Ursula M. Burns
Trustee
Ursula M. Burns serves on the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees. She is a founding partner of Integrum Holdings and non-executive chair on the board of Teneo Worldwide LLC. She is the retired executive chair and CEO of Xerox Corporation and VEON, Ltd.
She began her career at Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineer intern, and through the years assumed many positions that led to her becoming the first Black woman to head a Fortune 500 company. She was CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016 and board chair from 2010 to 2017. President Barack Obama appointed her to the President’s Export Council, which she chaired from 2015 – 2016 after service as Vice Chair from 2010 – 2015.
Burns is a board member of Uber Technologies, Inc., Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. She serves on several private company boards, including Clean Co, CardioSignal, Waystar, and IHS Holding, while also providing leadership counsel to several community, educational, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation, Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, Friends of the High Line, the Mayo Clinic, Scratch Foundation, and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). Burns is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Academy of Engineering, and the G7 Gender Equity Advisory Council.
Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
