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NAME: Ursula Burns
LIFETIME: September 20, 1958 – Present
WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR: Ursula Burns is a businesswoman, best known for her successful leadership as the CEO of Xerox. When she was named the company’s CEO in 2009, she became the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company who, as Forbes writes, has managed “to turn a company once only known for paper copies to a viable and profitable business.” She has been featured multiple times on Forbes’ Most Powerful Women list.
WHY WE LOVE HER: Burns was raised by a single mother at a New York city low-income housing and, as she tells Lean In, was well aware of the “strikes” she had against her as an economically-disadvantaged black woman. But with her mother’s encouragement, Burns refused to let these “strikes” hinder her from dreaming big.
“Dreams do come true, but not with the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic and the courage to lean in,” she tells Lean In. Despite the disadvantages of her youth, Burns went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Soon after graduating, she pursued her master’s degree in the same field from Columbia University and then joined Xerox as a summer mechanical-engineering intern.
After completing her graduate education in 1981, she worked for Xerox as a full-time employee in product development. She switched between various roles in management and engineering before becoming Senior Vice President, President and then CEO of the company. Shortly after being named CEO, Burns spearheaded the company’s largest acquisition – a $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services. With her hard work, leadership and tenacity, the company has become a leader in diversified business process services and document technology businesses.
FUN FACT: Ursula Burns tells Lean In that because she fervently believes in the power of supporting others, she spends a great deal of her time with organizations that help minorities and women gain “the education and self-respect they need to take risks, to dream big and … to someday pay it forward.”
These organizations include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the National Academy Foundation and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). In 2010, President Obama selected Burns to help lead the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition, a national organization dedicated to improving student participation and performance in STEM fields.
