Since it is Women’s History Month, all my Black Fact posts will be about women and women owned businesses and endeavors, past or present. The value of women is immeasurable. We are leaders in the film, music, beauty, and fashion industries. Women may not have dominated the technology and science industries yet, but they are breaking in and making a name for ourselves. Ursula Burns is one woman who not only worked with technology for a number of years, but went on to be one of the first to run a Fortune 500 company.
I don’t remember exactly how I found out about Ursula Burns. Maybe it was through a book recommendation on Scribd, a digital library app. Ursula Burns was the first black woman to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Xerox. She held this position from 2009 to 2016. Ursula started working with Xerox as an mechanical engineering intern at 19 years old climbing her way up the ladder to CEO 25 years later. She also was the chairwoman at Xerox from 2010 to 2017.
Ursula stepped down from her position as CEO at Xerox going on to work at Teneo and VEON. She also co-founded the non-profit, Change the Equation, an initiative that helps students become interested and proficient in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). On top of serving on the boards of ExxonMobil, Uber and American Express, Ursula has written a memoir called, Where You Are Is Not Who You Are.
I have referenced information from this article, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ursula-Burns and Ursula’s memoir for this post. Here is another link to gather more information about this pioneering woman. Or you can just read her book and hear it all in her own words.
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