Ryerson University students awarded $20,000 grand prize
in RBC’s Next Great Innovator challenge
Finalists from Rotman, York University and Ryerson University
TORONTO, March 6, 2008 — RBC today announced
Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University graduate
students Kent Chin, Stephen Kershaw, Maggie Yang and Gavin
Yeung as the national winners of the 2008 RBC Next Great Innovator
Challenge. The Ryerson team was awarded the $20,000 grand
prize for their winning idea called VIBE, a personal banking
workstation that combines the best of personal banking, ATM
services and online banking in an "anytime, anywhere"
fashion.
"The most compelling thing about this year's winning
idea is that it aligns with our vision of how to provide banking
services to our diverse client base across Canada, and around
the world," said Marty Lippert, vice-chairman and group
head, Global Technology and Operations. "This year's
finalists represent some of Canada's best and brightest students,
and their innovative idea will increase accessibility to RBC's
services, making it easier for our clients to do business
with us."
"Congratulations to the winning team of graduate students
from Ryerson's Ted Rogers School of Management," said
Sheldon Levy, president, Ryerson University. "Their success
demonstrates that the Ted Rogers School of Management develops
students who are immediately able to contribute to Canadian
business."
This year's Challenge asked university and college students
from across Canada to "describe an innovation, idea or
concept that Canadian financial institutions should consider
to make it easier for clients to do business with us."
Some of the ideas presented to RBC this year included innovations
that personalize the banking experience, deliver financial
education to students and families, as well as products and
services for new Canadian immigrants, small businesses and
entrepreneurs.
"The world is moving into a new era of consumer-designed
products and services, and our success in the marketplace
will be based on our ability to understand and meet the needs
of an increasingly diverse customer base," said Anita
Sands, senior vice-president, Innovation and Process Design.
"The Next Great Innovator Challenge is about open innovation
and collaboration with our clients, and it creates the perfect
forum for our next generation clients to share opinions and
to be heard."
RBC recently launched a peer-to-peer (p2p) information exchange
site— www.rbcp2p.com
based on an idea from last year's challenge.
Over 100 proposals submitted from schools across Canada were
evaluated by the RBC Applied Innovation team and narrowed
down to the top 15 submissions. The RBC Innovation Council
then reviewed these 15 submissions and selected the top four
team finalists. A fifth finalist team was chosen after more
than 3,400 votes were submitted through a peer-voting selection
process, in which the Council invited the public to choose
the last finalist from five additional Challenge submissions.
A team from Rotman came in second place, winning $10,000,
followed by the three runners up: York University's Schulich
and two other teams from Rotman, each receiving $5,000.
Additional details on the RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge
can be found at: www.nextgreatinnovator.com.
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Media contact:
Jackie Braden, RBC media relations, 416-974-2124, jackie.braden@rbc.com
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Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University
graduate students Gavin Yeung, Kent Chin, Maggie Yang and Stephen Kershaw named grand prize winner of the 2008 RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge and were awarded $20,000 |
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