Steven L. Schoonover, BFA ’67

CEO, CellXion, LLC

2006 Joan Herrold Wood Award
for Lifetime Commitment Winner

Steve Schoonover currently serves as chief executive officer of Cellxion, LLC, a company specializing in the construction and installation of telecommunication buildings and towers and the installation of high-tech telecommunication equipment. Schoonover founded the company in September 1996 and served as president and chief executive officer until November 2005. Cellxion, with 550 employees, is the second privately held telecom company he has developed to $100 million in sales over the past 20 years.

In January 1998, Schoonover was elected as a director and in 2000 as chairman of the audit committee of US LEC. More recently, he was elected as a director and member of the audit committee of Contango Oil and Gas Company.

From 1983 to 1987, Schoonover served in various positions with Fibrebond Corporation in Minden, La. He was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of that company in 1987 and served as such until June 1996. From 1990 until its sale in November 1997, he served as president of Blue Ridge Cellular, Inc., a full-service cellular telephone company he co-founded in western Virginia. Prior to that, he held various sales and management positions with Owens-Illinois, Inc. in Toledo.

Schoonover graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1967 and holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a member of the bar association in the states of Texas, Ohio and Nebraska.

Schoonover has been honored with the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year® award on two different occasions. He first won the award in Houston in 1991 for his ownership and involvement with Fibrebond and again in 2002 in New Orleans for his development of Cellxion, LLC.

He and his wife Barbara, an RN and president/owner of FITNESS WORLD in Shreveport, La., have been married for 38 years and have four children—Kristen, Michelle, Brett and David—and three grandchildren.  Schoonover’s parents, Harold and Julia, live in Akron. The new baseball stadium at Kent State University was recently named Schoonover Stadium in their honor.