TORONTO - RBC announced the student team from the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University as the national winners of the 2009 RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge. 'OMEGA4' triumphed over submissions from 24 other universities and colleges across Canada to take home the $20,000 grand prize for their winning idea, L.E.O., a personal virtual online advisor.

"The teams in this year's challenge represented some of the best and the brightest from schools across Canada," said Avi Pollock, RBC's head of Applied Innovation. "They came up with compelling insights from other industries or global regions with innovative concepts that could ultimately benefit RBC clients."

This year's challenge asked university and college students from across Canada to "Suggest an innovative concept, product or process from another region or different industry that Canadian financial services providers should adopt." Working in teams of three or four, students were asked to submit a unique and innovative idea related to the challenge.

"This challenge is all about continuing to focus on innovation in all that we do and ultimately find new ways to help our clients navigate the current and future environment to create their financial dreams," added Pollock.

Submissions were received from 24 universities and colleges across Canada and 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 a record-breaking 20,000 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 York University came in second place, followed by three runners up: two teams from the Rotman School of Management, U of T and a team from the University of Waterloo.

Additional details on the RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge can be found at: www.nextgreatinnovator.com.