Tony Stepanski

Tony Stepanski is an American executive in information technology.

Biography

Career

Tony first received national recognition when Forbes Magazine¹ published an article in April 1986 about a small group of successful business people who earned considerably more than the CEO of their respective companies. The small group included Peter Cohen and James Robinson of American Express, Martin Davis and Patrick Ewing of Gulf & Western, etc.

The article was about "The Babe Ruth Syndrome" - namely people who like Babe Ruth earned considerably more that their bosses. Stepanski was featured in the magazine because he was Executive Vice President of AGS Computers, Inc, a New York Stock Exchange listed public company and had earned over $680,000 the year before, more than double the earnings of AGS's Chairman & CEO Lawrence Schoenberg. Stepanski - who joined AGS from IBM in 1968 as its 19th employee - had been AGS's top salesman and top earner [AGS annual reports] for several years. By the time AGS was acquired by NYNEX (now Verizon) in 1988, Stepanski had also become AGS' fourth largest individual shareholder.

From 1984 to 1993 Stepanski was also President & CEO of AGS's largest business unit, AGS Information Services, Inc, an organization of 1,800 system development & professional services specialists with forty offices throughout the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Stepanski left AGS in 1993 on the occasion of his 25th anniversary with the company to take "a much need break."

In August 1994 he was recruited by Spencer Stuart to join Atos Origin, the large Dutch IT company based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to be CEO of its North American business. Between 1994 and 1997 he aggressively grew the North American business from an organization of 225 people to an organization of 1,500 system professionals and annual revenues of $300+ million. He left the company in 1997 shortly after Origin was acquired by Philips Electronics. By the time he left Origin he had become one of its largest individual shareholders.

In 2001 Stepanski was recruited by Russell Reynolds to become the Chief Executive of Izodia plc, a British dot.com information technology company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He and his wife moved to London and he undertook the reorganization of the business. When he left Izodia in late 2002 he was one of its largest individual shareholders.

For the last several years he has been an active private equity investor. Active in civic affairs, he also served as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Clark University for 14 years [and Vice Chairman for two years] , and was also on the Board of Trustees for The Children's Specialized Hospital [Mountainside, NJ] and the Westchester Artificial Kidney Center [Valhalla, NY] ².

In 1992 and 1993 he met with Nelson Mandella several times and was a supporter of SAFE - the South African Free Election committee.

Marriage and children

Stepanski and his wife Jane travel extensively and divide their time between homes in New Jersey, New York City and Vermont.

References

1)Forbes Magazine, April, 1986; 2)Who's Who in America