Vishal Vivek co-founded UKHI with a vision to transform agricultural waste into compostable biopolymers while creating sustainable livelihoods for farming communities. Before UKHI, he founded the Hemp Foundation, where he lived and worked alongside farmers in Uttarakhand, conducting 100+ workshops and supporting 1,000+ farmers, many of them women, in building income through hemp-based value chains. Today, he leads UKHI's mission to replace single-use plastics with regenerative materials, backed by collaborations with institutions including IIT Guwahati, Indian Institute of Packaging, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and IIM Bangalore NSRCEL.