Answering breast cancer

That's what Sean Halpin was aiming for when the auto industry designer set out to make prosthetic breasts for women who've gone through mastectomies but who didn't -- or couldn't -- have breast reconstruction.

Inspired by the death of his parents from cancer, Halpin used his talents in design and plastic molding to help others with the disease.

He founded Proud Mary Prosthetics a little over a year ago and began selling the silicone prostheses this year in stores in Michigan and a few other states. He hopes to ramp up production and begin hiring more workers soon.

Halpin was already an entrepreneur. He has owned his own auto design business for 15 years, including Halpin Design, which he began in 2001.

Born in Troy, he earned a master's degree in manufacturing at the University of California-Los Angeles and worked in the aerospace industry in the 1980s.

In the early 1990s, he returned to Michigan to help his parents and ended up working on General Motors' newly launched Saturn operations. He eventually founded his own business.

His company -- Halpin Design -- works with suppliers and automakers, helping interpret what the engineers and designers want on a project. His company has also done work for Fisker Automotive and Chrysler. In general terms, his team takes a designer's work -- perhaps through a clay model -- and translates it into technical terms for engineers to build the product.

"I can be at almost any intersection and see someone ... pulling a steering wheel or pushing buttons on an instrument panel that we did," Halpin said.

As the economy began to darken, Halpin felt the company needed to diversify.