Stephan is a highly experienced investor, entrepreneur, board member and counsel across the high technology aspects of agriculture, clean energy, biotechnology, communications and software.

He is currently an Executive Director of the Wheatsheaf Group, LLC, a private investment arm of the Grosvenor Estate – the family office of the Grosvenor family, headed by the Duke of Westminster.  Wheatsheaf Group directly operates, invests in, and helps to develop businesses in the food and agriculture sectors.  It actively manages a $500million portfolio with one of the largest investment teams in the ag-tech venture investment space, having made investments in roughly 20 different businesses in that sector.  The firm was established in 2012 with the ambition of building a global business of significance to diversify, beyond property and land, the business activities of the Grosvenor Estate.

Stephan has been a private equity investor since 1999; managing a series of private equity funds with AUM over $5Bn.  He is currently the Chairman of Aerofarms, a leading controlled indoor agriculture business. He has co-founded three companies, been a board member of numerous venture-backed and publicly traded companies and has personally led more than two dozen private equity investments.  He has built a strong investment track record in the software, biotechnology, clean energy and agricultural sectors, including building and managing an investment portfolio of over $1Bn.  Stephan is a graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia (BCP) and was a founding member of the School’s Foundation Board of Trustees. He also holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law.