President Obama transfers leadership of Partnership for Refugees to Hamdi Ulukaya

On Tuesday, November 15, 2016, President Obama hosted Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani, at a White House Roundtable for a conversation with companies that responded to the President’s Call to Action to the U.S. Private Sector for Greater Engagement on the Global Refugee Crisis.  

At the event, President Obama announced that Ulukaya would assume control of operations for the White House’s Partnership for Refugees (now known as Tent Partnership for Refugees), and would lead the partnership in appealing to the global business community to make new, measurable commitments to support refugees. 

Before Ulukaya took command of the organization in November, the White House had established the Partnership for Refugees in June 2016 to facilitate private sector commitments in response to the Call to Action, an initiative established through collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, USA for UNHCR, and Accenture Federal Service. 

During the November roundtable, new commitments were recognized and companies were encouraged to deepen or scale their initiatives. The Partnership committed to guide the business community by producing resources for best practices, developing criteria for assessing and measuring the impact of pledges made by companies to support refugees, and providing resources that would allow businesses to hire and train refugees. 

The event was attended by Airbnb, Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey& Co, and Supercell, among others.