Ursula Burns

She attended and graduated Cathedral High School, a Catholic all-girls school on East 56th Street in New York.

Ursula M. Burns (born September 20, 1958) is an American businesswoman.

Born in 1958, Burns was raised by a single mother in the Baruch Houses, a housing project in New York City.

Both of her parents were Panamanian immigrants.

After high school, Burns attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) where in 1980 she earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

During that summer, she became a mechanical engineering summer intern at Xerox.

This internship was an integral component of Xerox's graduate engineering initiative designed to support underrepresented minorities.

Burns began her journey with Xerox as a summer intern in 1980 and officially joined the company a year later, following the completion of her master's degree from Columbia University.

She worked in various roles in product development and planning at the company for the remainder of the 1980s.

It not only provided her with valuable experience but also financially supported her pursuit of a master's degree at Columbia University, which she completed in 1981.

She has since received additional honorary degrees from New York University, Williams College, the University of Pennsylvania, Howard University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The City College of New York, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the University of Rochester, Xavier University, and Georgetown University.

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, 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.

Burns is known for her tenure as the CEO of Xerox, from 2009 to 2016, the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

She is also the first woman to follow another as the head of a Fortune 500 company.

Under President Barack Obama Burns led the White House national program on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from 2009 to 2016.

In July 2009 she was named CEO, succeeding Mulcahy, who remained as chairwoman until May 2010.

The first black woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company, Burns was also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company.

Shortly after being named CEO, Burns led the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services.

Burns remained the chairman at Xerox from 2010 to 2017.

Burns is also known for serving on the board of directors of multiple large American companies, including Uber, American Express, and ExxonMobil.

While as CEO, Burns was named an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013.

In 2014, Forbes rated Burns as the 22nd most powerful woman in the world.

Additionally, she was chairwoman of the President's Export Council from 2015 to 2016, following her role as vice chair from 2010 to 2015.

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.

After stepping down from the position in December 2016, Burns was succeeded by 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.

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.

She joined Teneo as a senior advisor in June 2017.

Burns joined the board of directors of Uber in late September 2017.

She was the chairperson and CEO of VEON from late 2018 to early 2020, and the chairwoman of Teneo.

In July 2017, it was announced that she would join the board of the beverage company Diageo on April 2, 2018.

In 2020, she was appointed to the board of directors of Waystar.