Stephen Ciesinski
Vice President, Strategic Business Development

Stephen Ciesinski has overall responsibility for SRI's commercial R&D business development, international offices, innovation programs, corporate energy and automotive sector initiatives, strategic marketing, and other corporate programs.

Ciesinski’s professional experience includes a variety of industries and businesses-consumer products, semiconductor capital equipment, telecommunications, mobile/wireless, applications software, Web 2.0, open source, medical devices, and many others. As a corporate officer, board member, advisor and investor, he has participated in or managed numerous strategic events, including new business formation, major product launches, private financings, IPOs, M&A transactions, and leveraged buy-outs.

Over the course of his career Ciesinski held executive management positions with Applied Materials, the global manufacturer of semiconductor capital equipment; Octel Communications, the worldwide leader in voice-messaging products; Resumix, Inc., the inventor of Web-based personnel recruiting applications; and Laszlo Systems, a pioneer in Web 2.0 software and provider of complex Internet applications to Global 2000 and telecommunications service operators. He started his career at Procter & Gamble, was a consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and also served as a venture partner with Earlybird Ventures.

Ciesinski is past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Union College and is a lifetime trustee. He is also Chairman of The President’s Cabinet at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), and a member of three boards at Stanford University.

Ciesinski is also currently instructing in Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford’s Business School and is an advisor to several Silicon Valley-based ventures.

Ciesinski is a graduate of Union College with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Modern Languages, and received an MBA from Stanford University.

He and his wife and two sons reside in Los Altos Hills, California. They are founders of the Kalele Foundation, dedicated to providing character and self-esteem development experiences for disadvantaged children.