Ursula Burns
Ursula M. Burns serves as Chairman and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. She was born September 20th 1958.
Ursula is also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company. In 2009, Forbes rated her 14th most powerful woman in the world.
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 New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering in 1980 and a master of science in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University a year later.
In 2000, Burns was named a senior vice president and began working closely with soon to be CEO Anne Mulcahy, in what both women have described as a true partnership. Nine years later, in July 2009, she was named CEO, succeeding Mulcahy, who remained as chairwoman until May 2010.
Burns has served on numerous professional and community boards, including Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Express, Boston Scientific, FIRST, National Association of Manufacturers, University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance, and the RUMP Group. She will serve as Vice Chairwoman of the Executive Committee of The Business Council in 2013 and 2014.
