Gilles, Ralph
1970—
Automotive executive
Ralph Gilles holds one of the top creative jobs in the U.S. automotive industry as head of one of the Chrysler Group's design studios. Promoted to the job when he was 31 years old, Gilles scored several notable successes for the company with the Magnum and Charger relaunches at Dodge and the top-selling Chrysler 300 luxury sedan. Sales for all three boosted revenues for the automaker in 2004 and 2005 after a period of precipitous decline. "We cannot afford to do regular," he declared in an interview with Mary Connelly of Automotive News. "America rewards you when you do something with passion and you take a chance.