A Biographical Record

Early Career

Stephen (Steve) Wilmarth is a native of Boston, Massachusetts.  He began his career at a software and technology consulting firm after graduating from Babson College with an MBA.  His firm ran large scale software projects on IBM mainframe computers.  As a Boston branch marketing manager, Steve led multi-year software projects that automated the business processes of clients that included large banks, insurance companies, and educational institutions including Harvard, MIT, Boston University and others.

Recruited by the investor Ray Stata, an MIT alumni and founder of the first microelectronics firm in the Boston tech market, Analog Devices, Steve joined a group of MIT engineers to create the first microprocessor development systems for a rapidly emerging market.  In the 1990’s, Steve started a second company whose focus was on designing microelectronic circuits for the rapidly emerging cellular phone networks.  His design firm supported companies like Nokia, Motorola and others in building out the infrastructure for the modern global communications networks.  Steve’s expertise in emerging network systems and the microelectronics that supported these complex networks allowed him to establish a reputation for leadership on the cutting edge of technology.  His long association with the research and development centers at major institutions like Harvard and MIT gave Steve deep insights into the high tech developments affecting education, society, and the emerging global economy.

As technology and the World Wide Web began to accelerate changes in communication and collaboration across broad sectors of society, Steve began to focus his efforts on educational reforms and the development of more effective STEM education models.  While working with some educational innovators at MIT, Steve helped shape the initiative known as MIT OpenCourseWare, where MIT released all of its educational content, courses, materials, videos, and assignments for every course taught at MIT as free, open source educational content on publicly available platforms such as YouTube.  This dramatic extension of the highest quality educational content to every person on the planet with an internet connection was hailed as a radical departure from traditional education in closed classrooms and lecture halls.  Steve’s role in this revolutionary extension of MIT education to students around the world was acknowledged by leaders at MIT Sloan School of Business, London Business School, and Yale Law School.

Steve added to his vision of the future of technology in education, society, and business by taking a leading role in a Technology Commission for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).  Through the Technology Commission, Steve introduced new technologies such as 1:1 classroom computer tech, wireless networks, and cross-disciplinary curriculum into teacher training and professional development programs, engaging with the leading educational and curriculum design specialists across the U.S. and the world, speaking at conferences, lecturing at universities, and writing articles on the topic of global educational changes enabled by the use of emerging technologies.

The Center for 21st Century Skills and Yale-MIT-Harvard Cyber-Scholars Research

Throughout the early 2000’s, Steve worked closely with curriculum specialists and designers at Project Zero, led by Dr. Howard Gardner, the Dean of the School of Education at Harvard University, and Dr. Heidi Jacobs, at Columbia University Teachers College, on projects like Curriculum21, an effort to revise educational standards in the U.S. for 21st century learners.  Steve co-founded and led the Center for 21st Century Skills, and trained teachers at scale in updated teaching standards that focused on 21st century skills in student-centered learning.  The core skills for 21st century learners included communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, enabled through project-based learning in STEM and STEAM disciplines.  Steve was able to bring together public (schools, universities, global NGOs like the College Board, Asia Society, and UNESCO) and private (companies like IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and Intel) partnerships for commitments to the challenge of 21st century education in a networked world.

During this period in Steve’s career, he joined research projects at Harvard Law School (The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society), the MIT Media Lab, and Yale Law School (The Internet Society Project).  As a Cyber-Scholar researcher, Steve developed theses on how new network technologies and the democratization of the internet, social media, search engines, the digitization of content, and emerging sciences in biotechnology and machine learning were changing the way people learned and organizations teach.  This research led to Steve’s co-authorship of the publication of a major work in teaching science, Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World, edited by Dr. Jacobs and published in 2010.

Steve first introduced Chinese teachers to 21st century skills in education to a group of visiting scholars at the University of Connecticut in 2004-2005.  In 2006, Steve went to China to begin training at several Chinese teaching (Normal) universities, including Beijing Normal University and Central China Normal University in Wuhan.  Steve took on a full-time role at Central China Normal University, and later, with Chinese investors in newly emerging international schools, to develop some of the first models of international education in China.  Steve connected students in China with universities around the world and helped many aspiring Chinese students find their way to top U.S. universities as undergraduates and graduate students.  Steve’s 3 model programs in China, developed between the years of 2008-2015, included the Experimental Class at the No. 1 Middle School Affiliated with Central China Normal University, the Shanghai World Foreign Language School, and the Yinhai International School at Yinhai Academy in Qingdao.  Throughout these years, Steve helped U.S. and Chinese schools form a network of exchanges, including universities like Duke University (Kunshan campus project), New York University (Shanghai campus), Kean University (Wenzhou campus), and Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District (SEID) at the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), developed as a joint venture between China and Singapore.

In 2015, Steve, along with his wife (they met in Hangzhou through mutual friends) and step-daughter (who enrolled at Columbia University), returned to the U.S. to New Haven, Connecticut, and bought a large home on the Yale University campus.  The home is a frequent stop for visiting Chinese guests, dignitaries, and scholars.  Steve’s wife, Ms. Lindan Hu, has developed a traditional tea culture training program and events for the Chinese-Yale community, and Steve returned to MIT to continue research in new technologies that are rapidly transforming society, education, and the global economy in the late 2010s, including financial technologies (FinTech) and artificial intelligence (AI).  In 2016, Steve led a project at MIT to use blockchain technology as a way to trace and validate learning experiences and credentials of international students, in order to facilitate global student mobility.  Steve helped start up several new companies (The FinTech School and Qwasar Silicon Valley in San Francisco) that used new FinTech tools and online software engineering training platforms to develop applications for business schools and think tanks that prepare learners for skills demanded in a new global workplace.  Steve consulted with institutions and governments on launching FinTech institutes (INCAE School of Business in Costa Rica - 2017, Berkeley Haas School of Business - 2017, Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University) and software engineering skills training platforms (Trends Research & Advisory in U.A.E. - 2020).  In Latin America, Steve has consulted to government agencies in El Salvador, Panama, and Paraguay about digital currency and blockchain technologies and created educational platforms for institutions and NGOs.

The Whitney International Project

Since 2020, Steve has been engaged with institutions and universities in strategic initiatives to deal with the rise of blockchain, bitcoin, and AI technologies that fundamentally reshape the future of investment, global trade, and wealth management.  Steve advises boards of non-profit schools and universities on strategies to adopt new technologies for investment planning and wealth management.  He has joined the faculty at the School of Business at Southern Connecticut State University to develop entrepreneurship platforms for students and the community, and adopt financial technologies and AI into business, government, and institutional operations.  Steve sees the world evolving in ways that will shift trade, society, and education toward decentralized platforms and advanced monetary and financial systems, and he helps business, political, and educational leaders more deeply grasp the implications of these rapidly evolving systems.

In 2023, Steve joined with a core team of development and professional partners to launch an AI application development company, AdvisorZen.AI, to develop AI agent applications in wealth management.  This platform will be used to launch similar AI agent applications along a range of professional and consulting needs, including AI agent applications that can be deployed by schools and individuals for mentoring, coaching, tutoring, language learning, mindset development, and more.

At the same time, Steve took stock of the post-Covid era of global political shifts that are rocking the traditional means and measures of trade, education, and finance.  Steve formed the Whitney International Project as a platform to continue his private work with VVIP clients who faced new challenges and opportunities in investment, education, and business development.  Recognizing a shift in geopolitical realignments and breakdowns in the international order to address climate change, DEI regimes, and trading partner relationships, Steve created a focused, highly specialized practice to assist high net worth clients with the challenges these shifts create. His private, bespoke practice on behalf of high net worth client families focuses on strategy, security, privacy, and networking to enable the navigation of a rapidly changing landscape in education, investing, and lifestyle. 

With the creation of the Whitney International Project Charitable Trust, Steve has turned his successes into a multi-generational platform to add value to his client students, families, and the schools that support them. Through targeted programs of scholarship awards and donations to schools and educational programs, the Whitney International Project Charitable Trust works as a beneficial channel for family contributions to grow a unique multi-generational platform that opens new opportunities and horizons for Chinese students and families studying, working, and living abroad. In the end, Steve’s demonstrated care for the security, health, and happiness of students reflects his long standing passion for building the next generatin of artists, scientists, and leaders. For all his achievements in business, entrepreneurship, technology, scholarship, and global leadership, Steve demonstrates a real joy in connecting on a very personal and emotional level with young people.  His students and their families become an unending continuum of a global extended family.

In Conclusion

Over the course of the five past transformative decades—encompassing cultural shifts, economic upheavals, educational reforms, and technological revolutions—Stephen Wilmarth has never ceased to learn, adapt, and lead. Steve has consistently positioned himself at the cutting edge of global changes, seeking out firsthand experiences that deepen his understanding of both historical turning points and future possibilities. This worldwide perspective, combined with a profound command of emerging technologies and a heartfelt commitment to nurturing the communities that have shaped him, make Steve uniquely qualified as a trusted counselor and mentor for the next generation.

As a parent, teacher, entrepreneur, and community leader, Steve brings to his mentorship not only hard-earned wisdom, but also a genuine empathy for young people and their dreams. His enthusiasm, warmth, and respect for each student’s individuality allow him to connect immediately with their aspirations and inspire them to embrace leadership roles in an ever-changing world. In Stephen Wilmarth, young learners find not just a guide and role model, but a caring advocate who encourages them to strive, grow, and succeed with confidence, making Steve a uniquely qualified counselor and mentor for young, aspiring Chinese students and their families.

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