News & Events

Ryerson University is pleased to host Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder and Chairman of Twitter and Co-Founder and CEO of Square, as part of  the sold-out C100 AccelerateTO event on September 19. Dorsey will be speaking at the Mattamy Athletic Centre to a crowd of 750 students, entrepreneurs and tech innovators about his startup experiences and how business will be conducted in the future.

"As a university leader in entrepreneurship, it’s vital we expose our community to Canada’s top luminaries and business role models," said Ryerson University President Sheldon Levy. "Ryerson is proud to collaborate with C100 to host AccelerateTO, one of Canada’s premier technology events, to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.”

Dorsey will be interviewed by Chris Albinson, Co-Founder of C100 and prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, about his experiences building Twitter and Square, two of the world’s most disruptive technology companies. The program will also include an informal fireside chat between Kobo Founder Mike Serbinis and Lars Leckie, General Partner of Hummer Winblad and C100 Co-Chair. The discussion will focus on Serbinis’ lessons learned as he built Kobo, one of the world’s leading eBook companies, and DocSpace, which he sold to Critical Path for $580 million in 2000. AccelerateTO attendees can participate in both conversations by asking questions on Twitter. Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, will also be in attendance at the event to introduce Dorsey.

The Accelerate Series began as C100-supported, community-organized celebrations of Canadian technology entrepreneurs. The first event, AccelerateTO in 2010, drew over 300 participants including entrepreneurs, investors and community supporters from across Canada and Silicon Valley. In 2012, AccelerateTO grew to a 600-person event. The event has since been replicated across the country in Calgary and Montreal. AccelerateTO is supported by C100 Partners KPMG, BDC VC, BMO Financial Group, Softlayer, Microsoft, the Ontario Venture Capital Fund and Northleaf Capital.

The C100 is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco and dedicated to bridging Canadian tech entrepreneurs with business opportunities in Silicon Valley. Its 100 charter members are executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists at companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle, with investors representing more than $17 billion in capital. Through the C100’s mentorship initiatives, it is helping grow the next generation of billion dollar Canadian-led technology companies. The C100 was founded in 2010. Funding partners and more information can be found at www.thec100.org.

Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative, career-oriented education and a university clearly on the move. With a mission to serve societal need, and a long-standing commitment to engaging its community, Ryerson offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the university is home to more than 38,000 students, including 2,300 master's and PhD students, nearly 2,700 faculty and staff, and more than 140,000 alumni worldwide. Research at Ryerson is on a trajectory of success and growth: externally funded research has doubled in the past four years. The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education. For more information, visit www.ryerson.ca.

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MEDIA CONTACTS

Ryerson University:

Lauren Clegg                         
Public Affairs, Ryerson University                
416-979-5000 x 2997                         
lauren.clegg @ryerson.ca

C100:

press@thec100.org