After earning a degree in electrical engineering from Penn State, Steve joined Hewlett Packard Optoelectronics Division in 1981. There he held a variety of engineering and management positions in California, Japan, and Malaysia. In 2000, he joined Philips Lumileds and held management positions in intellectual property, business development, and product development. In 2007 he founded Telelumen LLC to focus on the recording and playback of light. He became the CTO at Lunera Lighting Inc. in 2009 and joined NEXT in 2012 as the CTO. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops on a variety of topics relating to solid state lighting and has been issued 7 patents.