Stephen Bolen

Stephen is a Senior Experience Designer with over 18 years of experience in user research, interface design, and management of complex applications and services for Fortune 500 clients and the United States Department of Defense. Currently, Stephen is a Director of Customer Experience & Engagement at Mastercard, where he is responsible for partnering with senior executives and product decision makers to align a broad user experience vision and strategy across the company.

Previously, Stephen was the Director of Digital Operations at Emerson, where he was responsible for defining the customer experience and driving business and user requirements for Emerson’s $6 billion Commercial and Residential Solutions businesses. Prior, he was the User Experience Leader responsible for the experience design of Sensi, a top-rated Wi-Fi thermostat on Amazon and winner of the 2016 J.D. Power Smart Thermostat Satisfaction Award.

Stephen has served as a Design Lead at Monsanto, where he built and managed a team of User Interface Designers and Front-end Developers for web and mobile applications. Before joining the team at Monsanto, Stephen was a Senior User Experience Designer with Asynchrony (now: World Wide Technology), where he worked to bring simple, clear design solutions to clients like Sotheby’s International Realty, The United States Army, and Kaiser Permanente.

Stephen earned an MBA from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises, holds a B.A. in Business Management from Fontbonne University, and B.A. in Music History & Literature from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and two children.