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Author Nick Arora
Nikhil Arora is a co-founder of Back to the Roots (www.bttrventures.com), a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm that transforms coffee ground waste into the growing medium for gourmet mushrooms, mushroom kits and provides sustainable DIY products for families and kids. Nikhil also serves as chair of the board of directors for Alpha Epsilon Zeta, a South-Asian professional network and serves on the board for the Sage Mentorship Project, a one- to-one mentorship group connecting UC Berkeley students with local, disadvantaged elementary schools in the area. A Phi Beta Kappa scholar, Nikhil is a 2009 summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, from the Haas School of Business and Department of Political Science. Prior to starting Back to the Roots, Nikhil spent time working in business consulting, though always with a passion for sustainability and job creation. He spent 6 months in Ghana in 2007 working to implement a profitable, job-creating recycling program for the 30,000+ student University of Ghana campus. Additionally, Nikhil worked in the summer of 2008 to bring solar powered LED Lanterns to rural Sierra Leone to offer village communities a chance for expanded self-reliability and enhanced productivity. After graduating, he foregoed offers in consulting to instead become a full-time urban mushroom farmer and pursue his passion for sustainability, job-creation and economic development through creative solutions. Awards: BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25, Businessweek’s Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs in America, UCLA’s Opportunity Green Top 25 Green Company Leaders. 2010 Social Venture Network Social Innovation winners, Hitachi Young Entrepreneur winner, and Miller-Coors Urban Entrepreneurship competition winner.