An alumnus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Stephen Robert is the co-founder of the Source of Hope Foundation, an organization dedicated to poverty relief. Also the former chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer Group, Inc., Source of Hope Founder Stephen Robert serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

A leading foreign policy organization of the most prominent individual and corporate leaders in international affairs, CFR oversees multiple programs, including the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy (CSMD) program. CSMD program aims to increase global transparency and accountability amid worldwide corruption problems that result in more than $1 trillion in criminal proceeds flowing annually into Western banks, real estate, and luxury goods.

With an end goal of promoting more stable and prosperous societies, the CSMD program studies how different countries across the world enforce the rule of law, with a special focus on efforts to combat corruption through implementing judicial, law enforcement, and bureaucratic reforms. The CSMD program also analyzes the political and societal shifts happening in response to the globalization of the supply chain and how the emergence of new technologies impacts foreign policy, popular uprisings, and even counterterrorism strategies.