He was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and attended Harvard College, where he received an AB in Economics. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Boston College Law School.

Prior to his nomination, Mr. Stephenson was for the past nineteen years a partner at Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and focused on a broad array of information technology and healthcare companies. He has served on dozens of private and public corporate boards in his 38 years as a venture capitalist.

Mr. Stephenson worked as a securities analyst at Fidelity Management Company and helped found Fidelity Ventures. In 1977 he became President of Fidelity Ventures and ran that very successful venture capital operation until he left Fidelity at the end of 1987 to join Sequoia Capital.

Mr. Stephenson has been very active in the affairs of Harvard University over the years and currently serves as a member of the Board of Overseers and its Executive Committee. He has also been a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Board of Advisors of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Board of Directors of Conservation International, the Wilson Center Council, and as a Corporate Fund Vice Chairman of the Kennedy Center. While living in Boston, he served for many years on boards and committees of the Tufts New England Medical Center.

Mr. Stephenson, his wife and their son live in Lisbon. He has three other children who reside in the United States.