Ursula Burns – Go Girl

I was compelled to write a short post. I know this isn’t frojoy.com but I’m a whole person with varied interests. If you don’t know the name Ursula Burns, well I think you should. Not only is Ursula Burns the first African-American woman serving as CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Xerox), but she’s the first female CEO on the 500 to replace another female CEO (Anne Mulcahy). She also serves on the Board of Directors for American Express. President Obama tapped her to help lead the White House national program on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

As it turns out, Xerox is doing some great things under her leadership. Xerox just announced a huge acquisition and we’ll see how it works out. Her background is that of a mechanical engineer who seems to have passed on that interest. While writing this post I learned that her son is studying nuclear engineering at MIT. She attended NYU and Columbia. The more I read, the more I dig this lady.

I was on CNN’s Fortune page going through a slide show. This wasn’t the first time I heard about her. I had just never seen her. I totally expected her to be lighter skinned with a corporate looking bob cut. Um… she’s natural. She’s brown skinned, and wears a short natural do. I am even more impressed with her that she doesn’t feel as though she has to fit a mold of what women should look like.

From what I can tell, she’s very candid and actually pretty soft spoken. She’s also been at Xerox since an internship she had (gulp) the year I was born. I got the candor part, but well I don’t think I can do soft spoken. Maybe I’ll just work on toning it down a lil. But, the next time someone tells me I need to straighten my hair to climb the corporate ladder, I’ll tell them about Ursula — and I can’t explain how great that feels.

madia