As our profiles show, CEOs are a diverse crowd. As the auto industry globalizes, automakers increasingly resemble each other in product, production and management. This is not quite so true with suppliers. Although a wave of mergers and acquisitions has thinned their ranks, suppliers retain distinct identities. This month, Automotive News International examines the various types of supplier companies and the executives who run them.
Some companies are relatively small family owned businesses that specialize in a few product lines.
These companies are beginning to disappear in the United States, but they still survive in Europe, where suppliers have not consolidated quite so quickly. To illustrate this group, we profile Bosal , a German company that has been run by three generations of CEOs named Karel Bos. One example is Gentex , a highly profitable U.S. company that makes self-dimming mirrors. Other companies have expanded into a wide range of components. One of the best examples is Lear Corp. , the Michigan seat maker that now can design an entire vehicle interior.