Priyanka Bakaya is an Australian-American entrepreneur. She founded PK Clean, a clean energy company which converts plastic waste into new products, and served as its chief executive officer.[1][2][3][4]
Priyanka Bakaya | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian-American |
| Occupation | entrepreneur |
| Known for | PK Clean |
Early years
editBakaya grew up in Australia, where she attended Lauriston Girls' School.[3][5][6] Her mother worked as a CPA and her father was a financial services entrepreneur.[3] Bakaya is of Kashmiri descent.[7] As a child, she developed her interest in science through interacting with Percy Kean, an inventor who developed solutions for clean energy and was close to her family.[1][6]
Bakaya attended Stanford University for her undergraduate education in economics and technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for an MBA.[8]
Career
editAfter graduating from Stanford, she took a position as an energy research analyst at Lehman in New York City.[1] Kean died in 2007; around the same time, oil prices rose by twice their original price.[1] Bakaya decided to apply Kean's discoveries and found PK Clean in 2009,[3] applying to MIT to give her the skills necessary to found the business.[1] The company's name was derived from Kean's initials.[1][3] She started working with co-founder Benjamin Coates in 2011, when they were Lightspeed Venture Fellows in California.[9]
In 2012, PK Clean moved to Salt Lake City, where it set up a facility with the capacity to convert 20,000 pounds of non-recycled plastic to 60 barrels of oil each day[3] and zero toxic emissions,[10] using the depolymerization process.[11] The company was awarded MIT's Clean Energy Prize[12] in 2011[13] and third place in the Rice University Business Plan Super Bowl.[14]
Recognition
editIn 2011, Bakaya was the recipient of the prize for female entrepreneurs at the Rice Business Plan Competition.[15] In December 2012, Bakaya was featured by Forbes as one of its 30 Under 30 in the Energy category.[16] In 2013, Fortune named Bakaya as one of its 40 Under 40 to watch.[10]
Bakaya was the North American Laureate for the Cartier Women's Initiative Award in 2013.[17] In 2014, she was featured in Marie Claire as a One Woman Genius and in Elle Magazine as 12 Genius Young Women Shaping the Future.[18][19] In 2015, she gave a TEDx talk on the Power of Waste.[20] In 2016, she won money from Steve Case as part of his Rise of the Rest Tour.[21]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Priyanka Bakaya | Cartier Women's Initiative Awards". www.cartierwomensinitiative.com. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ^ "Texas smackdown: The winners - Third place: PK Clean (4) - FORTUNE". archive.fortune.com. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f Lee, Jasen (4 May 2015). "Women innovators leading by example". DeseretNews.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "Turning Landfill Into Black Gold". Inc.com. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "From Lauriston to Forbes Top 30". Lauriston. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
- ^ a b Lee, Jasen (19 March 2014). "Utah firm making crude oil from discarded plastic". DeseretNews.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "Sundance business and technology conference encourages failure | ParkRecord.com". www.parkrecord.com. 25 January 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "Solving the world's plastic problem". MIT News. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "P3 People Podcast with Priyanka Bakaya of PK Clean". P3Utah. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
- ^ a b "40 Under 40: Ones to Watch, 2013 edition". Fortune. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Grady, Barbara (13 October 2015). "VERGE Accelerate winners: Where are they now?". Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "From waste to oil - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ "Meeting the Next Generation of Energy Entrepreneurs at MIT Showcase". Energy.gov. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Winston, Andrew (6 June 2011). "Our Future Business Leaders Are All About Green". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ "10 Reflections On 2 Business Plan Competitions". Business Insider. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Helman, Christopher. "Priyanka Bakaya, 29 - In Photos: 30 Under 30: Energy". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 December 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "Cartier Women's Initiative Awards 2013". Cartier Women's Initiative Awards. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
- ^ "One Woman Genius". Marie Claire. Retrieved 4 August 2016.[dead link]
- ^ "Mind Game". Elle. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
- ^ "The Power of Waste". TEDx. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
- ^ "Steve Case". BeehiveStartups. Retrieved 21 December 2016.