The Creative Destruction Lab's second Super Session will host world-class entrepreneurs, innovators and ventures shaping the future at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management

TORONTO, June 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Creative Destructive Lab (CDL) was founded at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto seven years ago to support massively scalable, science and technology-based startups. Since then, it has grown from a single cohort of 25 science-based startups to 15 cohorts in six cities, representing 375 companies. More than 450 mentors guide the next generation of innovators through the nine-month program, bringing a depth of expertise in science, technology, business and investment.

"CDL provides a framework for us to not only challenge each other, but also makes us accountable to each other, driving us to elevate our own views on what is possible," says CDL Fellow Sally Daub, who is the Founder and Managing Partner of Pool Global Partners.

At the end of its 2018/19 year, the CDL program is graduating 150 high potential start-ups, and gearing up to expand its global footprint by launching the program at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. On June 12 and 13, these graduating ventures from across the CDL network will be joined by CDL mentors, investors, world-class scientists, policy makers, business leaders and students.  

Graduates from this year's CDL program include founders dedicated to making healthcare more effective, our cities more liveable and space exploration more accessible.

CDL Super Session is where a global community of ambitious, imaginative people striving to transform the way research is commercialized converge. At Super Session, ventures will showcase advancements made during the program, finalize early-stage financing, and reveal technological breakthroughs to an international audience. It's also an opportunity to hear from the brightest minds in deep-science and technology.

Speakers at Super Session include some of the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and investors. A year after the launch of the CDL Space stream, participants will hear from Colonel Chris Hadfield and the first female private space traveller and CEO of XPRIZE, Anousheh Ansari. In his keynote, visionary entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist John Risley will describe the vast opportunities in one of CDL's newest streams — Oceans. Attendees will also hear from prolific investor Vinod Khosla, physician-turned-tech entrepreneur Alexandra Greenhill and award-winning author Ramez Naam.

Super Session will also host talks by:
His Royal Highness Prince Constantijn of The Netherlands, Special Envoy for StartupDelta
Alan Aspuru-Guzik - Professor, University of Toronto;  Faculty Member, Vector Institute;  CIFAR Senior Fellow;  Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical Chemistry
Piraye Beim - Founder and CEO, Celmatix
Sally Daub - Founder and Managing Partner, Pool Global Partners
Stephen Lake - Co-founder and CEO, North
Barney Pell - Founder, Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Moon Express
Patrick Pichette - General Partner, iNovia Capital; Former CFO, Google
Peter Tertzakian - Executive Director, ARC Energy Research Institute
Ted Livingston - Founder and CEO, Kik
David Tisch - Managing Partner, BoxGroup

Ultimately, Super Session is where CDL's global community celebrates the impact of a program designed to transform science projects into massively scalable and financeable businesses.

The Creative Destruction Lab is a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based companies. Its nine-month program pairs founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors to set focused, measurable objectives with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the program has now expanded with locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, and Oxford.

Since its inception in 2012, companies that have participated in the CDL program have created over $3.8 billion (CAD) in equity value. CDL Alumni include North (Waterloo), Atomwise (San Francisco), Deep Genomics (Toronto), Automat (Montreal), Kyndi (Palo Alto), and Heuritech (Paris).

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada's commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

SOURCE Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

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