Hamdi Ulukaya

Hamdi Ulukaya, known as the yogurt king, is the founder of America's most popular Greek yogurt brand, Chobani.Ulukaya grew up in a Kurdish dairy-farming family in Turkey and raised sheep. He eventually left to study political science at Ankara University.He immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 to study English in upstate New York, an area that reminded him of the small farming villages in Eastern Turkey.With a loan from the Small Business Administration, he bought an old yogurt plant there in 2005 and developed a recipe inspired by his heritage.He started selling his yogurt in 2007; a decade later, Chobani pulls in more than $1 billion (sales) annually.