Paul Cubbon named UBC Sauder Assistant Dean, Innovation

The UBC Sauder School of Business is proud to announce that Paul Cubbon has accepted the role of Assistant Dean, Innovation. Cubbon already serves as the Leader and Academic Director of Creative Destruction Lab West, a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science and technology-based companies, and as the Leader of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group at UBC Sauder.

“As the ecosystem at UBC in entrepreneurship and innovation continues to grow, it has become clear that there is much more that UBC Sauder can to do to create productive linkages with other faculties, campus research institutes and the office of the Vice President Research and Innovation in this space, and leverage these connections for the benefit of UBC Sauder, the university and the broader community,” says Robert Helsley, Dean of the UBC Sauder School of Business. “Paul will also engage with industry and government to increase the impact of scientific breakthroughs originating at UBC through commercialization. I wish to share my appreciation for Paul’s continued leadership and his willingness to devote his considerable energies to this important initiative.”

Cubbon has an industry background that includes ten years at Unilever, including a pioneering role in the development of a global innovation system. Since 2000, Cubbon has committed himself to designing innovative and applied learning experiences in marketing communication, digital marketing and technology entrepreneurship. In recent years, he has expanded these venture start-up programs across campus, and beyond credit courses to support science researchers in finding product-market fit and venture creation.

“In a rapidly changing world, with multiple societal problems to address and opportunities to seize, the innovation and entrepreneurship agenda provides a tremendous opportunity for the UBC Sauder School of Business to contribute to the University, Canada and the whole of global society,” says Cubbon. “By harnessing the expertise and talent in the school, from research and teaching faculty to students, staff and alumni, UBC Sauder will play a growing, impactful role as a connector and catalyst across the campus. We will also collaborate with industry, government and investors, to help build sustainable businesses models as new innovations are brought forward to benefit human health, the environment and society as a whole. Innovation is a team sport and we are motivated to contribute and play with the coalition of the willing to have a major, sustained and positive societal impact.”

About the Creative Destruction Lab:

Launched in 2012 at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) has now expanded with locations in Vancouver (UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia), Calgary (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary), Montreal (HEC Montréal), Halifax (Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University), and Oxford (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford).

The mission of the CDL is to enhance the prosperity of humankind through the rapid scaling of science-based companies and a new approach to business education that combines economic theory and learning-by-doing to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset.

The program employs an objectives-based mentoring process with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation. CDL is particularly well suited for early-stage companies with links to university research labs. The program offers participants mentorship from select entrepreneurs and angel investors, opportunities to raise capital, advice on technology roadmaps from the CDL scientists, and business development support from top UBC Sauder students. Fifty companies currently start at CDL-West at UBC Sauder each year, and across the network four hundred ventures now start CDL annually. For more information on CDL see https://www.creativedestructionlab.com