Ursula Burns

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

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 as a first-generation college student. 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. 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 received 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.

Xerox

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

Board roles

Burns has been on numerous boards, including those of Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Express Corporation, Datto Inc., Nestlé, Boston Scientific, FIRST, the National Association of Manufacturers, the University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance, and the RUMP Group. She joined Teneo as a senior advisor in June 2017. Burns joined the board of directors of Uber in late September 2017. In 2020, she was appointed to the board of directors of Waystar. Burns also remains on the boards of Endeavor Group Holdings and IHS Holding. In addition, Burns is on several private company boards, while also providing leadership counsel to several community, educational and non-profit organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Mayo Clinic, amongst others.

In April 2024, Burns was nominated for the board of directors of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Burns was married to Lloyd Bean until his death in 2019; he also worked at Xerox, and they lived in Rochester, New York. She has a daughter Melissa (born c. 1992) and a stepson Malcolm (born c. 1989) who attended MIT. Burns delivered the MIT commencement address at her son's graduation in 2011. Two years prior, she delivered the commencement address at Rochester Institute of Technology. Burns has contributed to McQuaid Jesuit High School in New York.