After nearly twenty years in the high technology industry, Carolyn Stephens opted to initiate a significant career change from industry to academia.  Mrs. Stephens currently holds a tenure track faculty position in the School of Business and Management at Vanguard University of Southern California. In support of furthering her academic career, Mrs. Stephens is pursuing her PhD at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Management. Prior to her pursuits into academia, Mrs. Stephens enjoyed a comprehensive career in industry, a summary follows.

 
 

Mrs. Stephens held the position of site general manager for Gateway’s (NYSE:GTW)  Orange County operations from 1999 through 2001 after leaving Adaptec Corporation (NSDQ:ADPT). At Adaptec, Mrs. Stephens was site director for their orange county facility. Mrs. Stephens joined Adaptec via the company’s 1995 acquisition of Power I/O, a firm that developed serial interface solutions and silicon expertise for high-speed data networking. Mrs. Stephens was a co-founder and vice-president. Prior to Power I/O, Mrs. Stephens held general and marketing management positions at Emulex (NSDQ:EMLX), and Western Digital Corporation (NYSE:WDC).

Business memberships and activities included, holding the position of Vice-Chairman of the Orange County Council and National Board member of the American Electronics Association; participation on the University of California at Irvine School of the Arts Deans Advisory Council in the area of digital arts; holding a board seat of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Orange County for six years. Mrs. Stephens was nominated for the Orange County Business Journal’s 1997 and 1999 Women in Business Award; was a mentor in the Women Unlimited Leadership Development program in 1998, and was a founding Board member of the Fibre Channel Association (a non-profit industry organization) in 1992 continuing her affiliation through 1995.

Mrs. Stephens holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelors Degree in Economics with added coursework in Biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California. Additionally Mrs. Stephens was granted a certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Management of Research, Development and Technology based Innovation.

Mrs. Stephens is a native of Southern California, born in Pasadena, reared in Orange County, Newport Beach), and currently resides in south Orange County.
 
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