Luda Kopeikina SM '90
Motivated Volunteer, Motivated Entrepreneur!
Luda Kopeikina SM '90
Luda has been instrumental in shaping the MIT Enterprise Forum. In 2003, she helped launch the South Florida chapter, treating the successful launch as a second job and putting in significant effort. As a volunteer member of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board, she has been an important contributor and is currently chairing the board subcommittee on Chapter Strategy and Global Expansion.
Luda provides forward-thinking ideas and is leading the charge to evaluate and create MITEF strategic direction and partnerships, including collaborations and new chapter development both locally and internationally to raise MITEF visibility and value throughout the world.
What motivates me as an entrepreneur?
“I think that many entrepreneurs will answer this question the same way as I do – to make the world a better place. Money is a great driver but it is not sufficient for powerful motivation. Recently I got involved in a biowaste to energy project. In the middle of last year I felt that my efforts, even though successful, were not as impactful as I would like to see them.
I decided to focus on finding an opportunity to ‘sink my teeth into’.I remembered a discussion with a CTO of a large waste management company who shared with me as we were sitting at a large party dinner table and drinking wine that as long as there is cheap land available, his company will never consider new technologies in dealing with waste but rather landfill it. I remember getting really upset and angry.
So, mid last year I formed a team to search for an environmentally troublesome waste that can be converted to energy. And we found it – poultry litter of all things! Why poultry litter? It turns out that this material is rich in phosphorous that is good for certain soils. However, when poultry litter is continuously applied as fertilizer, phosphorous makes its way into water streams contaminating water supplies.
Many states have regulations enforcing the proper disposal of poultry litter. There are also huge amounts of it – 300 million tons a year in the US alone! We decided that this is a great problem to solve. We formed a company, BioEnergy Planet, and it is now commercializing a patent pending technology to convert this pile of stuff into energy (biooil and biogas) and slow release organic fertilizer.
What excites me is that when we are successful, we will be able to replace approximately 5% of the annual US oil supply! And, show my dinner partner ‘big wig’ CTO that there are more environmentally friendly ways to make money!”
