Ursula M. Burns (born September 20, 1958) is an American businesswoman. Burns is mostly known for being the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, the first among black women to be a CEO of a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

company, and the first woman to succeed another as head of a Fortune 500 company. She additionally was Xerox's chairman from 2010 to 2017. Burns is also known for serving on the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

on multiple large American companies, including Uber,

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

, and

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

. She was the chairman and CEO of VEON from late 2018 to early 2020, and the Chairwoman of Teneo. In 2014, '' Forbes'' rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world. Among other civic positions, she was a leader of the

STEM program Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context ...

of the White House from 2009 to 2016, and head of the President's Export Council from 2015 until 2016.

Early life and education

Burns was raised by a single mother in the

Baruch Houses Bernard M. Baruch Houses, or Baruch Houses, is a public housing development built by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Baruch Houses is bounded by Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive to the eas ...

, a New York city

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

. Both of her parents were Panamanian immigrants. She attended Cathedral High School, a Catholic all-girls school on East 56th Street in New York. She went on to obtain a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) in 1980 and a master of science in mechanical engineering from Columbia University a year later. She has since received additional honorary degrees from New York University, Williams College, the University of Pennsylvania, Howard University,

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

, The City College of New York, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the University of Rochester, Xavier University, and Georgetown University.

Business career

Xerox

Burns first worked for Xerox as a summer intern in 1980, and permanently joined a year later, after completing her master's degree. She worked in various roles in product development and planning at the company for the remainder of the 1980s. 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 before returning home because she was about to marry. In June 1991, she then became executive assistant to then chairman and chief executive Paul Allaire. In 1999, she was named vice president for global manufacturing. In May 2000, Burns was named senior vice president of corporate strategic services and began working closely with soon-to-be CEO

Anne Mulcahy Anne M. Mulcahy (born October 21, 1952) is the former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation. She was named CEO of Xerox on August 1, 2001, and chairwoman on January 1, 2002. In addition to serving on the Xerox board, she has been a member of t ...

, in what both women have described as a true partnership. Two years later, Burns became president of business group operations. In 2007, Burns assumed the role of president of Xerox. In July 2009 she was named CEO, succeeding Mulcahy, who remained as chairwoman until May 2010. The first black woman CEO to head a

company, Burns was also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a

company. Shortly after being named CEO, Burns led the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services. While as CEO, Burns was named an International Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

in 2013. In 2016, she led Xerox in a split into two independent companies: Xerox Corporation and Conduent Incorporated. She remained chairwoman and CEO of Xerox through the process, and was then appointed chairwoman of the standalone document technology company.
"Xerox Names Ursula BurnsChairman of Post-Separation Document Technology Company," Xerox, May 20, 2016 After stepping down from the position in December 2016, Burns was succeeded by Jeff Jacobson (CEO), Jeff Jacobson. She retained the title of chairwoman of the newly formed document technology company until May 2017, when she left the Xerox board and her role as chairperson.

Public service roles

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Burns to help lead the White House National STEM program in 2009, and she remained a leader of the STEM program until 2016. In March 2010 President Obama appointed Burns as vice chair of the President's Export Council, which she led from 2015 to 2016.
"Xerox's Ursula Burns: U.S. Businesses Must Embrace Globalization ", '' US News'', Gaby Galvin, May 5, 2017

Board roles

Burns has served on numerous boards, including those of Boston Scientific, FIRST, the National Association of Manufacturers, the University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance, and the RUMP Group. She remains a board director of the American Express Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Datto Inc., and Nestlé. In July 2017, it was announced that she would join the board of the beverage company

Diageo Diageo plc () is a Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweich ...

on April 2, 2018.
"Diageo announces appointment to its Board of Directors," Webwire, July 26, 2017 She joined Teneo as a senior advisor in June 2017.
"Ursula M. Burns joins Teneo as Senior Advisor," Teneo, June 28, 2017 Burns joined the

of Uber in late September 2017. In 2020, she was appointed to the board of directors of Waystar.

Veon

In July 2017, Burns was elected chairman of VEON, the world's 11th largest telecoms service provider by subscribers,
"VEON names former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns as chairwoman," Reuters, Eric Auchard, July 24, 2017 by its board of directors. With the sudden departure of the CEO in March 2018, she was made executive chairwoman pending a selection process, and in December 2018, she was appointed as CEO. In February 2020, Kaan Terzioğlu and Sergi Herrero were appointed co-CEOs, succeeding Burns. In June 2020, Gennady Gazin succeeded Burns as chairman.

Diageo

Burns was announced to be joining Diageo board as a non executive director but Diageo announced on March 2018, that "Burns will not take up her appointment as Non-Executive Director on the Diageo Board" as she has been appointed as interim Executive Chairman of VEON

Community activities

Burns provides leadership counsel to community, educational and non-profit organizations including FIRST ( For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology),

National Academy Foundation NAF (formerly known as National Academy Foundation) is an industry-sponsored nonprofit with a national network of public-private partnerships that support career academies within traditional high schools. Each academy focuses on a theme that addre ...

, MIT, and the U.S. Olympic Committee, among others. She is a founding board director of Change the Equation, which focuses on improving the U.S.'s education system in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). She served as vice chairwoman of the executive committee of The Business Council between 2013 and 2014.Press Release: The Dow Chemical Company
Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris Elected Chairman, The Business Council
'' Yahoo!'', October 19, 2012 She has delivered the commencement address at universities including Rochester Institute of Technology, MIT, the University of Rochester, Xavier University, Howard University, Williams College, and Georgetown University. She has been listed multiple times by ''Forbes'' as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. In 2015, she was listed as the 29th. In 2018 she was featured among "America's Top 50 Women In Tech". In 2016 hacked emails revealed she was on a list of potential candidates for vice president for Hillary Clinton.

Personal life

Burns was married to Lloyd Bean until his death in 2019; he also worked at Xerox, and they lived in Rochester, New York. She has a daughter Melissa (born c. 1992) and a stepson Malcolm (born c. 1989) who attended MIT. Burns has been a major donor to McQuaid Jesuit High School in New York.
"Major gifts make major difference," Catholic Courier, Mike Latona, August 4, 2014

Memoir

Burns published a memoir, ''Where You Are Is Not Who You Are: A Memoir'', in 2021.

References

External links

"Ursula M. Burns"
Black Entrepreneur Profile Website
Ursula Burns
Video produced by '' Makers: Women Who Make America'' * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Ursula M. 1958 births American people of Panamanian descent American technology chief executives Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Directors of Xerox Living people People from the Lower East Side American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies African-American women engineers African-American engineers Xerox people American women business executives American women chief executives Directors of ExxonMobil Businesspeople from New York City Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen American chairpersons of corporations American corporate directors Women corporate directors American mechanical engineers Engineers from New York (state) American women engineers Directors of Uber Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Columbia University alumni Boston Scientific people