A senior-level high technology executive with background in technology, marketing, planning, and venture capital, and deep experience in computing, communications, medical and scientific devices, the Internet, and enterprise software, Bob has been involved in over seventy start-up companies, as an employee, investor, and/or board member. As a board member of both private and public companies, he has chaired both Audit and Compensation Committees, and helped prepare private companies for public offerings.
Bob joined Compaq Computer Corporation in 1993 as Senior Vice President, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, responsible for directing all of the Company’s strategic planning and business development activities, including minority equity investments (including a $400M venture portfolio), major and strategic joint ventures and alliances, advanced research and product development, new business incubation, and corporate marketing. Stearns joined Compaq from McKinsey & Company, where he served as a consultant to domestic and international high technology clients. Prior to joining McKinsey, he held senior management positions at a number of technology companies, including Codex, Motorola, and with Management Technologies Inc., which he co-founded.
After Compaq, Bob co-founded Sternhill Partners, a Houston-based high-tech venture capital firm that he helped manage with two other partners for almost 15 years. Currently, he is an active member of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, a Greentown Labs mentor, serves on the Advisory Boards of SparkCognition, Statum, Metrika, and LiquidPiston, is an active member of MassChallenge, and an advisor to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s General Medicine Advisory Council.
Bob has served on the Board of Governors of the Brown University Alumni Association, the Brown University Entrepreneurship Program advisory board, the Advisory Council for Computing and Information Technology at Brown, and on the advisory board for the Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Brown University, and a Master of Science degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bob lives with his wife, Noni, in Needham, MA.