Roy Roberts

Roy S. Roberts is an American business executive who had a long career at General Motors before retiring as group vice president, North American Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing in 2000. He is also a former managing director at Reliant Equity Investors. From 2011 - 2013 he was the Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager and board chairman of the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan. He is considered a pioneer for African Americans in the auto industry. He once told Forbes magazine, "I've been the first black everywhere I went. One of my jobs is to see I'm not the last." An August 1988 article published in The New York Times stated Roberts was the second African-American vice-president at GM, after Otis Smith. For much of his career he was the highest-ranking African American in the automobile industry. Roberts began his professional career working on an assembly line at Lear Siegler while attending Western Michigan University.