Summit Speaker

Stephen Rapp was born in Huntingdon, PA, USA. He was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Finance. He became a Marine Officer specializing in armor and later space defense. He supported combat operations in Beirut and Grenada and participated in combat during Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. He attended the Naval Postgraduate School graduating with a Master of Science in Operations Research, specializing in Engineering Optimization. His thesis, a discrete network optimization for rapid mobilization won the Tisdale Prize for "the thesis most likely to improve national defense" and later the INFORMS, Koopman Prize.

In business, Steve pursued a career as a project and program manager in multiple companies, first in classified space programs and then consulting for large data mining and warehousing for IBM. Then at CSC Consulting as a Principal, and Cap Gemini as a Director and Vice President, he worked and managed change programs for Dupont, AIG, AT&T, GM and Ford. Later, at General Dynamics he worked and managed multiple vehicle programs until retiring to pursue his PhD full time at Wayne State University on an ASEE fellowship as a SMART Scholar. He completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering there and is also an adjunct, teaching Decision & Risk Analysis and Six Sigma.

He is currently a senior scientist, at the U. S. Army DEVCOM GVSC in Warren, MI where he is the Trade Study Subject Technical Expert for GVSC.