—a Kurd born in Turkey who moved to the U.S. in 1994—is creating them, big time. He transformed a shuttered factory into a flourishing yogurt company that now employs people in places where jobs have been scarce, such as south-central Idaho and upstate New York. He even shares the wealth, offering employees an equity stake in the company. Many of these workers are native-born Americans. But in a demonstrable rebuke to the hatred coming from Washington, Hamdi has also hired hundreds of refugees to work alongside them. And as the founder of the Tent Foundation, a group dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of the world’s displaced, he is encouraging other companies to do their part as well. Hamdi personifies the American Dream, showing that anyone arriving on U.S. shores with drive and intelligence can make it—and bring others along with him. _Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/"},"headline":"Hamdi Ulukaya","datePublished":"2017-04-19T18:25:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:20:57.264Z","description":"Hamdi Ulukaya is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Kenneth Roth wrote about the Chobani CEO.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/","keywords":["time 100 pioneers"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d9793a884c6df0/6988c3340a4a22de7f9cdbf9/time-100-2017-hamdi-ulukaya.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d9793a884c6df0/6988c3340a4a22de7f9cdbf9/time-100-2017-hamdi-ulukaya.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/","name":"Hamdi Ulukaya"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742698/hamdi-ulukaya/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```