Against the odds: Ursula Burns’ extraordinary rise to the top
Ursula Burns made history as the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company when she became CEO of Xerox in 2009. Her journey from a tough childhood in public housing to the top of this multibillion-dollar organisation is an inspirational one for many….Burns was an excellent student at Cathedral High School, a Catholic all-girls school, showing a particular talent in maths. Her good grades would earn her a scholarship and eventually a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (currently merged into New York University Tandon School of Engineering). She would later obtain a master’s degree from Columbia University.
