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kelly BYSOUTH
Chief Supply Chain Officer
International Automotive Components Group
Southfield, Mich.
Age: 50
Education: B.A., finance, Michigan State University; MBA, University of Michigan
What drew you to the auto industry? I actually didn't intend to work in the automotive industry. I grew up in the Detroit area and, obviously, I was surrounded by it. I was trying to make a concerted effort not to go into the automotive industry. But when I graduated in the early '90s, the job market wasn't that amazing. I wanted to go into more of a corporate finance role, but those really weren't that plentiful. I ended up taking a job at a small Tier 2 auto supplier. So that's how I sort of stumbled into it. From there, I moved to Ford Motor Co. and then just stuck with it. It wasn't intentional, but I ended up getting the bug for it once I got into it.
First automotive job: Inside sales representative job for a small Tier 2 family-run business, Dadco, in 1992.
Big break: When I was working at Johnson Controls in 2012, I got the opportunity to take an expat assignment, in Germany, running our European procurement team. At the time, I had a 2- and a 4-year-old. It was obviously a professional challenge and personal challenge. I really became the first female expat that Johnson Controls had ever placed. They didn't know what to do with me, quite frankly. I had to make my own way. I had to find child care for my kids, which is not easy...