Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

Ursula Burns

Ursula Burns was born in New York, New York. She was raised by a single mother in the Baruch Houses, a rough public housing project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Although she grew up poor, Ursula's mother often told her, "Where I was didn't define who I was." Her mother also spent nearly half of her annual salary on Catholic high school tuition for Ursula and her two siblings. In school, she was prepared for one of three career options: nun, teacher, or nurse. However, none of these careers interested Ursula.

As her mother insisted on a college education, Ursula attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute with the intent of studying chemical engineering, which she learned about from a Barron's book at the New York Public Library. She later switched majors and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. She was accepted into an educational program that offered to pay for her master's degree at Columbia University, as well as offered a summer mechanical engineering internship at Xerox Corporation.

Ursula started her career at Xerox as an engineer working in a research lab. After nearly three years, Ursula was approached by a human resources employee who taught her about the company's products and services. She held various roles in product development and planning throughout her 20s. In 1990, Ursula's career took an unexpected turn when Wayland Hicks, a senior executive, hired Ursula as his executive assistant. The following year, she became executive assistant to chairman and chief executive officer Paul Allaire. From 1992 to 2000, Ursula led several business teams, including the company's color business and office network printing business.

In 2000, Ursula was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, heading up manufacturing and supply chain operations. Alongside chief executive officer Anne Mulcahy, Ursula restructured Xerox through its turnaround to emerge as a leader in color technology and document services. In April 2007, Ursula was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership to also include the company's IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing, and global accounts. She was also elected a member of the company's board of directors. Ursula was named chief executive officer in July 2009, making her the first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company. She became chairman of Xerox in 2010, leading the more than 140,000 employees of Xerox who serve clients in more than 180 countries.