Women Who Inspire Us
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Stephanie Schears Tilenius

For the last decade, Stephanie Schears Tilenius has been orchestrating business deals among some of Silicon Valley's most exciting companies. Most recently, Tilenius managed e-commerce and healthcare investments for Intel's Corporate Business Development Group (unofficially known as the Intel VC Group). At Intel from 1997 to 1998, Tilenius was one of the company's top producers and strategically guided Intel to invest in companies like eToys, Reel.com, iVillage, Ariba Technologies, ChannelPoint, BabyCenter, LifeMasters, and Quokka. Tilenius sat on five boards while at Intel, focusing on helping to grow e-commerce companies such as eToys. She also helped set the strategic agenda for Intel's Healthcare Group by working with HMOs, established healthcare software companies, and Internet healthcare start-ups.

While at Intel, Tilenius was working on a business plan for an online pharmacy with her high school friend, Dr. Shawn Becker. They decided to partner with co-founder Mike Bruner and his team, bringing together the product and business expertise necessary to build PlanetRx into a sustainable business.

From 1995 to 1997, Tilenius was vice president of business development at Firefly, an Internet start-up that was acquired by Microsoft. From 1991 to 1994, she was a technology investment banker at Alex Brown & Sons. Early in her career, Tilenius was accepted into the Presidential Management Intern Program and worked on U.S.-Japan trade negotiations.

Tilenius earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1996. While pursuing her M.B.A., Tilenius worked in corporate development at America Online and started the Cyberposium at Harvard Business School. In 1989 she earned an M.A. and a B.A. in economics with high honors from Brandeis University.