Overview

Gender

female

Investor Type

Investment Partner,Angel

Ursula Burns is a Senior Advisor at Teneo Holdings. She is also Chairman of the Board at VEON, and director of Uber, American Express, ExxonMobil and Nestlé. She will join Diageo’s board in April 2018.

Burns was previously the Chairman of the Board of the Xerox Corporation from 2010 to 2017 and Chief Executive Officer from 2009 to 2016.

She joined Xerox as an intern in 1980 and during her career she held leadership posts spanning corporate services, manufacturing and product development. She was named president in 2007. During her tenure as chief executive officer, she helped the company transform from a global leader in document technology to the world’s most diversified business services company serving enterprises and governments of all sizes. Shortly after being named CEO in 2009, she spearheaded the largest acquisition in Xerox history, the $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services.

In 2016, Burns led Xerox through a successful separation into two independent, publicly traded companies – Xerox Corporation, which is comprised of the company’s Document Technology and Document Outsourcing businesses, and Conduent Incorporated, a business process services company. The separation of the two businesses enhanced their competitive positions and created significant value creation opportunities.

Burns, who regularly appears on Fortune’s and Forbes’ lists of the world’s most powerful women, is now a Senior Advisor to global CEO advisory firm Teneo. She is a board director of Uber, American Express, ExxonMobil, and Nestlé, and the chairman of VEON. She will join the board of Diageo in April 2018. U.S. President Barack Obama appointed her to help lead the White House national program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) from 2009-2016, and she served as chair of the President’s Export Council from 2015-2016 after service as vice chair 2010-2015.

She also provides leadership counsel to several other community and non-profit organizations, including the Ford Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation, Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, the New York City Ballet, and the Mayo Clinic. Burns is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Burns holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University.