Ursula M. Burns
Company: Xerox
Position: CEO and chair
Global 500 Rank: 449
After studying mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute (now the Polytechnic Institute of NYU) and receiving a master's in the same subject from Columbia, Burns began an internship at Xerox. She's been with the company ever since.
She met her husband, Lloyd Bean, while working at the company. The two have a daughter together, as well as a son from Bean's previous marriage.
Burns is not only the first African-American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, she is also the first woman to succeed another female CEO. Anne Mulcahy, named Xerox's chief executive in 2001, passed the baton to Burns in July 2009.
