Xerox Corp. made history last week when CEO Anne M. Mulcahy announced she would retire and that her replacement would be Ursula M. Burns, the company’s president.
Mulcahy will continue to serve as chairwoman of the Connecticut-based company.
When she takes over on July 1, Burns, 50, will be the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ursula M. Burns
This will also be the first time that a female chief executive at a Fortune 500 company has been replaced by a woman, the company announced.
An engineer by training who grew up in public housing in New York City, Burns joined Xerox as a summer intern in 1980, a year before she began working for the company full-time.
She rose through the ranks, spending a year in the early 1990s as an executive assistant to Paul Allaire, the then CEO and board chairman who also mentored Mulcahy.
Burns became president of Xerox’s business operations group in 2002. Two years ago, she was named company president.
Currently, Burns works out of the company’s offices in Rochester, NY, the city where the company got its start and a place where Burns, a trustee of the University of Rochester, is well known in the business community.
Sandy Parker, the president of the Rochester Business Alliance, told the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester that Burns has been well-prepared by Mulcahy to lead the company.
“Both are Xerox lifers,” Parker said. “I think Ursula been mentored by Anne for a significant number of years. Ursula will bring her own stamp to the position. She’s obviously not a clone. But the foundations, I think, are there.”
Mulcahy, 56, started with Xerox in 1976 as a sales rep and became CEO in 2001.
She took over a company in trouble. Xerox had lost money for five straight quarters and the SEC was investigating its accounting practices. In addition, Xerox was saddled with massive debt.
Mulcahy is credited with leading Xerox back to profitability. She brought in new accountants and settled the SEC case, the company paying a $10 million fine. She also initiated large-scale layoffs along the way. And she improved the company’s product line.
“She had no choice but to downsize and try to save the company,” Gary Bonadonna, the leader of labor group representing Xerox’s hourly workers, told the Democrat and Chronicle.
“They were on the verge of bankruptcy. She basically saved Xerox. We did lose people, but I don’t think there was any choice. It was that or lose everything.”
Of late, Xerox, which had a relatively good year in 2008 with $17.6 billion in revenue, has lost some momentum, a downturn that led to the cut of 3,000 jobs.
The stock price has fallen as well, from about $20 a share when Mulcahy became CEO to under $6.78 at Friday’s close.
Mulcahy told shareholders last week that 30 new products are on the way.
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