Events Calendar
In This Section
High-tech company expands downtown
Folgers coffee perks up Smucker earnings
Region's stocking full of ideas for those on the prowl for holiday gifts
Ohio sues credit-rating companies
Study tracks newspaper, online readership
Michelin chief says revenue won't increase
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
NFL star Chris Spielman's wife loses cancer battle
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
Man allegedly paid teens to spit in his face
Retired firefighter who broke color barrier among those being honored
Angel Food Ministries helps stretch grocery dollars
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
For your Saturday entertainment …
Akron Zips:
Two blowouts, one night
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Holmgren expresses interest in Browns position
Kent State Sports:
Singletary update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Indiana Pacers – Here’s to LBJ and Free Throws
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Bowling season starts today
All Da King's Men:
Headed For Disaster
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Federal Judge Declares DOMA Unconstitutional
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Colloquium at University of Akron
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Businessman receives honor for leading effort to build communications network
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Saturday, Oct 04, 2008
It's hard to exaggerate the role one Akron businessman played in stabilizing one of the most lethal Iraqi regions, retired Marine Col. Ross Adelman said.
The difference in the western Anbar Province ''is like night and day'' since Dave Scantling arrived two years ago to lead the effort to rebuild the area's communications network.
Last month, the 42-year-old Scantling, who sold his business to take a Department of Defense assignment that led him overseas, received the department's second-highest civilian honor, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
The award only hints at the value of Scantling's contribution, said Adelman, who was the lead telecom officer for Multi-National Forces West in Al Anbar in 2006.
Anbar, about the size of South Carolina, was a ravaged countryside, with daily violence, no utilities and little hope of attracting the businesses and jobs needed to kick-start the local economy.
Without land phones, cell towers, fiber-optic cables or the Internet, local safety forces couldn't communicate with each other or their
headquarters while trying to protect their towns.
Government officials couldn't coordinate rebuilding efforts without risking sniper fire and roadside bombs to meet in person, or exchange ideas or information with the movers and shakers in Baghdad.
''So in comes Dave Scantling,'' Adelman said. ''He says, 'I think I can help you.' He's got the clout, the know-how, the strategic level of thinking and he understands business.''
This wasn't Scantling's first time in the embattled country. A couple of years earlier, he was contracted by an Egyptian company that had been awarded a mobile phone license in Iraq.
With the blessings of his wife, Molly, and their six children in Akron, he literally risked his life to help build a wireless network in the central part of the country.
First adventure
He recently recalled those days, flying down Iraqi highways with a private armed security force, hoping to avoid sniper fire, and watching the company he worked for negotiate the release of abducted cell-phone tower builders.
His motivation for being there was to build a reputation for his own Akron company, Storage Continuity, which helped companies recover data after a disaster.
''We were competing with well-established services and we wanted to be able to say to new customers, 'Have your providers actually been in a disaster zone?' Now we could say we had,'' Scantling said.
But his adventure encompassed so much more, he said, like helping to build a call center in Baghdad and watching it fill with Christian, Shia and Sunni women who left their differences at the door to work side by side.
When his two-year stint with that enterprise ended, he returned to Akron.
But within months, he was invited to join a new Department of Defense agency focused on streamlining business systems, including supply chains, accounting and personnel around the world.
He sold Storage Continuity and split his time between an office in the Pentagon and one at a Defense Department facility in Cleveland.
Get economy moving
But Scantling's experience in Iraq was about to pull him into a new project.
In April 2006, he participated in a conference call with Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the forces in Iraq.
Chiarelli revealed his frustration with the economic and business barriers to rebuilding Iraq.
''The bottom line was, 'Look, I need a way to create jobs in Iraq to get military-age Iraqi men off the street and back to work. I'm a combatant commander, not a businessman. We need to get the economy moving and that's how we will win,' '' Scantling recalled.
Scantling knew exactly what the general meant.
There are no companies without investors, no investors or entrepreneurs without security, no security without police and army, and no police and army without communications.
But the infrastructure had been destroyed by the United States in the early days of the war to keep Saddam Hussein from coordinating his troops.
''We used to joke that telecommunications is like oxygen. You don't notice it 'til it's not there,'' Scantling said.
So the Defense Department responded with a task force focused on Iraq, and Scantling was uniquely qualified to head the telecommunications piece of the puzzle.
From June 2006 to December 2007, Scantling helped coordinate work that ranged from re-establishing fiber-optic lines to writing regulatory laws.
Once that effort was moving forward, Scantling's team immersed itself in finding investors for business opportunities.
Before the war, the economy was driven by some 200 state-owned enterprises that provided 26 million Iraqi people with everything from pharmaceuticals to food and clothing.
Those enterprises were shut down by the Coalition Provisional Authority after Hussein was deposed, leading to massive unemployment.
Scantling helped restart some of those state-owned enterprises to get people back to work. Today, they are operating with the help of private investors, with the expectation that soon, those investors will be able to buy the plants and get the government out of the private sector.
Adelman said that in his region, Scantling did in a couple of months what it would probably have taken the military a couple of years to accomplish.
''And he led the way himself,'' Adelman said. ''He wasn't some bureaucrat sitting in the green zone and drinking fancy coffee every day. He joined us in Fallujah and lived in a trailer and went through Ambush Alley and all the hot spots.''
Scantling left the Department of Defense last December, but continues to watch developments in Iraq with great interest.
Last month, Anbar was doing so well, the Marines were able to hand control of the region back to the Iraqis. And while Adelman praised Scantling for his role there, Scantling is quick to give all the credit to the Marines.
What's next
Meanwhile, Scantling has thrown himself into a new enterprise. His new company, Scantling Technology Ventures, is focused on the Mideast again, this time for a project that is laying new telecommunications cable on the floor of the Arabian Gulf to help connect that region to Europe.
One of his new missions, he said, is to engage other Akron-area businesses in overseas opportunities. Currently, he's working with Playaway, a Solon company, to put training material on a digital device.
''There's a lot of talent and skill here and a big need overseas,'' he said. ''I want to do what I can to leverage Northeast Ohio to the Mideast.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
It's hard to exaggerate the role one Akron businessman played in stabilizing one of the most lethal Iraqi regions, retired Marine Col. Ross Adelman said.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
medina, oh
Posted 09:24 AM, 10/04/2008
Too bad he doesn't help restart Akron's economy.
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 09:36 AM, 10/04/2008
Send him home to the USA so he can revive the economy here. In fact, maybe he can run for president? Heck with Iraq!!!!
Posted 10:58 AM, 10/04/2008
"Too bad he doesn't help restart Akron's economy."
Maybe we just need to let him keep his 'private armed security force' to protect him in Akron!
Or he could hire a local one, all decked out in hooded coats!
