Connected Intelligence with Sonia Sennik

This episode features two thought leaders – Professors Maja Djikic & Tiziana Casciaro. Maja is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Self-Development Laboratory at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Tiziana is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and the Marcel Desautels Chair in Integrative Thinking at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. This conversation is a blend of the thought leadership between Maja and Tiziana. We discuss Maja’s recently published book “The Possible Self: A Leader’s Guide to Personal Development” and integrate this with elements of “Power, for All: How it Really Wo...

How do you overcome the feeling of "being stuck" to become your possible self? Maja Djikic is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Self-Development Laboratory at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. She is a psychologist specializing in the field of personality development. Her work focuses on how self changes, and means of developing a congruent and flexible self. Her work also examines the impact of self-change on relationships. She has published more than 30 articles and book chapters in the area of personality development in journals such as Psychological Science, Journal of Research in Personality, Creativity...

How do you transform doubt into focus and determination? Janet speaks to us about her career journey from Procter and Gamble to Staircase Ventures, being a competitive long distance runner, and maintaining focus and determination when people say “it cannot be done!” Janet Bannister is the Founder and Managing Partner of Staircase Ventures. In 2004, Janet launched Kijiji.ca and grew it to become one of the most visited websites in Canada. Before Kijii, Janet spent four years at eBay in Silicon Valley where she helped transform eBay from a Collectibles to a mainstream marketplace. She started her career as a Bran...

How can AI enable transformation in addressing population and public health challenges? This video episode brings back our recurring segment Going Viral with Dr. Rosella because the list of things we bring to work sometimes includes viruses(!) The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed how and where we work, and made us all aware of the importance of public health. So, we invite epidemiologist Laura Rosella to chat about the state of global public health. In this episode, we discuss the current state of COVID-19, Dr. Rosella's new program, AI for Public Health, and robot doctors. Professor Laura Rosella is a Canadian...

Is our future with generative AI terrifying, exciting, or fascinating? In this episode, we talk about the adoption of artificial intelligence in the workplace, the opportunities to implement AI in healthcare delivery, and privacy in a world enabled by generative AI. Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Avi is the Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau...

This is our annual Year in Review with Professor Janice Stein where she helps us understand key global events and news stories of 2023 – from global unrest to climate change, from technological advances in artificial intelligence to the Toronto Blue Jays. Janice is a legendary Canadian political scientist and international relations expert. She is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Janice is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of On...

How can we reimagine everyday conversation for more connective personal and professional dialogue? Caitlin (Caity) Begg is the founder of Authentic Social and sociological researcher researching technology’s effect on conversation. She founded Authentic Social in 2016 after writing her undergraduate Harvard sociology honors thesis on how digital communication affects relationships and social interaction. Caity presents her sociological research around the United States and Europe at a variety of academic and industry conferences. In parallel, she is conducting ongoing independent sociological research, with a focus on technology's effect on conversation and sociotechnical systems. Within these contexts, further areas of focus include: th...

It’s been one year since the launch of chatGPT - how has regulation and policy evolved since then? And where does it need to go? Recently appointed a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow, Professor Gillian Hadfield is a scholar of law and economics with a focus on the intersection of legal system design and the governance of AI. She is currently spending her time in an area of urgent importance for humanity: innovative design for legal and regulatory systems for AI and other complex global technologies; computational models of human normative systems; and working with machine learning researchers to bu...

How does the CEO of a skunkworks operation built in a garage in Alberta – become a globally recognized leader in agriculture, technology and innovation? Alison Sunstrum is the CEO of Conserve X, a Canadian company developing and investing in emerging technology in agriculture, and a General Partner of The51 Food and AgTech Fund, investing in outliers transforming the business of food and agriculture. Alison is a Venture Partner and LP at Builders VC, a San Francisco/Calgary venture capital fund. Alison is a Founding Partner and Fellow in the Ag Stream of CDL-Rockies, and the Manufacturing stream at CDL-Seattle. Alison’s co...

What did it take to become the youngest woman ever to hold the role of Chief Economist at a major Canadian financial institution? Patti Croft is regarded as one of the country's most influential business leaders and financial commentators. She has 30 years of experience on Bay Street, working at Burns Fry and Wood Gundy. In 1996, Patti was named Chief Economist of TD Canada Trust. Patti has worked with Sceptre Investment Counsel, Phillips Hager & North Investment Management and was named Chief Economist of RBC Global Asset Management in late 2008. Patti has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, commenting...