Steve Stone has over 34 years of experience in leveraging technology to improve business outcomes and value for organizations. Steve served in the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) for over 14 years and enhanced the growth and profitability of two major US-based retailers. He is currently the CEO of NSU Technologies, LLC, a retail and technology consultancy he founded after retiring from industry. Steve began his career in the computer software industry and rose quickly into management. Driven by the desire to broaden his exposure to different organizational cultures and businesses, Steve moved into professional consulting before accepting an offer to join Lowe’s, Inc. in 1992. From 1992 until 2011, Steve led the technology efforts to support Lowe’s massive US growth. During this time Lowe’s revenues increased over 13 X from $3.5B to nearly $50B. Steve played a critical role in all significant technology innovations at Lowe’s during his tenure. He was promoted toCIO in 2003 and held that post until leaving in 2011. Steve returned to his roots in 2011 and joined MicroStrategy to lead efforts to develop their cloud platform. Steve quickly built and mobilized a team to deliver the first cloud products to market in less than five months. In addition to constructing and running the cloud business at MicroStrategy, Steve also served as the company’s CIO. Steve returned to retail in 2013, joining the L Brands team as CIO. Steve quickly established a direction and mission for the L Brand’s IT team, while building relationships with executive leadership across the five major retail brands in the company. Under Steve’s leadership, the IT organization provided critical services enabling L Brands to achieve a record 18% operating income level in 2015, the highest such performance in all of retail. Steve continues to be very active in research on retail and technology concepts. He is a frequent blogger and speaker at various events across the country. Steve resides in Denver, NC with his wife Charity and enjoys spending time with his three daughters Haley, Nikki, and Ashlyn.