Over the course of a 30 year career, Steve Zarrilli has served as CEO and CFO of both publicly traded and privately held technology companies. He also has substantial board governance experience having served on four other publicly traded enterprises over the last 15 years.

On November 1, 2012, Steve became President and Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE), having previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2008. Founded in 1953 and based in Wayne, PA, Safeguard provides growth capital for entrepreneurial and innovative healthcare and technology companies. Having been on both sides of the table, Steve understands the operational and strategic challenges that entrepreneurs face. He understands what it takes to build a great company based on his deep domain expertise as an entrepreneur, board member and financier. Steve's public and private company experience complements Safeguard’s rich history and ensures a strong, disciplined infrastructure going forward.

Prior to joining Safeguard, Steve held a number of financial, operating and board roles in both venture-backed and publicly traded companies. Steve co-founded and is an Advisor of the Penn Valley Group, a middle-market management advisory firm which launched in 2005 to assist middle market companies in capital development, financial and organizational management and corporate strategy. Prior to the creation of the Penn Valley Group, Steve served as the Chief Financial Officer of Fiberlink Communications Corp., a leading provider of mobile device and application solutions for enterprises.

Steve’s prior experiences also include serving both as the Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Executive Officer of US Interactive, Inc. where he led the company’s initial and secondary public offerings. Steve also served as Chief Executive Officer of Concellera Software, Inc., orchestrating the sale of its proprietary technology to Hewlett Packard, and spent over a decade with Deloitte, where he was directly involved in developing an emerging business practice for the firm in Philadelphia.

In addition to his responsibilities at Safeguard, Steve serves as a director, chairman of the audit committee and member of the governance and compensation committees of Nutrisystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRI). Steve joined the board in connection with its recapitalization in 2003 by a Philadelphia-based venture fund and has been directly involved at a board level as the company grew revenue from $30 million to more than $700 million, resulting in a peak market capitalization of $2+ billion. Other board affiliations include The Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Cadient Group, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and LaSalle University. From 2000 to 2004, Steve also served on the board of Progress Financial Corporation, Inc., a publicly traded financial services firm (NASDAQ:PFNC) that was sold to Fleet Bank in 2004 at a 6x multiple of market value; and from 2008 to 2010 on the board of Safeguard partner company Clarient, Inc. (NADSAQ:CLRT), until it was acquired by GE Healthcare in December 2010.

Steve is a graduate of LaSalle University in Philadelphia earning a B.S. degree in Accounting. He is a former Certified Public Accountant, and is a frequent lecturer on corporate governance, financial management, organizational and capital development matters. He also completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.