Shahid R. Khan, owner and chief executive officer of Flex-N-Gate Corporation, began working for the company in 1970 while studying Industrial Engineering at Illinois. Born in Pakistan, Khan came to the United States in 1967, at the age of 16, to attend the University of Illinois.

Khan continued to work at Flex-N-Gate until 1978, when he left the company to start a new venture. With the help of a Small Business Administration loan, he began a new business designing and building an innovative bumper system—a lightweight, continuous piece of metal with no seams to corrode or rust. This entrepreneurial adventure, which began as a one-man, one-garage, one-press operation, created a product that is considered the industry design standard today. More than 90 percent of the pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles have bumper systems supplied by Flex-N-Gate.

Khan purchased Flex-N-Gate in 1980, and he remains the sole owner.  Today, the corporation employs more than 15,000 associates at 49 manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Brazil, with annual sales exceeding $2.7 billion.

https://grainger.illinois.edu/alumni/hal...hahid-kahn

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