Former GM Exec Launches M-Xchange.com

Roy Roberts, the former top sales executive at General Motors Corp., who was also the auto maker’s highest-ranking African American executive, is forming an Internet trade exchange to link minority businesses with large companies. Called M-Xchange.com, the site is designed to make it easier for Fortune 1,000 companies to buy goods and services from minority-owned firms by using online catalogs. Electronic commerce purchases between businesses are forecast to range between $2.7 trillion and $4.4 trillion by 2003, according to Roberts. About $135 billion of those purchases come through minority businesses. Roberts, 61, announced his retirement from GM, the world’s No. 1 auto maker, in January, effective April 1. Along with Roberts, M-Xchange.com was co-founded by Gary Wasserman, owner and president of Allied Metals Corp., a Troy, Mich.-based supplier of iron products to the aerospace, electronic, energy and petrochemical industries. M-Xchange.com, which will be based in Detroit, will receive revenue by charging transaction fees to users of the exchange.