Stephen Hess is the CEO of Metaplex Studios, a strategic partner of Solana Labs, which was founded to accelerate the transition to Web3 by providing creators with the tools, capital, and resources needed to launch their own NFT storefronts on the Metaplex protocol. Stephen spent over 10 years in the technology & healthcare sectors performing leadership roles, with extensive experience on the product management side. He switched from Healthcare to the Blockchain sector back in 2020 while supporting the development of the Solana protocol and ecosystem where he was responsible for accelerating the adoption of high-performance and scalable blockchain technology and applications at Solana Labs.