Burns, Ursula

1958-present · Contribution: 1980-2020

Became, in 2009, the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company (Xerox) and the first woman ever to succeed another woman as a Fortune 500 CEO

Business & Misc. — collage image
Business & Misc.

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.

Quick facts

Category
Business & Misc.

Impact on the world

Burns shattered the highest barrier in American corporate leadership, proving that a Black woman from public housing could run, and reinvent, a century-old Fortune 500 company from the engineering ranks up.

Sources

  1. Britannica

1 more sources and references are available to members.