Boyan Slat is a Dutch inventor-entrepreneur and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, a non-government engineering environmental organization based in the Netherlands, that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans.
He went for a scuba diving trip to Greece when he was in high school and was appalled by the amount of plastic in the ocean. The sight of all that pollution moved him and he decided to dedicate an entire school project towards plastic pollution in oceans.
He was determined to be the one to find a practical solution to rid the oceans of floating plastic. He dropped out of TU Delft to pursue his idea full-time and launched The Ocean Cleanup in 2013.
His team’s first and second cleanup arrays failed to do their job and had to be brought back. He faced a lot of criticism for these setbacks but was more determined than ever to succeed. Finally, the third mission was effective and was able to collect plastic.
A TEDx talk he gave at Delft went viral and attracted a lot of attention towards his organization. It raised $2 million in 2014 through a crowdfunding campaign that witnessed donors from 160 countries. As of November 2019, The Ocean Cleanup has made more than 30 million dollars.
He has won numerous awards including Champions of the Earth Award by UNEP in 2014, Young Entrepreneur Award in 2015, and Forbes included him in their ’30 under 30’ list in 2016.
“I’m a strong believer that action inspires action, so creating examples of how we solve the problem by using the best humanity has to offer—our ingenuity, our ability to create things out of the blue and our ability to collaborate and effectively work together—that’s what the world needs,” he said.
Written by – Shweta Shukla
Entrepreneurship Development Cell 
Leave a comment