SALES: Dave Zuchowski

Vice president of national sales, Hyundai Motor America

Cashing in on clunkers: "Dave can sell ice to the Eskimos" is how one dealer describes the Hyundai sales chief. Zuchowski, 52, kept sales rising when industry volume crashed in 2009. Hyundai was one of just three brands to achieve an increase. To do it, Zuchowski got the jump on the cash-for-clunkers program last summer, offering to front the program's incentive payments to get dealers selling under the pitch a month early. Dealers reimbursed Hyundai after receiving their government payments.