Bio

Dr. Stein is a leader, a strategist for public and private enterprises, an entrepreneur, a technology innovator, an author, and an educator. He is a founder and Executive Director of the Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture and a faculty member in the business school at Penn State. His project experience ranges from industry and organizational analysis to systems planning to innovation design. Dr. Stein has knowledge of science, energy, information technologies, organizations, decision-making, and knowledge-based systems. He has worked in several sectors including IT, engineering, education, health care, and manufacturing. Dr. Stein also has considerable experience guiding and facilitating groups. At Penn State, he served as Director of the New Ventures and Entrepreneurial Studies Program and was responsible for program development, marketing and faculty and student management. He is published in several theoretical and applied research journals for business and management. He started and owns a software development and management consulting company and has a keen interest in green technologies, small business development and applications that help people. He is CEO of e3garden, an R&D Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) indoor farm. He has served as a guest columnist for local papers regarding small business, energy and the economy. Since 2009, he has been a civic leader and Councilman in Media, PA representing multiple stakeholder interests: businesses, residents, community groups and visitors. He serves on several committees including IT, business, environmental affairs, finance and community design. He has spent the past five years doing applied research on Indoor Farming. Specialties: Business: entrepreneurship, software design and project management, quality management, strategy, innovation, indoor ag, vertical farming. Academic: knowledge management, decision making, information technology, creativity, organization theory