Entrepreneur and inventor Sharina Perry to deliver OBU Minter Lecture Dec. 4
Sharina Perry smiles broadly at the camera, her long, dark curly hair falling past her shoulders, against a soft pale-blue backdrop.
Oklahoma Baptist University will host Sharina Perry, founder and inventor of Utopia Plastix and CEO and managing partner of Utopia Model Companies, as the Minter Lecturer at 10 a.m., Friday, Dec. 4, in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium of the Bailey Business Center on the OBU campus.
Perry is an entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience establishing and leading national businesses. She founded Utopia Plastix, a plant-based alternative to petroleum-based polymers. She also created The Utopia Model, a sustainable ecosystem business framework grounded in circular economics. She is recognized as an innovator, strategist and unconventional thinker who advances creative problem-solving, effective execution and deliberate leadership.
She holds an expert certification in sustainable strategies and circular economics and maintains numerous leadership, management and business development credentials. Her education includes the University of Oklahoma and Cambridge Judge Business School. She holds registered global patents and trademarks.
Perry serves on the Oklahoma Governor’s Minority Business Council as chair of the Business Engagement Committee. She was a key committee member on the initiative that led to the passage of HB 2365, Oklahoma’s first Supplier Diversity Program focused on advancing minority and underserved small business owners. In 2023, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce appointed her to the Oklahoma District Export Council. She chairs the Advisory Board for the University of Oklahoma Price College of Business Multicultural Business Program and serves on the Executive Board for Hough Ear Institute.
She contributed expertise as the City of Oklahoma City developed an economic resilience and recovery plan following COVID-19. She is a founding STEM committee member for the Oklahoma City Innovation District and led the drafting of a resolution passed unanimously by the Oklahoma City Council to bring public, private and educational institutions together to address STEM and workforce development in the city’s historically Black northeast community.
Her honors include the 2026 Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, the 2025 Enterprising Women Hall of Fame, Forbes Top 10 Women to Watch in 2023 and 2023 Top Inventor of the Year by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP), among numerous others. In September 2023, Sharina was featured on the Nasdaq Billboard in New York City’s Times Square as Inventor of the Year.
For more information about the Paul Dickinson School of Business, visit okbu.edu/business/.