Ursula Burns
"Impatience is a virtue."
About Her
Ethnicity: African American, Panamanian
Birthday: September 20, 1958
Born in: America
"Impatience is a virtue."
Ethnicity: African American, Panamanian
Birthday: September 20, 1958
Born in: America
Ursla Burns serves as Chairwoman (since May 2010) of Xerox and was the CEO of the company from July 2009 to December 2016. As such, she was the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. She is also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company, having succeeded Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox. In 2014, Forbes rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world. In 1980, Burns first worked for Xerox as a summer intern, permanently joining a year later, in 1981, after completing her master's degree. She worked in various roles in product development and planning in the remainder of the 1980s throughout her 20s. In January 1990, her career took an unexpected turn when Wayland Hicks, then a senior executive, offered Burns a job as his executive assistant. She accepted and worked for him for roughly nine months when she was ready to go back home because she was about to be married to Lloyd Bean. In June 1991, she became executive assistant to then chairman and chief executive Paul Allaire. In 1999, she was named vice president for global manufacturing. Burns has served on numerous professional and community boards, including Exxon Mobil Corporation,[13] American Express, Boston Scientific, FIRST, National Association of Manufacturers, University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance, and the RUMP Group. She had been serving as Vice Chairwoman of the Executive Committee of The Business Council between 2013 and 2014.
In April 2007, Ms. Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership role to also include the company’s IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global accounts. At that time, she was also elected a member of the company’s Board of Directors. She was named Chief Executive Officer in July 2009 and took on the role of chairman of the company on May 20, 2010. In November of 2009 Ms. Burns was named by President Barack Obama to help lead the White House national program on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and was appointed vice chair of the President’s Export Council in March 2010. Ms. Burns attributes much of her success to her mother, “My mother would always remind me: ‘Where you are is not who you are.’ I grew up in a poor neighborhood in New York City. My mother saw education as the way up and out for her children. It didn’t take long for me to see the wisdom in her beliefs.” Ursula Burns has made history, but more importantly she has made a difference. It is this that makes her a Woman You Should Know.
