Stephen is Professor of Strategy and Innovation, Associate Dean International and Accreditation, Co-Director of the University’s innovation space The Atom (Te Kahu o Te Ao), and Academic Lead at Taiawa Scale Up Hub at Rutherford House [www.wgtn.ac.nz/innovation](http://www.wgtn.ac.nz/innovation)

His research focuses on how historical assumptions can limit innovation. He has co-authored 12 books, including 'The Past, Present and Future of Sustainable Management' (Palgrave, 2021), 'A New History of Management' (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 'Strategy Builder' (Wiley, 2015), and the forthcoming 'Indigenous Management: Knowledges & Frameworks' (SAGE, 2025). Three recent articles in A* journals have been named ‘Paper of the Year’, including his co-authored article in Human Relations, ‘Unfreezing change as three steps’, which has been downloaded 600,000 times. The youtube channel 'A New History of Management' contains animations that outline Stephen and his collaborators’ research.

Stephen teaches strategy and entrepreneurship at VUW, has taught at ENPC Paris, EHTP Casablanca, JIBS Sweden, Peking University, Melbourne Business School, Stockholm University, Trinity College Dublin, Tsinghua University and Warwick Business School, and has held fellowships at PKU, Trinity, JIBS, and Copenhagen Business School.

He has advised and developed executive courses for HSBC, The Commerce Commission, The Financial Times, Kordia, and the ANZ. Stephen became New Zealand’s first Academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, was Chair of the CMS Division of the Academy of Management from 2016-2021, and was appointed to the Academy of Management's 'Subject Matter Experts' panel in 2021. In 2023 he was appointed to the International Advisory Board for the Rethinking Entrepreneurship project based at Copenhagen Business School.