Julie Smolyansky

Julie Smolyansky became the youngest female CEO of a publicly held firm at the age of 27 when she took over leadership of Lifeway Foods in 2002. The company was founded by her refugee parents over 30 years ago with the mission of bringing Kefir, an Eastern European product, into the U.S. mainstream. Under her leadership, the company has boosted revenues to over $110 million today from $12 million when she took over. Smolyansky has expanded Lifeway Foods' distribution throughout the United States, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, and parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean.

For almost 30 years, Smolyansky has actively worked to end domestic violence and sexual assault, creating and teaching the first teen dating violence curriculum in the Chicagoland with YWCA while in high school. She began her career as an in-home family counselor working with families in the DCFS system before leaving the field of psychology to join her family business. She is a certified rape crisis counselor and formerly on the board of Resilience, previously known as the Rape Victim Advocates here in Chicago. Her journey has taken her overseas to Uganda to work with survivors in a refugee camp, with mothers and teen girls in Bangladesh, and not long ago, she was part of a delegation invited to help rape victims and survivors of war gain a seat at the negotiation table during the Colombian peace process. Smolyansky has also worked internationally in other locations including Colombia, supporting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Smolyansky has produced several films focused on social justice, including the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary “The Hunting Ground.” Along with her production work on “The Hunting Ground,” she also shared the stage with 49 other survivors at the 2016 Oscars during Lady Gaga’s iconic performance of “Til It Happens to You,” which was written for the film. In 2013, she co-founded Test400k, an organization dedicated to ending the backlog of 400,000 untested rape kits in the United States. Smolyansky was named to Fortune Business ‘40 under 40,’ Fortune’s 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter, and Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 1000.

Smolyansky serves as an emeritus member of the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council and was part of the 2015 class of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. She recently released her first book, "The Kefir Cookbook: An Ancient Healing Superfood for Modern Life, Recipes from My Family Table and Around the World" in March of 2018. Smolyansky lives in Chicago and is the mother of two girls. She is currently writing her second book and continues to appear on various media outlets including the Drew Barrymore Show, BBC, and MSNBC. She serves on the board of the Anti-Defamation League and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.