We’re delighted to announce our 2020 Hall of Fame honoree – barrier breaking business executive, CEO and corporate board director Ursula Burns.

Ms. Burns, who has extensive international experience of large companies confronting technology change of their industries, is the Retired Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, Senior Advisor at Teneo Ltd and Retired Chairman and CEO of VEON Ltd.

A trailblazer for women and minorities, she has held leadership roles in the White House, corporate boardrooms and the executive suite of Fortune 500 companies.

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Ursula to help lead the White House national program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) from 2009-2016, and she served as chair of the President’s Export Council from 2015-2016 after service as vice chair 2010-2015.

She is a founding member of Change the Equation, a CEO-led non-profit program to boost STEM education, launched by the Obama administration in 2010 and serves as a board director for numerous companies, including Exxon Mobil Corporation, Nestlé, and Uber.

Ms. Burns has devoted much of her efforts to the advancement of minorities and women in the hopes to lift up other women like herself. She provides leadership counsel to several community, educational and nonprofit organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation, Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, the New York City Ballet, and the Mayo Clinic among others.

“Dreams do come true, but not without the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic, and the courage to lean in. That’s why I spend so much time with organizations that help minorities and women gain the education and self-respect they need to take risks, to dream big, and, I hope, to someday pay it forward,” Ms. Burns has said.