A Local Success Story
Whether it’s bringing a new office space to life or organizing a CHOmobile yogurt giveaway at a community food festival, Cassie Treen ’09 has put her project management skills to work for more than a decade at Chobani.
Advice to Communication Students
“Try to get involved in as much as you can. Take a nice, broad variety of classes; don’t just focus in on one thing because you never know where you’re going to end up and what you’re going to be interested in until you start doing it. The more variety you have, the more opportunity you’ll have down the road. I did three internships when I was at Oneonta, all at different companies, and I think that helped tremendously by giving me different perspectives into the career that I was going for at the time.”
Being a part of Chobani’s success almost from the very beginning has been both exciting and rewarding for Treen, who majored in Communication Studies and completed a minor in Event Planning. When an international film crew came to town several years ago to capture footage for a TV program about the company, Treen was one of three longtime employees chosen to be a part of it.
In her current role as project manager-swag producer, Treen orders apparel and promotional items that departments throughout Chobani need, like shirts for a team at the plant, giveaways needed at an expo and swag boxes sent to brand ambassadors on social media.
“For brand ambassador projects, I manage the swag order with our vendor and organize meetings and schedules to help keep the social and design teams organized from start to finish. It's a really fun job that constantly has new projects taking place. Swag is always changing, and so are the requests, so my day-to-day is never the same. In this role, I also get to work with people across the entire company, which is pretty cool.”
In her previous role as Chobani’s Community Engagement Manager, Treen planned more than 200 community events a year within a three-hour radius of the company’s South Edmeston, N.Y., plant, about half an hour from SUNY Oneonta. She also oversaw volunteer opportunities for Chobani employees, managed the local events team, and coordinated large community projects funded by the Chobani Foundation.
Fulfilling a Dream
It’s been an amazing journey for a girl who grew up on a dairy farm less than six miles from the Chobani plant. The daughter of a farmer and a school teacher, Treen graduated from Edmeston Central School in 2005—the same year Chobani founder, President and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya purchased an abandoned Kraft plant on a whim and launched his dream of introducing the American public to great-tasting, affordable yogurt made with only natural ingredients.
After two years of general studies at Mohawk Valley Community College, Treen transferred to SUNY Oneonta with her own dream:
“I wanted to be an event planner. I knew that that’s what I wanted to do.”
She recalls an event planning course taught by Human Ecology Department Lecturer Oscar Oberkircher and three communication internships as particularly valuable in preparing her for her future career.
After a brief stint on the hospitality team for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, Treen landed a job in March 2010 as Ulukaya’s very first executive assistant, just as Chobani was beginning to take off. It was a serendipitous connection. “I saw his passion. Hamdi felt that we really needed to have a strong community presence. He knew that I had gone to school for event planning, and he let me train with our National Events Manager while I was still his executive assistant.”
A new position of local events coordinator evolved from there, and Treen was later promoted to local events manager to oversee a rapidly developing aspect of the company. Her career has continued to evolve with the company
“Chobani is a very fast-paced company, so things are always moving and changing, and it’s really neat to see how much it’s evolved,” she said. "I’m so happy that I’m still here and I’m still loving what I do.”