CREATIVE DESTRUCTION LAB - Key Persons

Ajay Agrawal

Job Titles:

Member of the Leadership Team
Founder, Creative Destruction Lab Professor, Rotman School of Management
Professor at the University of Toronto 's Rotman School of Management

Ajay is a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA, and Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto. He founded the Creative Destruction Lab and co-founded NEXT Canada, Kindred (industrial AI and robotics), and Sanctuary (humanoid synths with human-like intelligence). He co-authored the popular press book: Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence (Harvard Business Press, 2018), and co-edited the scholarly book: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda (University of Chicago Press, 2019). The Globe and Mail listed Ajay as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Canadian Business.

Alison Sunstrum

Job Titles:

Founding Partner, CDL - Rockies Founder, CEO CNSRVX - Inc.

Andres Kuusik

Job Titles:

Site Lead, CDL - Estonia

Andres Kuusik received his Ph.D. in Economics in 2012 and is currently a Professor of Marketing at the University of Tartu, Estonia. His research interests are consumer behavior, neuromarketing, and place marketing in a startup context. He teaches courses in Marketing Management, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing of Innovative products and Services, Product Development, and Consumer Behaviour. He runs the Neuromarketing Lab of UT. Andres has been the Head of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at the University of Tartu and is the founder of sTARTUp Day - the most prominent business festival in the Baltics. He is a mentor at the Tartu Centre of Creative Industries and in the Spinoff Program of UT.

Andrew Thompson

Job Titles:

Co - Founder, LifeSpeed

Anousheh Ansari

Job Titles:

CEO, XPRIZE Foundation

Anup Srivastava

Job Titles:

Canada Research Chair in Accounting, Decision - Making and Capital Markets

Avi Goldfarb

Job Titles:

Member of the Leadership Team
Chief Data Scientist Professor, Rotman School of Management
Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management

Avi Goldfarb is Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. He teaches courses on data, statistics, and digitization. His research, funded by Google, WPP, Industry Canada, Bell Canada, AIMIA, SSHRC, and others, focuses on understanding the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. Professor Goldfarb is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Chen Fong

Job Titles:

Founding Partner, CDL - Rockies C.M., Co - Founder, Pureweb Inc

Cheryl Scott

Job Titles:

Founder, McClintock Scott Group

Chris Huskilson

Job Titles:

Founding Partner, CDL - Atlantic Former CEO and President, Emera Inc

Christine Tovee

Job Titles:

Chief Technology Officer - Wyvern, CATx Technology

Darrell Kopke

Job Titles:

Executive
Site Lead, CDL - Vancouver

Darrell Kopke is a seasoned executive, an entrepreneurial business leader and builder of dynamic corporate cultures (lululemon athletica, Kit and Ace) who specializes in high growth, omni-channel, media saavy and millennial worker environments. He is an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, a serial entrepreneur (institute B, Ædelhard, Oranj Fitness) and Founding Director of Peekaboo Beans (PBB:VMX). Darrell is considered a member of the group of founders of lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU), a Vancouver, Canada-based yoga-inspired athletic apparel retailer. As the original General Manager of the company, he oversaw the company's expansion from one store in Kitsilano to 60 stores internationally, about 100 percent annual growth and $200+ million in sales. Originally from Montreal, Darrell graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Marketing and was president of his MBA class at the University of British Columbia. In 2006, he was announced as a member of the Business in Vancouver magazine's ‘Forty Under 40'. He is most proud of his wife Maria and two children Kai and Kennedy.

Deborah Peacock

Job Titles:

President, CEO, Peacock Law P.C

Dr. Maryam Alavi

Job Titles:

Dean, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

Emer Dooley

Job Titles:

Site Lead, CDL - Seattle

Emer is a former computer designer and high-tech exec now serving as adjunct faculty in technology strategy, entrepreneurship and venture capital at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. She works with the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, involving students in all aspects of company creation, technology commercialization and investment.

Eva Lau

Job Titles:

Founding & General Partner, Two Small Fish Ventures

Francesco Bova

Job Titles:

Academic Lead, CDL - Toronto
Associate Professor at the University of Toronto 's Rotman School of Management

Francesco Bova is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Francesco is also the Academic Lead for Creative Destruction Lab's Toronto site, the lab economist for its quantum stream, and a moderator for numerous streams. Francesco has diverse research interests and has published his work in journals from a variety of management disciplines. Most recently, his research has focused on the economics of quantum technologies. This research includes his co-authored work on quantum economic advantage and the commercial applications of quantum computing. Francesco is also an award-winning educator and leads the CDL Partners module on The Simple Economics of Quantum Computing.

Frank Hodge

Job Titles:

Orin and Janet Smith Dean of the UW Foster School of Business

CDL-Seattle Mentors have backgrounds as operators, investors or scientists in a variety of different industries.

Frantz Saintellemy

Job Titles:

President & COO, Leddartech

Gaetan Bonhomme

Job Titles:

Partner, Breakthrough Energy

Heather Marshall

Job Titles:

Site Lead, CDL - Rockies

Heather applies nearly two decades of experience in stakeholder relations and business development, along with a passion for building community through authentic relationships, as Site Lead at CDL-Rockies. In this role, Heather has the honour of leading the CDL-Rockies team in delivering high-quality programming focused on accelerating the commercial potential of early-stage science and technology-based companies, positively contributing to the economic impact in Calgary, Alberta, and beyond.

HEC Paris

Inge Kerloh-Devif

Job Titles:

Co - Site Lead ( Executive
Co - Site Lead ( Executive ), CDL - Paris

Ingrid Swanson Pultz

Job Titles:

Chief Technology Officer, Mopac Biologics

Janice Gross Stein

Job Titles:

Fellow Strategic Advisor, Policy & Governance
Professor of Conflict Management

Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and was the Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto (serving from 1998 to the end of 2014). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. Her most recent publications include Networks of Knowledge: Innovation in International Learning (2000); The Cult of Efficiency (2001); and Street Protests and Fantasy Parks (2001). She is a contributor to Canada by Picasso (2006) and the co-author of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (2007). She was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and a Trudeau Fellow. She was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate. She is an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Alberta, the University of Cape Breton, McMaster University, and Hebrew University.

Jeff Larsen

Job Titles:

Site Lead, CDL - Atlantic

Jevon MacDonald

Job Titles:

Co - Founder, Tier

Jim Spatz

Job Titles:

Founding Partner, CDL - Atlantic Executive Chairman, Southwest Properties

Joan Schmit

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Co - Site Lead, CDL - Wisconsin

John Risley

Job Titles:

Founding Partner, CDL - Atlantic Chairman and CEO, Clearwater Fine Foods Inc

Jonathan Giuliano

Job Titles:

Academic Director, CDL - Atlanta

Dr. Giuliano was voted professor of the year (for elective courses) in academic years 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 by MBA students, and he received a similar award in academic year 2014-2015 for undergraduate electives. He has started and co-founded four companies (all of which remain in operation), led turnarounds in the United States and Europe, led high-growth companies as an interim executive and a board director, licensed more than 100 technologies on five continents, and raised more than $1.2 billion for startups and SMEs in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has advised c-level executives and boards of directors at 21 of the Global 100. He also advises firms managing venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. After receiving degrees at Colgate University and the University of Virginia, he earned a doctorate at the University of Manchester.