**In celebration of Women’s History Month, I’ll be posting about women in the pizza community every few days this month. The pizza biz is pretty male-dominated, so let’s take this opportunity to throw the spotlight onto some of the women who are doing amazing work in the pizza world.
Jen Wright is the co-founder and president of GreenBox, the pizza box that just might save the planet. Beyond being a 100% recycled box (not terribly uncommon), the GreenBox has a secondary use. The lid breaks apart to form four plates and the base folds into itself to form a storage container for leftover slices. It’s absolutely brilliant!
Although she definitely loves pizza, Jen’s true background is in business. The economic downturn of 2008 pushed her out of her gig at Citigroup and onto the Columbia Business School campus, where she earned her MBA. By the end of 2009, she formed Ecovention, the original name of the umbrella company that produces the GreenBox, with Ned Kensing and the box’s inventor William Walsh.
The team developed the product, which Jen presented on the TV show Shark Tank. The box has inspired several copycats, but GreenBox remains the clear leader in pizza box innovation in terms of reusability and marketing capabilities. With Jen Wright at the helm, it’s likely you’ll be seeing way more GreenBoxes at your local pizzeria and fewer big pizza boxes shoved into trash cans.