Her father wanted her away from the assembly line. She carried that wish from Flint to the Starbucks executive suite - and spent the next five decades holding doors open behind her.
The Burson CEO spent three decades shaping messages for Nike, Starbucks, Salesforce and Google. His other education came from record shops, a thousand music bylines and the stubborn art of listening closely.
Michelle Gass is the president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., the first woman to lead the 172-year-old denim company. A chemical engineer by training, she built Starbucks' Frappuccino into a $2 billion brand, ran Kohl's for five years, and is now reshaping Levi's into a direct-to-consumer denim lifestyle retailer.