Ursula Burns Biography
Ursula Burns is a businesswoman from the United States. Burns is best recognized for serving as the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, making her the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 business and the first woman to succeed another as CEO. She was also the chairman of Xerox from 2010 until 2017.
How old is Ursula Burns? – Age
She is 63 years old as of 20 September 2021. She was born in 1958 in New York, New York, United States.
Ursula Burns Family – Education
Burns was reared in the Baruch Houses, a New York City housing complex, by a single mother. Her parents were also immigrants from Panama. She went to Cathedral High School in New York, a Catholic all-girls school on East 56th Street.
In 1980, she graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a year later from Columbia University with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. 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 have all given her honorary degrees since then.
Who is Ursula Burns married to? – Husband – Children
Burns was married to Lloyd Bean, who worked at Xerox and lived in Rochester, New York, until his death in 2019. She has a daughter Melissa, born in 1992, and a stepson Malcolm, born in 1989 who attended MIT. Burns has been a generous supporter of New York’s McQuaid Jesuit High School.
How long was Ursula Burns at Xerox?
Burns began her career at Xerox as a summer intern in 1980, and after completing her master’s degree, she was hired full-time the following year. For the rest of the 1980s, she worked at the corporation in various capacities in product development and planning. Burns’ career took an unexpected turn in January 1990, when Wayland Hicks, a senior executive at the time, offered her a job as his executive assistant. She accepted his offer and worked for him for around nine months before going home to prepare for her wedding. She then became the executive assistant to then-chairman and chief executive Paul Allaire in June 1991. She was promoted to vice president of global manufacturing in 1999.
Burns was designated senior vice president of corporate strategic services in May 2000, and she began working closely with Anne Mulcahy, the company’s soon-to-be CEO, in what both women have described as a true partnership. Burns was promoted to president of business group operations two years later.
Burns was appointed president of Xerox in 2007. She took over as CEO in July 2009, following Mulcahy, who served as chairperson until May 2010. Burns was not only the first black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, but she was also the first woman to succeed another woman as CEO of a Fortune 500 firm. Burns spearheaded the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services shortly after being named CEO.
Burns was appointed an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013 while serving as CEO. She was the driving force behind Xerox’s split into two separate companies, Xerox Corporation and Conduent Incorporated, in 2016. Throughout the process, she remained chairwoman and CEO of Xerox, and she was later named chairwoman of the standalone document technology firm. Burns was followed by Jeff Jacobson after stepping down from the role in December 2016. She remained chairwoman of the newly created document technology company until May 2017, when she stepped down from the Xerox board of directors and her chairmanship.
Ursula Burns Veon
The board of directors of VEON, the world’s 11th largest telecoms service provider by subscribers, chose Burns as chairman in July 2017. She was named executive chairperson awaiting a selection process when the CEO abruptly left in March 2018, and she was named CEO in December 2018. Kaan Terziolu and Sergi Herrero were named co-CEOs in February 2020, succeeding Burns. Burns was succeeded as chairman by Gennady Gazin in June 2020.
Ursula Burns Salary
She earns an annual salary of $365,038.
Ursula Burns Net Worth
Burns has an estimated net worth of $1.25 Billion.
