Being held on June 13 & 14, 2023, CDL Super Session is a culmination event of over 1,000 CDL mentors, investors, scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and business leaders from around the world. All 12 CDL sites (CDL-Atlanta, CDL-Atlantic, CDL-Berlin, CDL-Estonia, CDL-Montreal, CDL-Oxford, CDL-Paris, CDL-Rockies, CDL-Seattle, CDL-Toronto, CDL-Vancouver, CDL-Wisconsin) will come together for a grand finale to celebrate our graduating CDL ventures.
In addition to the opportunity to engage with graduating CDL ventures, CDL Super Session also offers programming on more macro issues concerning technology, economics, and society. CDL Super Session 2023 speakers include:
- Daron Acemoglu, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT, expert in international political economies, and co-author of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
- Richard Sutton, Chief Scientific Advisor, a fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
- Erik Brynjolfsson, Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI)
- Chris Hadfield, first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, heavily decorated astronaut, engineer, and pilot
- Mac Van Wielingen, co-Founder and chairman, Viewpoint Investment Partners. Founder, director and partner, ARC Financial Corp
- John Risley, chairman and CEO of Clearwater Fine Foods, the chairman of MDA (Canada’s iconic space company)
- Janice Stein, Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Joshua Gans, Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management; Chief Economist at Creative Destruction Lab
- Geordie Rose, founder of Sanctuary AI, founded D-Wave, world’s first quantum computing company, & Kindred, build machines with human-like intelligence
- Suzanne Gildert, CTO and founder of Sanctuary AI, led quantum computing training programs for Lockheed Martin, Google and NASA.
- Alison Sunstrum, one of Canada’s most influential leaders in agriculture, CEO of CNSRV-X Inc.
- Sten Tamkivi, former early executive at Skype (from startup to $8.5B Microsoft exit).
- Shivon Zilis, project director, Office of the CEO at Neuralink
- Rhiannon Davies, co-founder and managing partner at Sandpiper Ventures
- Patrick Pichette, partner at Inovia Capital, former CFO of Google (2008-2015)
- Andrew Thompson, chief executive, entrepreneur and investor, raised $750M+ in private, public and corporate capital
- Frantz Saintellemy, president & COO at Leddartech Inc., 14th chancellor and chair of the board of the University of Montreal
- Peter Settel, enterprise Chief Technology Officer at American Family Insurance
- Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, first female private space explorer
- Sinead Bovell, futurist and founder of WAYE, member of the UN International Telecommunications Union Generation Connect Visionaries Board
- Mark Torrance, 25+ years of experience in executive leadership, product and engineering strategy and management, and hands-on software development; former CTO of Rocket Fuel Inc, $400mm+ revenue
- Barney Pell, co-founder of Moon Express; first company to receive U.S. government approval to send a robotic spacecraft beyond traditional Earth orbit and to the Moon; worked on NASA’s Deep Space One mission, flying the first AI system in deep space
- Rich Tong, managing director of Iron Snow Group and first Chinese-American Corporate Vice President at Microsoft
- Ekaterina Almasque, general partner, OpenOcean, former managing director, Samsung Catalyst Fund (Europe)
- Scott Stornetta, co-inventor of blockchain, chief scientist and partner, Yugen Partners LLC
- Albert Wenger, managing partner, Union Square Ventures, former president, del.icio.us (acquired by Yahoo)
- Mina Mitry, co-founder and CEO, Kepler Communications – a spacecraft communications company creating a constellation of data-relaying satellites, acting as on-orbit cell phone towers
- Katherine Homuth, CEO and director, Sheertex – a high-strength and lightweight fabric producer for applications in the fashion industry
- Michael Helander, president and CEO, OTI Lumionics – an advanced manufacturing company reducing the cost and improving the performance of OLED lighting
- Richard Givhan, co-founder and CEO, Haiqu – a company enabling developers to make their own algorithms scalable, noise robust and integratable into complex solutions
- Rubens Mendrone, founder and CPO, LINDA Lifetech – an AI-powered software that scans for indicators of breast cancer
- Guru Singh, founder and CEO, Scispot – a company striving to simplify biotech R&D with the goal of democratizing starting and scaling biotech companies.
This is an invitation-only event. If you would like to request media accreditation or are interested in learning more about CDL Super Session, please reach out to Rory Warnock, Communications Specialist, rory.warnock@creativedestructionlab.com for more information.
About Creative Destruction Lab
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. Its nine-month program allows founders to learn from experienced entrepreneurs, increasing their likelihood of success. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the program has expanded to 12 sites across six countries. Participating ventures have created $28 billion (CAD) in equity value.
Media Contact
Amarpreet Kaur
Associate Director
Creative Destruction Lab
amarpreet.kaur@creativedestructionlab.com
