Boryana Dineva Straubel (May 25, 1983 – June 19, 2021) was a Bulgarian businesswoman and philanthropist who emigrated to the United States. She managed a family foundation that focused on

environmental sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

. She founded a jewelry company, ''Generation Collection,'' to promote environmental sustainability through the recycling of metals. She was a manager in human resources at Tesla, the electric car company. She married Tesla executive J. B. Straubel in 2013. In 2015, she became the vice president of human resources for the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

for one year. As she was bicycling in a designated lane in Nevada in June 2021, a car crossed the center line and struck her, killing her instantly.

Early life and education

Boryana Dineva was born in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. She was raised by a single mother. From a very young age, the value of hard work was instilled in her. She graduated from high school as class valedictorian in 2000. After the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

in 1989, her family migrated to Germany, where they lived in a refugee camp for a few months. Afterwards she lived in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and Russia. Straubel was passionate about math. She was shy and preferred surfing the internet than going out with friends. She moved to the United States in 2005. Straubel studied at the

College of San Mateo College of San Mateo (CSM) is a public community college in San Mateo, California. It is part of the San Mateo County Community College District. College of San Mateo is located at the northern corridor of Silicon Valley and situated on a 153-a ...

and graduated in 2008. She studied at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

where she got a B.S. in Economics. In 2019 and 2020, she obtained a Management Science & Engineering Master's degree and an MBA at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

Straubel worked as account manager for the software company

Brocade Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...

. From 2011 to 2015, she worked in Human Resources, Operations and Data Analysis at Tesla. During those four years and a half the employee count went from 600 to 13,000, as TESLA became a mass-production car manufacturer. Straubel led the Human Resources Analytics, Information Systems, and Operation groups. She was instrumental in building the company's people analytics capacity and developing a data-driven organizational design to support growth. She was instrumental in creating the Tesla culture that she summarised as From 2015 to 2016, Straubel was VP of Human Resources for the

. She oversaw the Wikimedia Foundation's talent and culture function, including talent acquisition, organizational training and development, and talent management and people analytics. She reported to Wikimedia Foundation Chief Operating Officer Terence Gilbey. From March 2016 to July 2017 Straubel was Program Director at Tesla. She left Tesla to study at Stanford University where she got a ''M.S. in Management Sloan'' (2019) and ''M.S. in Management Science and Engineering'' (2020) by the ''Stanford's School of Engineering''.

Straubel Foundation

The 2012 Fast 500 and VC of the Year Awards

The Straubel Foundation's goal is to help accelerate the transition to a more environmentally sustainable future. Since 2015, J. B. Straubel has been the president of the Straubel Foundation. Boryana Straubel was an executive director until her death in 2021. The Straubel Foundation is focused on leadership,

impact investment Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an a ...

s, and education.

Personal life

On August 3, 2013, Boryana Dineva Straubel married Jeffrey Brian ("JB") Straubel and lived in Woodside, California. In 2015, she gave birth to twins. When JB Straubel left as CTO at Tesla in July 2019, they moved to Nevada, where Redwood Materials was located.

Death

Straubel died after being hit by a car which crossed a double yellow line on June 19, 2021, while Straubel was riding her bike. The driver was unlicensed. Guadelupe Garcia-Davalos, the driver of the car, pleaded guilty to one count of reckless driving causing death or substantial bodily harm, a felony charge that carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

References

External links

Boryana Straubel in Youtube

Straubel Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Straubel, Boryana 1983 births 2021 deaths 21st-century Bulgarian businesspeople 21st-century Bulgarian women 21st-century Bulgarian people 21st-century women philanthropists Bulgarian emigrants to the United States Bulgarian philanthropists Bulgarian women philanthropists Bulgarian women in business College of San Mateo alumni Jewelry retailers of the United States People from Mezdra Road incident deaths in Nevada Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Tesla, Inc. people University of California, Berkeley alumni Wikimedia Foundation staff members Cycling road incident deaths