Gail miller: stepping into the spotlight.

• Author: Coon, John
• Position: Around utah - Interview

Gail Miller is the owner of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. Starting from an auto dealership her late husband founded in 1979, the company has grown to encompass more than 80 businesses and properties operating in 45 states--including, most notably, the Utah Jazz. Automotive dealerships, a chain of movie theaters and a chain of apparel stores are all under the company umbrella.

UBM: In terms of day-to-day operations, what sort of role do you take with the company?

GM: When Larry and I started this company. he worked long hours and I stayed at home with the children. But he always came home and told me what he was doing, how things were going,

what he was working on, who the people were and asked my advice and talked about things. We'd spend hours and hours [talking] and I was fully engaged in what he was doing. In fact, there were times where I thought. "He looks at me like another employee," because he would say, "Will you do this?" or "Will you do that?" as he'd leave the house in the morning. He had a whole list of things for me to do. So I was very much involved, even though I took a background role.

I didn't like being in the public eye. As we grew our business, he was the front person and he liked that. He was good at it and I preferred to stay in the background. But we were very much a team. Before he died, he said to me, "You have so much institutional knowledge. You need to stay involved and you need to be the bridge from me to the boys until they get their footing." And so I've done that--probably a little too long. But I find I really like business now that I'm in it.

After Greg took over, I was not getting those day-to-day downloads, so I said, "Greg, I'm not getting enough information. You're going to either have to start reporting to me or I'm going to have to start coming to the meetings." So that's what I have done. I go to the meetings Greg has daily. The buck stops with me. If Greg wants to buy a dealership, he has to get my OK. So I'm very much involved in what's going on in the business, even though I don't run it.

UBM: What do you enjoy about your role in the family business?

GM: Business is really fun. It's dynamic. It's vibrant. It's engaging. There's just so much going on all the time--especially in our business because we have so many assets. And it's not just automobiles. And it's not just the Utah Jazz. There are lots of other things that we do that keep us excited about life. They give us a lot of...