Ajay Agrawal

Early life

Ajay Agrawal was born in India but later immigrated to Canada with his family. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia and later went on to earn a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Toronto.

Career

After completing his Ph.D., Agrawal began his career as a professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He has also been a visiting professor at several universities, including Harvard Business School, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Indian School of Business.

In 2010, Agrawal co-founded and became the Academic Director of The Next 36, now part of NEXT Canada.

In 2012, Agrawal co-founded the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at the University of Toronto. CDL is a startup accelerator program that focuses on helping early-stage companies in the technology sector. The program provides mentorship, resources, and funding to entrepreneurs, and has helped launch several successful companies, including Ritual, Blue River Technology, and Nymi.

The CDL, which was established in 2012, is a seed-stage program that supports science-based companies. It has several locations across Canada, including at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, HEC Montréal and the Rowe School of Business in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Additionally, it has 3 locations in the United States at the University of Washington, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2015, CDL added a stream for Machine Learning and AI and in 2017, CDL launched a program for Quantum Machine Learning.

In addition to his work at CDL, Agrawal is also a prolific author, having written several books and articles on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the economics of technology. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences and events and serves as an advisor to several startups and venture capital firms.

Professor Agrawal’s outstanding impact in the field of economics is evidenced by prestigious publications such as Harvard Business Review and Oxford University Press, his 7064 citations on Google Scholar, 37 scholarly papers with Social Science Research Network (SSRN) – alongside co-authoring ‘Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence’ released through Harvard Business Review.

Agrawal is a co-chair, alongside Shivon Zilis, of the conference “Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence”. The third edition of this conference was held in October 2017 at the University of Toronto.

Agrawal is a co-founder of Kindred, a company that was listed by the MIT Technology Review as one of the 50 smartest companies of 2017.

His Academic Positions Include:

• Professor at Rotman School of Management
  2014-present
• Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
  2008-2014
• Associate Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
  2003-2008
• Assistant Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
  2001-2003
• Assistant Professor, Queen’s School of Business, Queen’s University
  2008-present

To name a few.

Net Worth

Ajay Agrawal has an estimated net worth of at least $2.55 million.

Achievement

Ajay Agrawal’s work with CDL has been widely recognized as one of the most successful startup accelerator programs in Canada. His book, “Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence,” was a National Bestseller in Canada and was named one of the top books of 2018 by the Financial Times and the Globe and Mail.

He has also been the recipient of several awards and honors, including the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award from the University of Toronto in 2018.

Agrawal’s excellence in teaching has earned him accolades throughout his career, including the Professor of the Year Award from MBA students at Rotman School of Management seven times and two top awards for scholarly contributions.

Agrawal was recently celebrated in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine as one of the top 50 most influential Canadians to watch in business. His accomplishments have also extended beyond Canada; MIT Technology Review included his groundbreaking AI company, Kindred AI, among its prestigious 2017 list of “The World’s Smartest Companies”.

Honors and Awards:

2017 Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award, Rotman School of Management

2013-2018 Principal Investigator Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

2013 Professor of the Year (Awarded by MBA Class of 2013), Rotman School of Management

2012 Professor of the Year (Awarded by MBA Class of 2012), Rotman School of Management

2011 'Professor of the Year' and 'Most Challenging Professor' (Awarded by MBA Class of 2011), Rotman School of Management

2010 Martin-Lang Award for Excellence in Teaching, Rotman School of Management

2009 Principal Investigator (2009-2012), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Award

2005 Connaught Research Grant Award (2005-2007), University of Toronto

2005 Research Grant (2005-2010), Senior Investigator , National Science Foundation

2004 Research Award, three-year grant, single author applicant (2004-2007), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

2003 Nominated for Polanyi Prize in Economics

2003 Nominated for 2003 Teaching Excellence Award, Queen’s University Commerce Society

2002 New Researcher Award, Queen’s University, School of Business

2002 Research Award (INE), three-year grant, single author applicant (2002-2005), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

2002 D.I. McLeod Research Fellowship

2002 Best Paper, Academy of Management, BPS Division

2002 Top Nominee, 2002 Teaching Excellence Award, Queen’s University Commerce Society

2001 Short-listed for Young Economist Essay Prize, European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE)

2001 Best Student Paper Award 2001, Portland International Conference for Management in Engineering and Technology (PICMET)

2000 Best Dissertation Award Runner-up, jointly awarded by INFORMS and the Academy of Management, Technology and Innovation Management Division

2000 Nominated for the Carolyn Dexter Best International Paper Award

1999 Entrepreneurship Research Fellowship, University of British Columbia

1998 Entrepreneurship Research Fellowship, University of British Columbia

1995 International Business Scholarship, University of British Columbia