When Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani, took over an abandoned factory in upstate New York in 2007, he needed more workers to help scale his fledgling yogurt business. He'd heard that the town settled refugees, but many still struggled to find work. So he hired the first of what has been hundreds of refugees working at Chobani over the years.
Thus began Ulukaya's longstanding effort to help refugees integrate into American life, which he says has been a wise business decision because employees are grateful for work, loyal to the company, and less likely to attrit. Beyond humanitarianism, Ulukaya stresses the business case of hiring immigrants and wants more companies to follow his lead.
