Lycée Français de New York to Honor Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder & CEO of Chobani, at Gala 2019
Lycée Français de New York honors Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani, during its 19th annual Gala 2019 on Saturday, February 9th in New York City. Gala 2019, "La vie devant soi: The Journey is Everything," celebrates the courage, hard work and optimism of all those who have a dream and endeavor to bring it to life. Proceeds from Lycée Gala 2019 support the school's need-based scholarship program, as well as its academic and cultural programming.
NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Lycée Français de New York heads downtown this year for its 20th annual gala on Saturday, February 9, 2019, at a never before activated space in the financial district, Skylight on Vesey. Lycée Gala 2019, "La vie devant soi: The Journey is Everything," celebrates the courage, hard work and optimism of all those who have a dream and endeavor to bring it to life.
Gala 2019 honors Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani, with the school's Charles de Ferry de Fontnouvelle Award, named for the Lycée's founder. Mr. Ulukaya is a Turkish immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1994 and has become a celebrated entrepreneur and humanitarian. In less than five years after launching Chobani, his company became the No. 1–selling Greek Yogurt brand in the U.S. Since day one, he has always made helping people and having a positive impact on communities a priority for the company, especially those in New York and Idaho, where its products are made. Through his foundation, the Tent Partnership for Refugees, he has also built a coalition of global companies committed to improving the lives and livelihoods of more than 25 million refugees forcibly displaced from their home countries.
Led this year by co-chairs Marie Audier d'Alessandris, Candace McDonald, Patricia de Picciotto and Ana MC Razzouk, the Gala welcomes over 900 guests in the most important fundraising effort each year for the Lycée Français de New York's need-based scholarship program. Gala proceeds are also directed to support the school's academic, co-curricular and cultural programs.
"Hamdi Ulukaya is a model of leadership for our students," said Audrey Peverelli, Head of School. "With an entrepreneurial spirit, he has founded and led Chobani with courage, humanity and incredible generosity of spirit. Mr. Ulukaya has used his business acumen and success to give back to his employees, his community and to displaced people around the world."
Gala 2019 will also spotlight Lycée alumna, Aline Sara, Class of 2002. Ms. Sara tapped her multilingual skills and global outlook fostered as a student at the Lycée to start NaTakallam, a social enterprise dedicated to giving displaced people the opportunity to work by teaching language remotely. Since starting in 2015, NaTakallam has paired almost 130 displaced persons and over 4500 individuals in more than 65 countries who have engaged in more than 20,000 hours of NaTakallam sessions.
"We are grateful to the guests and sponsors who take part in our Gala, an event so essential to growing our financial aid program, and in continuing to improve our school programs," added Mrs. Peverelli.
Gala guests will enjoy performances by Lycée students.
Adrien Meyer, Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's, will lead the live auction.
To purchase tickets for Gala 2019, visit: lfnygala.org.
About Hamdi Ulukaya
Hamdi Ulukaya is founder, Chairman and CEO of Chobani, one of the fastest growing food companies in the last decade and a pioneer for the natural food movement.
Raised in a dairy-farming family in a small village in eastern Turkey, Ulukaya launched Chobani in 2007 with the mission and vision of making better food more accessible. In less than five years, Chobani became the No. 1–selling Greek Yogurt brand in the U.S. with more than a billion dollars in annual sales. In 2017, Chobani was named to Fortune's 'Change the World' list of companies, and last year it was honored with a Salute to Greatness Award by The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Ulukaya has always made helping people and having a positive impact on communities a priority for Chobani. From the beginning, the company has donated a portion of its profits to charitable causes, many of them in Idaho and New York where its products are made. Ulukaya implemented a groundbreaking profit-sharing program for the company's 2,000 employees and took the rare step in manufacturing of instituting a six week, fully paid parental leave program for all mothers and fathers.
A devoted humanitarian, Ulukaya founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees to mobilize the private sector to improve the lives & livelihoods of the more than 25 million refugees around the globe. He also signed the Giving Pledge and committed the majority of his personal wealth to the cause. For these efforts, he was named an Eminent Advocate by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and received the United Nations Foundation Global Leadership Award, among other recognitions. Ulukaya was also named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World for his work on the refugee crisis and his innovative approach to business.
About Aline Sara
Aline Sara is the Co-founder and CEO of NaTakallam, a social enterprise that connects refugees and displaced persons with work opportunities in the language sector through the freelance economy. She graduated from the Lycée Français de New York in 2002, and went on to complete studies at Tufts University and Columbia University. In 2015, in light of the challenging work situation for the million+ Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and while searching for ways to practice her own Arabic skills, Aline came up with the idea for NaTakallam –to hire refugees as online tutors-- which has grown into a larger social enterprise working in multiple languages and communities. To date, the venture, which is disrupting the way we typically think of humanitarianism, has provided over half a million dollars in cash to displaced people worldwide. Besides income to refugees on the one hand and a service to students and clients on the other, NaTakallam helps foster intercultural exchange and raise awareness around the daily challenges of fleeing conflict zones, notably through its academic partnerships with schools and universities (including Columbia, Duke, GW, Tufts, Yale and more).
About the Lycée Français de New York
The Lycée Français de New York is an independent, bilingual French school welcoming 1,360 students from Pre-K to 12th grade from over 68 countries. Committed to bilingual French and American education of the highest standard, the Lycée aims to prepare students of many origins to be thinkers, innovators and leaders, at home in the world and prepared to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Accredited by NYSAIS and the French Ministry of Education, Lycée students receive a US high-school diploma and choose final preparation in one of three French baccalaureate offerings: International Option of the French Bac (OIB), the French-American Bac (BFA), and the traditional French Bac exam. Graduates attend top colleges and universities in the U.S., France, Canada and around the world.
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