Ursula Burns

Former chair and CEO of Xerox

• Born: September 20, 1958
• Place of Birth: New York, New York

Primary Company/Organization: Xerox

Introduction

Ursula Burns is an American success story. Raised by a single mother in a New York City housing project, she became the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, Xerox. Beginning as an intern in the summer of 1980, she steadily rose through the ranks at Xerox to become chief executive officer (CEO) in July 2009, succeeding Anne Mulcahy. The transition from Mulcahy to Burns marked the first major transfer of power from one female CEO to another female CEO. In 2010, Burns became chair of the company, serving until 2017.

Early Life

Ursula M. Burns was born on September 20, 1958, the second of three children. She grew up in New York City in the Baruch Houses, a public housing project on Delancey Street inhabited by Jewish immigrants, Hispanics, and African Americans. The common factor within such ethnic diversity, according to Burns, was poverty. Both of her parents were Panamanian immigrants, but her father had no part in Burns's upbringing. Her mother, Olga, ran a day-care center in her home and took in ironing to support her family, trading cleaning services to a doctor in exchange for free health care for her children. Believing a parochial school would provide a stronger and safer educational experience, she managed to see that her children attended Catholic schools. Ambitious for her children, she reminded them that they were not defined by their circumstances and encouraged them to succeed academically.

Burns graduated from Cathedral High School, a Catholic all-girls school on East 56th Street. She was still in high school when she researched top-paying jobs that would utilize her abilities in mathematics and science and set her sights on a degree in mechanical engineering. A scholarship through the New York Higher Education Opportunity Program allowed her to enter the Polytechnic Institute (now Polytechnic University) in Brooklyn. She graduated in 1980 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. The summer after graduation, she took a position with Xerox as an intern. The following year, a Xerox initiative to encourage minorities to pursue graduate work allowed her to enroll in Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering.

Life's Work

Degree in hand, Burns became a full-time employee of Xerox. Her intelligence and work ethic as a product developer and manager earned her rapid promotion in the company, but it was her outspokenness and authenticity that caught the attention of Wayland R. Hicks, then Xerox's executive vice president of marketing and customer operations. In 1989, Burns was invited to participate in a work-life discussion. When someone asked whether Xerox's policy on diversity was leading to the hiring of unqualified people, Burns found Hicks's response too mild and had no hesitation in saying so. Hicks was impressed with her honesty and courage and made her his executive assistant in 1990, a move that marked Burns early in her career as on the rise. A similar boldness in speaking her mind, this time relating to the gap between decisions made and actions implemented, led Paul A. Allaire, then CEO and chairman, to make her his executive assistant the following year.

The lessons Burns learned in those positions, the need to combine honesty with diplomacy among them, stood Burns in good stead during the years that followed as she was given increasingly greater responsibilities. She led several business teams, including the company's color business and office network printing business. In 1995, she was named the vice president and general manager of Xerox's workgroup copier-business unit. In 1997, she became vice president and general manager of the departmental business unit, a job that charged her with overseeing development, construction, sales, and service of large workgroup digital copiers and light lens copiers. She was named vice president of global manufacturing in 1999. A year later, she decided to leave the company.

Xerox was facing tough times, and Burns had lost faith in its leadership. However, Anne Mulcahy, who became CEO in 2001, persuaded Burns to remain and help the company recover. Later that year, Burns was named senior vice president of corporate strategic services, heading up manufacturing and supply-chain operations. Burns worked with Mulcahy to restructure the company as a leader in color technology and document services. Research and development were strategic in the company's rescue operations, and in her new role, Burns led Xerox's global research and product development, along with marketing and delivery. While Mulcahy was visibly engaged as the public face of Xerox, holding meetings with concerned stockholders and corporate clients, Burns was the inner core of the company, negotiating with unions, hiring an outside contractor, and reducing the workforce by nearly 40 percent. Her actions reportedly saved the company, which had been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, $2 billion over the next few years.

In April 2007, Burns became president of Xerox, making her Xerox's highest-ranking African American and second only to CEO Mulcahy in the company hierarchy. She also joined the board of directors. Mulcahy praised Burns for her knowledge and experience and the vital part her technology strategy had played in the company's survival. The new title Burns had acquired added corporate strategy, human resources, marketing operations, and global accounts to the responsibilities she had held in her previous office and required her to establish a second office at the company's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The new appointment also signaled that she was in line for the company's highest position.

Burns was named CEO in July 2009, a personal achievement and a historic moment in the history of American business. Not only was Burns the first African American woman to be named CEO of a major company, but the passing of the title from Mulcahy to Burns also marked the first time that one female CEO of a major corporation had handed the reins of leadership to another woman. A few weeks later, Burns announced the $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, an outsourcing firm. It was the largest acquisition in Xerox's long history and communicated the company's switch from defensive to offensive strategy. For the next year, Burns and Mulcahy worked together closely to make the transition of power a smooth one. On May 20, 2010, Burns was named chair of Xerox. She had become the leader of a Fortune 500 company that employed 140,000 people and served clients in more than 160 countries.

Under Burns's watch, Xerox, once famous as the document company, transformed itself into a company that earned half its revenue from services such as managing electronic ticket transactions, road tolls, and parking meters. In addition to her work at Xerox, Burns served on the boards of American Express; Boston Scientific, a manufacturer of medical devices; the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA); the University of Rochester; For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a nonprofit organization founded by the inventor Dean Kamen to inspire students to pursue engineering and technology studies; and the National Association of Manufacturers. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Burns to the White House Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education, and in 2010, he appointed her a vice chair of the President's Export Council. In 2011, Burns held the eighth position on Fortune magazine's list of the fifty most powerful women in business.

Despite Burns's work in transforming Xerox's business focus, the company continued to struggle. She initiated a spinoff of the various service operations into a new, independent company called Conduent in 2016, a process that lasted into the next year. Later in 2016, she resigned from the CEO position, and in 2017, she stepped down as chair of the company's board as well. Also in 2016, Burns left the President Barack Obama's Export Council, which she had chaired since 2015, amid political turnover. After leaving Xerox, Burns was named chair of telecom giant VEON. She remained in that position until 2020.

Across her career Burns was particularly vocal in her advocacy of STEM education, working references into her frequent speeches whenever possible. More than most, she was aware of the difference education can make in a life, the difference between a child with no place to go and nothing to look forward to and one who can aim for and reach the top of a professional mountain.

Personal Life

Shortly after she began working full-time for Xerox, Burns began dating Lloyd F. Bean, a Xerox scientist twenty years her senior. The couple married in 1988. They had two children, a son, Malcolm, born in 1989, and a daughter, Melissa, born in 1992. Bean died in 2019.

Despite her demanding career, Burns made a practice of reserving weekends for her family. Even after her husband retired and theoretically freed Burns to extend her work hours, she remained adamant about the importance of family time. She also took time for physical activity, rising early to run for thirty-five minutes on most days and working with a personal trainer twice a week.

Burns spoke candidly the influence of her mother, Olga Burns, in her life. Her mother's lessons concerning honesty and humility, she said, stayed with her. Despite a seven-figure annual income, Burns still shopped for her own groceries, often did her own laundry, and had a housekeeper only one day per week. When she acknowledged the contributions of mentors throughout her career at a Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner, she recognized her mother as her most significant mentor. Olga, who died in 1983, did not live to see her daughter's historic achievements, but Burns said she continued to feel her mother's encouragement. A sign on her office wall read "Don't do anything that wouldn't make your Mom proud!"

Bibliography

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Mulcahy, Anne. "Why Succession Shouldn't Be a Horse Race." Harvard Business Review 88.10 (2010): 47–51. Print.

"Ursula M. Burns: The First African American Woman CEO of a Fortune 500 Company." Black Business Ventures Association (BBVA), 2024, www.blackventures.org/blackleaders/ursula-m-burns-the-first-african-american-woman-ceo-of-a-fortune-500-company. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.

Zweigenhaft, Richard L., and G. William Domhoff. The New CEOs: African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies. Lanham: Rowman, 2011. Print.