Stephan van der Merwe was born and raised in South Africa, where he attended Nelson Mandela University. But he has spent almost his entire career traversing the globe, armed with an entrepreneurial spirit and building an international book of business contacts.
It all started in Cape Town, where Stephan published his own magazine. This led to him being headhunted overseas to work in the publishing industry for the next four years.
After relocating to America in 2009, Stephan continued his publishing career in Boston until San Diego’s sunnier climes lured him to the west coast, where his personal passion for innovation intensified.
For the past ten years he has worked in the design and development of products and devices in Southern California, with a particular focus on San Diego. During his immersion in the city’s innovation ecosystem, he hugely enjoyed his experience as a selection committee member of San Diego incubator EvoNexus, where he got to witness the evolution of many new and novel technologies.
As his professional network of SoCal innovators grew so too did his burning desire to invent and develop his own product. In 2023, he was granted a non-provisional utility patent for his neck massage device ‘nekfizio’, which he has now licensed.
Stephan currently collaborates with a diverse group of engineering leaders to help them achieve their product design, development, and manufacturing goals by matching them with outsourced engineering vendors through his consultancy, Product Design Connections.
“I’m excited to combine my passions of innovation and publishing with the INNOVATE team to help showcase San Diego’s unique profile as not just a picture-perfect beach destination, but as a world-class hub of innovators.”
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaninnovate/
Cell: 9497328904
