Page 168 - BWA FEB 2013

168 | Business World Magazine | February 2013
taking a position in operations for American
Axle and Manufacturing in 1995. This later
led to his appointment to vice president, and
then later, he emerged as President andChief
Operating Officer of the company, which is a
leading, international supplier of products to
the automotive industry. Yogen says he never
aspired to become President of a global auto-
motive supplier that generates billions in an-
nual revenue. He says hard-work, opportuni-
ties that arise from “things coming together”
and a rather simple philosophy underscored
his success. “You get out what you put into
it,” says Yogen. “I always believed in doing
the job you have in hand, the best way you
can, without worrying about what will hap-
pen.
Yogen retired from American Axle in
2009, but by 2010, he found it increasingly
difficult to contend with the routine nature
of home life. As an engineer who likes to
solve problems, Yogen says he became in-
creasingly antsy. He decided to reenter busi-
ness and began exploring opportunities with
ties, once more, to the automotive industry.
This is how he came to take a tour of opera-
tions at Whitehall on that fateful afternoon.
He says he had already studied the numbers