{"id":1220,"date":"2025-06-30T10:27:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2025-10-01T10:32:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T09:32:01","slug":"1220","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/2025\/06\/30\/1220\/","title":{"rendered":"IESE 40under40 Cristina Aleixendri: Powering the future of shipping with wind and purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"109\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/files\/2025\/06\/Cristina-Aleixendri.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1221\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/files\/2025\/06\/Cristina-Aleixendri.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"724\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/files\/2025\/06\/Cristina-Aleixendri.png 724w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/files\/2025\/06\/Cristina-Aleixendri-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/files\/2025\/06\/Cristina-Aleixendri-500x256.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"109\">Cristina Aleixendri didn\u2019t set out to change the shipping industry. An aeronautical engineer by training, she simply saw a massive challenge\u2014maritime decarbonization\u2014and an opportunity to apply her expertise in wings and airflow to an entirely different mode of transportation.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"390\" data-end=\"884\">Today, as co-founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/bound4blue.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong data-start=\"414\" data-end=\"428\">bound4blue<\/strong><\/a>, Cristina is helping ships return to their roots by reintroducing wind power through rigid suction sails. Her startup\u2019s technology offers a practical, scalable way for vessels to reduce fuel consumption and emissions\u2014by up to 40%\u2014with ROI in under five years. And it\u2019s not just about sustainability: with evolving regulations and rising fuel costs, Cristina makes a clear call to ship operators to \u201cconsider wind propulsion as an alternative fuel source.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"886\" data-end=\"1200\">Getting there, though, wasn\u2019t easy. From countless rejections to industry skepticism, Aleixendri and her co-founders were told they were crazy. But she persevered, motivated by moments like seeing the smile on a customer\u2019s face after the first successful installation. \u201cThat photo told me everything,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1202\" data-end=\"1453\"><span data-start=\"1220\" data-end=\"1238\">A <em>2022 <\/em><\/span><em data-start=\"1220\" data-end=\"1238\">IESE\u2019s 40under40<\/em>, Aleixendri\u2019s story is anchored in values and resilience. She credits a high school math teacher for sparking her engineering journey and sees success not as a title or metric, but as staying true to one\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1455\" data-end=\"1721\">In both life and business, she lives by a clear motto: <strong data-start=\"1510\" data-end=\"1626\">\u201cLive with purpose, align your actions with your values, and persevere through challenges\u2014you\u2019ll find your way.\u201d<\/strong> That, and one more powerful habit she\u2019s adopted in recent years: \u201cSpeak less and listen more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1723\" data-end=\"1862\">Cristina Aleixendri is not only helping ships sail more sustainably\u2014she\u2019s proving that with vision, grit, and values, anything is possible.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1864\" data-end=\"2025\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">\ud83d\udc49 <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/bound4blue.com\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\" data-start=\"1867\" data-end=\"1931\">Explore Cristina\u2019s venture, bound4blue<\/a><br data-start=\"1931\" data-end=\"1934\" \/>\ud83d\udc49 <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/40under40\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\" data-start=\"1937\" data-end=\"2025\" data-is-last-node=\"\">Learn more about IESE 40under40<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cristina Aleixendri didn\u2019t set out to change the shipping industry. An aeronautical engineer by training, she simply saw a massive challenge\u2014maritime decarbonization\u2014and an opportunity to apply her expertise in wings and airflow to an entirely different mode of transportation. Today, as co-founder of bound4blue, Cristina is helping ships return to their roots by reintroducing wind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2424,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,240],"tags":[],"coauthors":[116158],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}