Ursula Burns Quote

Race and gender definitely came up, occasionally, in my life at work. But the bigger challenge that I had was age. I took roles earlier in my career than people expected, and so a lot of what I got was, 'Do you actually know enough to do this?'

Ursula Burns

Race and gender definitely came up, occasionally, in my life at work. But the bigger challenge that I had was age. I took roles earlier in my career than people expected, and so a lot of what I got was, 'Do you actually know enough to do this?'

Tags: life, work, challenge

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About Ursula Burns

Ursula M. Burns (born September 20, 1958) is an American businesswoman. Burns is known for her tenure as the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016. In this role, Burns was the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. She is also the first woman to follow another as the head of a Fortune 500 company. Burns remained the chairman at Xerox 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 chairperson and CEO of VEON from late 2018 to early 2020 and is the Non-Executive Chairwoman of Teneo.
In 2021, Burns co-founded private equity firm Integrum Holdings.
Under President Barack Obama Burns led the White House national program on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from 2009 to 2016. Additionally, she was chairwoman of the President's Export Council from 2015 to 2016, following her role as vice chair from 2010 to 2015.
In 2014, Forbes rated Burns as the 22nd most powerful woman in the world.