Stephan is the Lead Software Developer for the iTapestry software platform. Prior to co-founding Starthis, he was Lead Software Engineer in the Interactive Systems Laboratory at UIC. His expertise and experience included: distributed object systems large-scale object oriented software engineering; expert systems; seven years as a computer systems administrator; and five years managing teams of system administrators Stephan is coauthor of the technology covered by a patent application for an Online system for configuration and performance of measurement requests . He is responsible for optimum leveraging of leading edge software technologies and oversees the activities and ongoing professional development of the team of software developers at Starthis. Stephan graduated with an M.S. in Computer Science from UIC in May 2001.