Sonia Sennik has been appointed first National Executive Director of Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
The Creative Destruction Lab is a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based ventures. It employs a unique, objectives-focused coaching process to help founders commercialize advances in science and technology. The Lab also provides experiential learning to MBA students through year-long courses where students work alongside the Lab’s Fellows and venture founders, giving them a unique chance to learn how to evaluate, finance, and manage technology businesses.
Sennik will be responsible for the Lab’s strategic operational and programmatic leadership, coordination, and oversight. Sennik will work closely with Professor Ajay Agrawal, Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship, who is the founder and academic director of the Lab.
Sennik, who held senior project and engineering management roles at global engineering consultancy HATCH, is a recent graduate of the Rotman School’s Executive MBA program. She was also the inaugural recipient of the Rotman Social Impact Award. Sennik holds an engineering degree from McMaster University.
“The Creative Destruction Lab is expanding rapidly, both geographically and programmatically. Sonia will provide leadership, vision, and energy to help ensure the success of the Lab and its ventures in the coming years,” said Dr. Agrawal.
The Creative Destruction Lab was founded in 2012 at the Rotman School and now has additional programs at the UBC Sauder School of Business , the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, HEC Montreal and Dalhousie University. This year the Lab in Toronto launched a new program focused on the creation of quantum machine learning startups.
Graduates of the Lab include Thalmic Labs (Waterloo), Atomwise (San Francisco), Deep Genomics (Toronto), Nymi (Toronto), Automat (Montreal), Kyndi (Palo Alto), and Heuritech (Paris).
photo credit: University of Toronto