Ilay Karateke, Co-founder & CEO BEZI
A McKinsey consultant turned into a cheesemaker, Ilay is out to make labneh a thing as the co-founder and CEO of BEZI.
During her time at Columbia, Ilay fell in love with the city, built her community through dinner parties at her home, known as Cafe Ilay, and completed her “business school summer internship” at a Mediterranean farm, milking cows and sheep, and learning to make cheese from scratch.
Ilay left McKinsey to help launch Getir’s US operations, where she spent 2.5 years overseeing merchandising, commercial, and marketing departments.
It was during this period that she met her co-founder, Hasan, the heir to one of Turkey’s largest cheesemaking families. After working together for a year and hitting it off, Ilay and Hasan decided to make labneh a thing by creating BEZI and launching it first in their beloved New York! BEZI is on the retail shelves as of September 2024.
Learn the behind the scenes of BEZI and IIay’s journey!
