After graduation in 1980 from Lincoln Technical Institute, Mike Stephens was recruited to work in the tool room at Crown Products Division of Sommer Metalcraft Corp. He worked in the tool room until 1983 when he was promoted to Shop Foreman at Crown Products Veighway Plant. Veighway was regarded as one of the nations premiere fan guard manufacturers and Mike was responsible for all aspects of the operation of this facility.  In 1987 Mike was promoted to Manufacturing Manager for all three Crown Products plants.

Mike left Crown Products for a short stint at Lincoln Technical Institute where he was in charge of the design and manufacturing of training aids used in the classrooms.

Returning to Crown Products in 1991, Mike was assigned the role of Production Manager of the Plant 3 Operation. In 1993 Engineered Cooling Systems purchased the Plant 3 operation from Crown Products Division to build fan guards for their fan manufacturing applications. Mike stayed with ECS until 1997 when he returned to Crown Products as Manufacturing Manager.  Mike also launched Cornerstone Metal Fabrication in 1997. Cornerstone’s first products were wire handles for Advantis Medical, specialty racks for International Cryogenics and wire forms for the Department of Defense. Mike left Crown Products in 2000 to focus solely on building Cornerstone and now Cornerstone is building one of the most competitive and responsive wire manufacturing companies in the industry.