Stefan has over 20 years of experience serving in various leadership roles revolving around developing and commercializing new technologies and cultivating innovation ecosystems. Alongside his activities at Weatherhead, he supports early-stage technology start-ups through his role as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Youngstown Business Incubator.
Previously, Stefan served as Chief Strategy Officer for Xploro, a digital health start-up offering a gamified education platform that helps young patients better prepare for healthcare experiences and take an active role in their health journey. Earlier in his career, Stefan was Chief Innovation Officer at Akron Children鈥檚 Hospital, where he built an innovation center that commercialized staff inventions and fostered collaborations with industry partners. He also created the hospital鈥檚 Patient Experience function, contributed to research administration, and led early initiatives in telehealth and telemedicine during his 12-year tenure.
Before that, Stefan spent over a decade at the MIT Media Laboratory, first as a graduate student and later as one of the founding research directors at Media Lab Europe, its former sister lab in Ireland. He went on to become the founding chief executive and research director of Distance Lab, an initiative in Scotland that developed digital solutions to address healthcare, education, and other challenges in rural and remote areas. In 2010, Distance Lab became part of the Glasgow School of Art. Stefan also served as a visiting associate professor of engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi during its formative years, where he led an intensive learning experience in design and innovation for first-year students.