Xerox CEO and Chair Ursula Burns receives UCLA Anderson’s John Wooden Global Leadership Award
UCLA Anderson School of Business bestowed Xerox Corporation Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns with the 2015 John Wooden Global Leadership Award. The event took place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles on October 6, 2015.
Ursula Burns rose from intern to CEO of Xerox over the course of her 35-year career there. The first black woman to serve as CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, Burns led the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, which, at $6.4 billion, is the largest in Xerox history.
The award is named for UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, a legendary figure at the college who upheld high standards of leadership and teamwork. Wooden coached the team from 1948 to 1975 and passed away in 2010.
“During the last 35 years, Ursula Burns has demonstrated her embodiment of the qualities [of pride, ethics and teamwork] in multiple capacities,” UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian remarked in a press release. “She guided Xerox’s transformation from a global leader in document technology to the world’s most diversified business services company, serving enterprises and governments of all sizes. This kind of transformative leadership exemplifies the standards Coach Wooden is remembered for upholding.”
Ursula Burns is regularly acknowledged as one of the world’s most powerful women on Forbes’ and Fortune’s lists of leaders. She was appointed in 2009 by President Obama to help lead the White House’s national program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. In 2015 she was appointed chair of the President’s Export Council, after serving as vice chair since 2010.
