Stephano Kim, lecturer in Columbia’s M.S. in Technology Management, became enamored with technology as an undergraduate when the dorm rooms were getting wired with high-speed ethernet. The internet was still nascent, and Tim Berners-Lee had just released the first version of HTML.
His interest in another field, the media industry, started with the Persian Gulf War in 1990. “Everything about live news was intriguing to me: how news crews traveled around the world, how to get video and sound feeds from reporters across the globe, and how these free television channels operated and made money,” Kim said.
Fifteen years later, after completing business school, he landed a role in corporate strategy at AOL Time Warner, which combined his interests in technology and media. In February 2025, Kim joined Fox Corporation as chief strategy and operations officer.
In a recent interview with SPS, Kim discussed his career and teaching experiences, New York City as a hub of innovation, and the ethical challenges of working in tech.
How does your industry experience shape the way you teach your courses?
Working within both small start-ups and large-scale enterprises, I’ve realized that everyone receives and conveys information in their own unique way. In order to achieve your objectives and motivate teams, you need to adapt how you communicate and collaborate in both group settings and one-on-ones. For most people, simply talking or lecturing at someone may not be the most effective way to engage them in learning, so I’ve learned to adapt how I deliver my thoughts in a way that’s most effective for the listener and build my storytelling skills to make the subject matter accessible to the broadest audience.
How can technology leaders navigate the ethical challenges and responsibilities of driving innovation in a global, digitally connected world?
It’s important for every leader to develop a moral framework that aligns with their personal beliefs, the cultural mores of their employees and stakeholders, and the law. Ethical challenges often happen within the gray, as issues surrounding these challenges typically fall somewhere between achieving objectives and conflicting with values.
One way to navigate these tough decisions is to follow a consistent framework and a set of filters in how you qualify the potential outcomes from the decisions you make. Will the decision you make break the law? Will that decision conflict with your company’s values? Will the outcome of these decisions negatively impact people?
Which tech sectors are growing in NYC?
The major theme is AI, but we are seeing more specific applications of AI as platforms start to establish themselves. For instance, AI is now being used to automate workflows in almost every industry where processes are somewhat standardized and the current human-based workflows are limited in scale.
We are also seeing a ton of applications by which machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision are being used to interpret data and offer insights for better decision-making. We are seeing these types of applications in industries like finance, media, health care, and logistics, to name only a few. There is also continued interest in cybersecurity and compliance across all stages of the data supply chain as data theft, hacking, and cyber threats grow in severity.
What do you hope your students will take from your course into the workplace?
In my classes, I tend to focus on conviction, clarity, and conversation. First, it’s important to have a sense of conviction in your point of view, your work, your mission, and your vision. That conviction can stem from your deep knowledge of the subject matter, your depth of experience, or even your confidence in your own abilities. Second, whether it’s analyzing a situation, expressing your recommendations, or making tough decisions, you must do so with clarity of information, expression, and consequences, respectively, so developing that discipline will only help sharpen your skills as an operator. Third, I emphasize how important it is to convey your thoughts through storytelling. The art of conversational communication in the workplace is what enables your coworkers and stakeholders to follow along and understand what you see and believe.
About the Program
Columbia University’s Master of Science in Technology Management is a hands-on technology leadership development program designed to train professionals for equal fluency in tech fundamentals, business operations, and ethical leadership.
The fall 2025 application deadline for the Technology Management program is June 1. Learn more about the program here.
