Fast Company highlights North American Business Summit on LGBTQ Refugees in its “World Changing Ideas” series

In December, Fast Company’s Talib Visram spoke with CEO of Chobani and Tent Founder Hamdi Ulukaya, President of the Human Rights Campaign Alphonso David, and Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power to showcase Tent’s and HRC’s North American Business Summit on Refugees. 

The event, co-hosted by Tent and the Human Rights Campaign featured 23 companies – including Chobani, Accenture, Hilton, TD Bank Group, IBM, GSK, Under Armour, and Warby Parker – announcing commitments to mentor at least 50 LGBTQ refugees over the next three years. Through the initiative LGBTQ refugees will be matched with mentors from some of the world’s biggest companies in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, who will help to build the refugees’ professional networks, develop relevant skills, and prepare them to enter the workforce. 

For LGBTQ refugees, a doubly vulnerable segment of the refugee population, having a mentor can be an important first step to rebuilding their careers. Hamdi Ulukaya said, “Having that access to someone just for sharing the experience, sharing the knowledge, showing the way, and being a buddy is extremely, extremely meaningful.”

Coverage of the North American Business Summit on LGBTQ Refugees  was also featured in Reuters, The Washington Blade, Triple Pundit, and Queer Forty. 

Read the event press release here.