English has said the company is interested in staying near the current temporary headquarters in Southfield, at least somewhere in the Southeast Michigan area. No areas, including Detroit, have been ruled out. English starts as the new CEO on May 1. The company's board of directors searched for a helmsman for more than half a year. It was expected that the new leader would decide where to locate the company.

The company will increase in size from 200 to 300 employees under English, and manage about $275 billion in online purchases between the automakers and suppliers annually.

Covisint's board of directors named English, 48, an e-commerce leader with a prestigious investment banking firm and a respected pioneer in Internet communications, as chairman, president and chief executive officer on Wednesday. English was previously the managing director and chief executive officer, e-commerce, for Credit Suisse First Boston.

Before Credit Suisse, he was the chairman and CEO for TheStreet.com, a publicly traded Internet information hub for financial market news and analysis.

English has more than two decades of senior executive management experience with additional technology companies such as Computervision Corporation, Aries Technology, Jupiter Technology, Control Data and Xerox Corporation. He is a 1975 graduate of Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

Covisint is a global, independent e-business exchange providing the automotive industry with collaborative product development, procurement and supply chain tools that give its customers the ability to reduce costs and bring efficiencies to their business operations. The organization, located in Southfield, has also established temporary offices in Stuttgart and Tokyo.