He studied chemistry and bioindustries and obtained an MSc degree at the Faculté universitaire des sciences agronomiques de Gembloux in 1972 and an MBA degree from the Université catholique de Louvain in 1982.
From 1988 to 1991, he was vice president of human vaccines research and development and production.
Since 1998, Jean Stéphenne is president and general manager of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals.
In 2001, Stéphenne was raised into the Belgian nobility by King Albert II and given the noble title Baron for life.
[2] Since September 2015 he was a member of the supervisory board of CureVac, a German biopharmaceutical company specialising in mRNA-based drugs.