Roy Roberts (chief executive)

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.

Roberts has also served in numerous volunteer and civic organizations. He is a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America (the organization's governing body) a former president of the Boy Scouts of America and an officer in the NAACP.