Stepien worked under Graham at the University's Computer Systems Group (CSG), the department that had developed the very successful Watfor, Watbol and Watiac.
[1] In 1981 senior members of CSG incorporated Watcom, the University's first software spin-off company.
At Watcom Stepien was responsible for the development of its Structured Query Language (SQL) Anywhere software product.
In 2000 Sybase had Stepien lead the spin-off of iAnywhere Solutions an "entrepreneurial subsidiary".
[2] In 2004, under Stepien's direction, Sybase became the first tenant in a long-awaited technology park built on the University of Waterloo's large and undeveloped north campus.