Jeff Teper (BS '86)
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office
- Spearheaded development of Microsoft Office SharePoint
- Is part of Stern’s Tech MBA Advisory Board with 13 other industry leaders
- Has a passion for finding ways emerging technology can help customers
Stern valedictorian Jeff Teper joined Microsoft in 1992 and now leads design, product, and engineering for Microsoft Office 365 services focused on content collaboration, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Stream.
Known in the industry as the “father of Share- Point,” Teper spearheaded the development of SharePoint from start to finish. “It was incredibly exciting to make the initial product pitch to Bill Gates, build a team, and iterate through a few releases to build the fastest business Microsoft had grown to $1 billion at that time.”
The Office product has evolved to the point where Teper’s team has been looking at integrating new technologies. For instance, Microsoft recently announced a mixed-reality world with SharePoint Spaces. Teper explained that, “With SharePoint in Office 365, we have the leading intranet product but we wondered what intranets would look like with mixed-reality and how we could make it easy to create a scene in seconds. This reinforces our overall focus on innovation in content collaboration from documents to websites to mixed reality. We’ve been stunned at the level of interest since the first public demo.”
To stay on top of where the market is going in a changing world, Teper said, “You have to learn every day, since there are constantly new waves of technology and new business models enabled by them. To stay current, I read a lot, talk to a variety of people in the industry, and try to use as diverse a range of products as possible.”
Stern’s more intensive focus on technology inspired Teper to join the School’s Tech MBA Advisory Board. “I was excited to help as both an alumnus and employer. What I loved about Stern was being able to combine studying computers and business with top-notch faculty in both areas and apply it to the real world in a part-time job. I got to design sophisticated investment analysis software at 20 years old.”
Students looking to succeed in the tech sector today, he advised, need to retain a passion about customers and the possibilities of emerging technologies. “It is perhaps too easy to get caught up in the business side of all this, but you need to love what you do, and that leads to the best ideas for both existing and new companies.”