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Gerald Diez, 60
President and CEO
The Diez Group
Dearborn
2003 revenue: $370 million
Claim to fame: Reaching a defect rate of zero parts per million for General Motors Corp. and winning its Supplier of the Year award from 1998 through 2001.
On surviving In a brutal steel Industry- "You absolutely can't stay still in this business. You have to keep growing, or you disappear."
A co-op program at Fitzgerald High School in Warren got Gerald Diez into the steel processing business, and he never looked back.
He spent seven years at Production Steel, working his way up from inventory clerk to being in charge of sales, purchasing and scheduling. Diez then took an offer from Lafayette Steel, where he stayed four years and became assistant general manager.
But a friend, Mark Zivian, suggested they...