Roy Roberts (chief executive)

Roy S. Roberts is an American business executive who had a long, distinguished career at General Motors before retiring as group vice president, North American Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing in 2000.[1] He is also a former Managing Director at Reliant Equity Investors.[2][3] From 2011 - 2013 he was the Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager and Board Chairman of the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan.[3][4]

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. (Otis Smith was the first.)[5] For much of his career he was the highest-ranking African American in the automobile industry.[1]

Roberts began his professional career working on an assembly line at Lear Siegler while attending Western Michigan University.[1]

In addition to the executive positions he has held in his professional career, Roberts has also played important roles while serving in numerous volunteer and civic organizations.[2] He is a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America (the organization's governing body)[6] a former president of the Boy Scouts of America[7] and an officer in the NAACP.[2]

Early life

Roberts was born in 1939, the ninth of ten children, in Magnolia, Arkansas.[8] His mother died when he was two years old and later his father moved the family to Muskegon, Michigan.[9] He describes his upbringing as "dirt-poor."[9] His father worked two jobs (as a foundry employee and as a barber) to support the family. Roberts credits his father with instilling in him the value of education.[8]

Roberts worked full-time while attending Western Michigan University at night, where he graduated with honors, with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration.[9]

Bloomfield Hills Country Club controversy

Roberts unwillingly found himself at the center of a controversial event at the Bloomfield Hills Country Club in 1994 when the club refused to admit him after he had applied for membership. Though the club claimed its actions were not based on Roberts' race, G.M.'s president, John F. Smith Jr., and its chief financial officer, J. Michael Losh, chose to resign their memberships with the club because Roberts had been barred from joining.[10]

Later, however, Roberts was accepted as a member.[11]

Autobiography

Roberts' autobiography, My American Success Story: Always the First, Never the Last, was published in 2015.[4]

gollark: Systems have no intentions. People in them might, and the designers probably did, and the designers also likely claimed some intention, and people also probably ascribe some to them. But that doesn't mean that the system itself "wants" to do any of those.
gollark: I think you could reasonably argue that it's better to respect institutions than ignore them because it's better for social cohesion/stability, but I don't agree that you should respect them because they're meant to be fair and because you can always get them to fix problems you experience if this isn't actually true.
gollark: If the fire extinguisher actually explodes when used to put out fires, it would be a bad fire extinguisher even if the designers talk about how good it is and how many fires it can remove.
gollark: We should be evaluating it on how well it does what we want it to, not how well the designers *claim it does*.
gollark: Oh, right.

References
  1. "Roy Roberts: From Sharecropper to shareholder - Michigan Chronicle | HighBeam Research". 6 August 1996. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2011 – via Highbeam.
  2. Roy S. Roberts. "Roy Roberts: Executive Profile & Biography - BusinessWeek". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  3. "Roy Roberts Biography," Detroit Public Schools detroitk12.org
  4. Polston, Mike. "Roy Roberts (1939-)" Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, 14 June 2017
  5. "BUSINESS PEOPLE; Vice President at G.M. Takes Post at Navistar - New York Times". The New York Times. 2 August 1988. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  6. Boy Scouts of America Annual Report 2011 Archived 14 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Boy Scouts of America President. (Speaking of People). | Goliath Business News". Goliath.ecnext.com. 1 February 2003. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  8. Johnson, Anne. Contemporary Black Biography: Roy S. Roberts, Automobile Industry Executive encyclopedia.com, 1997
  9. Johnson Publishing Company (January 1999). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. pp. 136–. ISSN 0012-9011.
  10. "G.M. Head Quits Club After Black Is Barred - New York Times". The New York Times. 23 October 1994. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  11. "Roy S. Roberts Biography – Automobile Executive, Businessman, Civic Leader". Maxizip.com. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
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