Date: May 09, 2019Time: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
May092019

Entrepreneurial Journey with Siggi Hilmarsson, Founder and Chairman of siggi’s dairy

Thu, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Grant Thornton
General PublicConsumer/Fashion

Description

Siggi Hilmarsson, an Iceland native, was raised on a traditional Nordic diet, which does not typically include overly sweet flavor profiles. While attending Columbia Business School in the United States, Siggi found himself homesick for one of his childhood favorites, a traditional Icelandic yogurt called skyr. Finding U.S. yogurt much too sweet and made with far too many ingredients to his liking, he decided to make his own, and the first batch of “siggi’s” was created in his New York City apartment kitchen.

After months of experimenting, the homemade skyr began to show some promise and soon was moved from Siggi’s kitchen to a local agricultural college in Upstate New York, where the first professional batch of siggi’s was made. Within a year, Siggi quit his corporate job, set up yogurt production with a small dairy farm in Chenango County, New York and started selling his products at an outdoor farmer’s market in New York City.

In 2006, siggi’s launched in its first retail store, Murray’s Cheese in Greenwich Village, and was subsequently picked up by Whole Foods Market the following year. By 2010, Hilmarsson’s company rapidly expanded to meet production demands and, in the years to follow, siggi’s products would become available in over 25,000 retail locations including Wegmans, Publix, Target and Kroger and in over 7,000 Starbucks.

From a home kitchen to national distribution, demand for siggi’s yogurt grew quickly and as did the siggi’s team and the family of products. From inception, simple ingredients and not a lot of sugar have been guiding principles for siggi’s dairy that still hold true today.

Siggi Hilmarsson will join the HBS Club of New York for a conversation about his entrepreneurial journey, and how he grew siggi’s dairy from a startup to the category leader. Siggi will share his secrets for success and lessons learned along the way.

Please note that no refunds will be issued.

Bios

Speaker

Siggi Hilmarsson

Founder and Chairman of siggi’s dairy

Siggi Hilmarsson is the Founder and Chairman of siggi’s dairy, a company fully committed to making rather delicious yogurt products with simple ingredients and not a lot of sugar under the brand name siggi’s.

Siggi’s homegrown knowledge of yogurt, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for reducing sugar consumption have made him a go-to source in both the food industry and business sector. He has been recognized by Credit Suisse’s entrepreneurship forum, Bloomberg, Businessweek, CNBC, Inc. Magazine and Food & Wine Magazine’s 40 Under 40 and his namesake brand received recognition in Nielsen’s Top 25 Breakthrough Innovations Award.

He is also incredibly active in supporting budding entrepreneurs through his alma mater, Columbia Business School.

In 2019, Hilmarsson will join Fast Company’s Impact Council, an invitation-only collective of creative and innovative leaders in business.

Moderator

Lauren Hirsch

Retail Reporter for CNBC.com

Lauren Hirsch covers the consumer and retail industries for CNBC. She joined in 2017 from Reuters, where she was team leader of the M&A group, focusing on breaking consumer and retail deals. Hirsch studied comparative literature at Cornell University and has her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Date Time

Date: May 09, 2019Time: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Location

Grant Thornton757 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10017
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Price

  • 50 / Non-Members
  • Free / Patron Members
  • 20 / Member / Member Guest (limit one)

Sponsors

Attendees

Julia Adamian, Jenna Amos, Daniel Aronhime, Joachim Bader, Liana Baker, Alex T. Barry, Igor Bekker, James Berns, Davide Berretti, Amy Binder, Rebecca Binder, Caroline Brody, Roland Burgman, Jason DeLaurentis, Ben Detrick, Andrew DiGiorgio, Catherine Dockery, Jiaqi Duan, Alejandro Esteve, Kori Estrada, Elizabeth Fairfax Brown, John Ferrari, Elizabeth Fisher, Aditi Ghai, Diana Goodman, Emily Gopstein, Jing Guo, Anne Haack, Jian Ham, Rena Han, Siggi Hilmarsson, Steve Himmel, Steve Himmel, Diane Hirsch, Gary Hirsch, Lauren Hirsch, Steven Hirsch, Michael Hoherchak, Michael Hrynuik, Doris Huang, Matthew Humbaugh, Yukako Ishii, Sharon Joseph, Josh Kalish, Camilla Kalvaria, Michael Karsch, David Kemp, Lana Khabarova, Harshad Khurjekar, Jeff Kleeblatt, Heidi Krauss, Bryan Laulicht, Debora Lehrer, Sergio Leymarie, Jennifer Lin, Sally Long, Lavinia Lorch, Laura Lorenzo, Fadzai Makanda, Mitchell Manoff, Raji Margolin, Sarah Mascioli, Hannah McCain, Joyce Meng, David Milich, Erin Miller, Barrie Moskowitz, Emily Moskowitz, Claire Moss, Christine Murnane, Chitra Nawbatt, Catherine Nelson, Miriam Oh, Elina Onitaskansky, Anna Page, Katina Pappas, Jan Poulsen, Pable Ravazzani, Ivan Reidel, Mariesa Ricks, Oliver Ryan, Masatomo Sakairi, Elie Schneider, Dylan Schuler, Amber Seba, Suzanne Seeber, Valeriya Sharypova, Heimir Snorrason, Jacqualine Spence, Shannon Squier, Tony Stahl, Brad Stern, Eunice Suh, Christine Topalian Agha , Carter Trabakino, Laurent Vernhes, Nina Wanerman, Cristina Weekes, Daniel Weekes, Kasey Wien, Rick Wien, Rachel Winnall, Rachel Winnall, Merry Sui Yuan, Julia Zakov, Hong Zhang, Micheal van Biema

Organizer

Merry Sui Yuan '12

Grant Thornton

757 3rd Avenue, New York, NY, 10017