Page 69 - The Way to the Top

and satisfies both my personal and professional goals and that has been
extremely rewarding for all shareholders and stakeholders.

We were able to retain the original 7,500 jobs that flowed from General

Motors Corporation. Today, the workforce is 12,000 strong and
strategically located in twenty-three locations on four continents. The
company has been profitable all nine years of its existence. In 1999,
through a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) process, we converted

the company from a private firm to a company publicly traded on the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as “AXL.” Since that time we have
generated seventeen straight quarters of performance that have met or
exceeded Wall Street expectations. Revenues have more than doubled

since 1994: they have grown from approximately $1.6 billion to $3.5
billion.

We have built a world-class quality and technology product portfolio
possessing outstanding performance capabilities, and customers have
expanded from the original two to more than seventy-five. We originally

shipped product to two countries; now we ship to twelve.

The company’s execution of challenging investment decisions regarding
revitalizing old facilities and investing in new product, process, and
systems technology earned it a place on the Fortune 500 in 2002. In 2003,

AAM moved up to number 450 on that prestigious list, and we have also
been honored through the Forbes Platinum 400 as one of America’s Best
Big Corporations.

Nearly $2.5 billion has been invested to rebuild and modernize AAM’s
original plants and infrastructure, and this activity continues to be done

strategically and thoughtfully with an eye to achieving a positive return
for our investors. As a result, AAM was awarded the 2001 Shareholders
Value Award from Automotive News and PricewaterhouseCoopers with a

total return on investment (ROI) of 169 percent.

I grew up on a working dairy farm in Ohio and my parents were my role
models. They were hardworking, entrepreneurial Americans who