Anita-Marie Quillen Works
Non-Stop to Lead Jackson’s
Diversified Engineering and Plastics

By Doug Goodnough

So you want to be a business owner?

If the answer to that question is “Yes,” then Anita-Marie Quillen ’05 has some advice for you: Be ready to sacrifice, get your education, work long hours, deal constantly with personnel and personalities, continually plan, be the ultimate decision-maker and learn quickly from your mistakes.

“It’s not meant for everyone,” said Quillen, owner of Diversified Engineering and Plastics, an auto parts manufacturing and engineering company of about 80 employees in Jackson, Mich. “One of the best luxuries I have is obviously I have significant flexibility. But the unfortunate part is my work never stops. I don’t have any downtime. … It never turns off.”

Despite those sometimes-chilling terms, the 36-year-old said the career path she has chosen is the right one for her.

And she did have a choice.

Originally studying to become a doctor at Michigan State University, Quillen said she spent four years majoring in pre-med at MSU before finally realizing she wanted to pursue something different. After taking a part-time job at her parents’ manufacturing company, Mid-American Products (now DEP), she left MSU without completing her degree. She also came to a new realization.

“I realized that I really enjoyed the environment,” Quillen said. “I felt a lot of opportunities.”

She began to work full-time at Mid-American, with the hope of moving on and moving up—but not necessarily in the family business.

“At one time I was running two departments,” Quillen said. “I saw an opportunity where I was learning a whole lot really, really fast. The doors were wide open because gaps were appearing where they needed someone to help fill. I would pretty much say ‘yes’ to whatever I was asked (to do).”

She also realized that if she wanted to advance her career, she needed some additional education. Enter Siena Heights University.

“I met with an advisor from Siena and he gave me some pretty good opportunities and a path was put together to finish a business degree,” said Quillen, who completed her bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies at SHU’s Jackson campus. “I felt like I needed a little more foundational classes to have a more well-rounded knowledge base with the business.

“It was great. I really enjoyed not only the individuals I shared the experience with in class, but the professors and teachers were great,” she continued. “I still see quite a few people I had classes with in Jackson.”

She would put her education to good use almost immediately. About the time she was completing her degree, the nation’s economy took a serious downturn, and one of the deepest recessions followed. That also affected her parents’ business, which was struggling to survive. Quillen and a couple business partners eventually took over control of the business in an effort to save it.

“One of the hardest things working through that transition with the owners, which were my parents, was managing the day-to-day (operation) of the business and keeping people motivated at the same time,” said Quillen, who was also on the phone with suppliers, working with customers during that difficult stretch. “Keeping that smile on your face sometimes gets challenging. It’s also sometimes kind of like a mask of what’s really underneath, because if they understood what’s underneath, it would be a little scary.”

The company downsized from 130 employees to nearly 80 during that difficult and trying process.

“It was just a challenge every single day knowing that some days I really didn’t know how positive the outcome would be,” she said, “to keep believing in the company, that we’re going to get through this. There was just so much bad news at that time, with every business faltering, businesses closing.”

After taking sole ownership and renaming the company more than six years ago, the news is now better for DEP.

“The last two or three years have been very positive, and we continually improve our profits, or our bottom line,” Quillen said. “We’ve become more skilled on keeping up on the news. … Being able to plan for any adjustments in the economy has allowed the business to continue being successful over time.”

A Tier 2 manufacturer for the auto industry, DEP produces mirror brackets and window frames for the automotive industry. Quillen said she is especially proud of her company’s patented valve lifter guide, which is installed in Ford Motor Co. diesel engines.

Quillen said her biggest challenge on the job is managing people.

“You never know what you are going to walk into when you are dealing with humans,” she said. “It is my least favorite – and the most rewarding.”

She also is able to manage a family life. Quillen and her husband are the parents of 6- and 8-year-old boys, and when not at work, the couple spends a lot of time watching their children play on the baseball field. Finding family time can be difficult, but Quillen said it is a necessity.

“(My family) is always the number one priority in my life,” Quillen said. “I’m definitely not the perfect mom or the perfect wife, but I try to carve out time to spend with each of them. … Family and dinnertime is very important to us. We eat dinner together every single night.”

When at work, Quillen said a typical day usually consists of starting the day checking messages, setting the schedule, sitting in on a 10 a.m. standing managers meeting, with afternoons consisting of either traveling to the Detroit area to meet with customers or dealing with company issues. While she calls technology “phenomenal,” she prefers dealing with her employees in person.

“I essentially could work from anywhere, but the one-on-one contact is important,” she said. “I try to prioritize when I am physically in the office, that I’m having meaningful conversations with people versus just shooting them an email and talking on the phone. … We depend on it for all forms of communication and we forget how impactful it is to be face-to-face with somebody.”

What does she look for when hiring for her company?

“Attitude,” Quillen said emphatically. “It’s big. Come in open-minded, ready to learn. It’s very hard to teach attitude and work ethic. It’s very easy to teach skill. Finding people who want to come to work every single day, come to work on time, understand that we depend on them to show up every single day is probably number one on our priority list when we’re looking for someone.”

Education is important, but Quillen said people should use it as “a foundational stepping stone.”

“(Having a degree) doesn’t necessarily set their direction on where their professional life is going to go,” said Quillen, who encourages college students to supplement their education with a part-time job or internship. “Position yourself for other opportunities. … You have to be adaptable.”

She said being a Hispanic woman business owner sometimes comes with added barriers.

“There’s stereotypes. Judgments,” Quillen said. “It’s always hard being lots of times the only female in a conference room. I’m very used to it now, but it’s the norm.”

However, she said it also comes with some advantages.

“Being a woman, we have a really strong intuition,” Quillen said. “I think it’s very beneficial in reading people. … I think we tend to understand other peoples’ emotions maybe easier than men do at times. And they say a feminine touch helps at times, too. I think it adds a nice good balance to meetings.”

Despite the stress, despite the non-stop work and family schedule, Quillen said, “I really enjoy what I do. I continue to learn every single day.”