Stephen Chen Mentor 2010

Describe yourself briefly.

Stephen Chen is a financial services professional and expert in creating platforms for innovation. Stephen is the former Vice President of Business Strategy at Bear Stearns where he helped launch BearXplorer™, an award-winning international hedge fund software company. BearXplorer was a macroeconomics analytics platform that helped asset managers quantify the impact of economic shifts on their portfolios. It was named Best Risk Analytics Initiative of the Year by the American Financial Technology Awards in 2006 and Buy Side Innovation of the Year by The Banker in 2007. Stephen is also the cofounder of GreenSoul Shoes, a charitable, 100% recycled shoe company. It is a platform built on public private partnerships that has created a network of local shoemakers, orphanages, and large NGOs to donate one pair of shoes for every pair sold. By identifying local shoemakers in communities of shoeless kids, GreenSoul Shoes is using a market-based restoration model to provide microfinancing opportunities for Third World entrepreneurs while shoeing their community’s youths. He has spoken at Yale, Brown, NYU, and Columbia University on topics of social entrepreneurship and technology platforms.