Read about Ursula Burns net worth, age, husband, children, height, family, parents, salary and businesses, investments well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Ursula Burns is an American businesswoman. Burns is mostly known for being the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, the first among black women to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and the first woman to succeed another as head of a Fortune 500 company. She additionally was Xerox’s chairman from 2010 to 2017.
Burns is also known for serving on the board of directors of multiple large American companies, including Uber, American Express, and ExxonMobil. She was the chairman and CEO of VEON from late 2018 to early 2020, and the Chairwoman of Teneo. In 2014, Forbes rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world. Among other civic positions, she was a leader of the STEM program of the White House from 2009 to 2016, and head of the President’s Export Council from 2015 until 2016.
Early life
Name | Ursula Burns |
Net Worth | $1.2 billion |
Occupation | Business executive |
Age | 64 years |
Height | 1.68m |
Ursula M. Burns was born on September 20, 1958 (age 64 years) in New York, New York, United States. She is the daughter of American parents. Burns was raised by a single mother in the Baruch Houses, a New York City housing project. Both of her parents were Panamanian immigrants. She attended Cathedral High School, a Catholic all-girls school on East 56th Street in New York.
Burns went on to obtain a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) in 1980 and a master of science in mechanical engineering from Columbia University a year later. She has since received additional 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.
Career
Ursula Burns first worked for Xerox as a summer intern in 1980, and permanently joined a year later, after completing her master’s degree. 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.
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Burns became an executive assistant in June 1991 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.
Ursula Burns was named an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013 while still CEO of Xerox. 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 chairperson. U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Burns to help lead the White House National STEM program in 2009, and she remained a leader of the STEM program until 2016. In March 2010 President Obama appointed Burns as vice chair of the President’s Export Council, which she led from 2015 to 2016.
Ursula Burns has served on numerous boards, including those of Boston Scientific, FIRST, the National Association of Manufacturers, the University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance, and the RUMP Group. She remains a board director of the American Express Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Datto Inc., and Nestlé. In July 2017, it was announced that she would join the board of the beverage company Diageo on April 2, 2018. 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. In July 2017, Burns was elected chairman of VEON, the world’s 11th largest telecoms service provider by subscribers, by its board of directors. With the sudden departure of the CEO in March 2018, she was made executive chairwoman pending a selection process, and in December 2018, she was appointed as CEO.
In February 2020, Kaan Terzioğlu and Sergi Herrero were appointed co-CEOs, succeeding Burns. In June 2020, Gennady Gazin succeeded Burns as chairman. She was announced to be joining Diageo board as a non-executive director but Diageo announced on March 2018, that “Burns will not take up her appointment as Non-Executive Director on the Diageo Board” as she has been appointed as interim Executive Chairman of VEON.
Ursula Burns provides leadership counsel to community, educational and non-profit organizations including FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, and the U.S. Olympic Committee, among others. She is a founding board director of Change the Equation, which focuses on improving the U.S. education system in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). She served as vice chairwoman of the executive committee of The Business Council between 2013 and 2014.
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Burns has delivered the commencement address at universities including Rochester Institute of Technology, MIT, the University of Rochester, Xavier University, Howard University, Williams College, and Georgetown University. She has been listed multiple times by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. In 2015, she was listed as the 29th. In 2018 she was featured among “America’s Top 50 Women In Tech”. In 2016 hacked emails revealed she was on a list of potential candidates for vice president for Hillary Clinton.
Husband
Ursula Burns was married to her first husband Lloyd Bean until his death in 2019. Her husband 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 has been a major donor to McQuaid Jesuit High School in New York. As of March 2023, Ursula Burns hasn’t remarried after losing her first husband.
Ursula Burns net worth
How much is Ursula Burns worth? Ursula Burns net worth is estimated at around $1.2 billion. Her main source of income is her primary work as a business executive. Ursula Burns’s monthly salary and other career earnings are over $40 million annually. Her remarkable achievements have earned her some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. She is one of the wealthiest and most influential business executives in the United States. Ursula Burns stands at an appealing height of 1.68m and has a good body weight which suits her personality.