Stephen has expertise in foreign direct investment, M&A, corporate structuring, venture capital, business development, and energy project development. His previous responsibilities at Azure have included the structuring and financing of several of the company’s ventures, and leading several major strategic assignments with Azure’s partners. From September 2004 until June 2006 he concurrently served as CFO of Azure partner company Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. where he successfully led several rounds of financing and the public listing of the company in April, 2005. (SES, NASDAQ symbol SYMX).  He also served as CEO of BioQi International, now a subsidiary of Rhodia Energy, a project development company originally started by Azure principals with venture funding from E+Co that is constructing waste water treatment/biogas projects in China and Southeast Asia..

Prior to joining Azure, Stephen spent 6 years with Goldman Sachs in New York and London, completing corporate finance and M&A transactions across a range of industries. He has served as Research Fellow for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Beijing, where he worked on projects focused on Chinese SME development, FDI and venture capital. Stephen has also served in technical, research and marketing roles for Allegheny Teledyne, Dupont and Rockwell International. Stephen graduated with an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He is proficient in Mandarin and Spanish.