This story is part of the Behind the Desk series, where CNBC Make It gets personal with successful business executives to find out everything from how they got to where they are to what makes them get out of bed in the morning to their daily routines.
When Ursula Burns became CEO of Xerox in 2009, she didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
Then calls started to pour in from the likes of President Bill Clinton, NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and Al Sharpton, to name a few. Burns had just made history as the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a position she held until 2016.
“Then I said, ‘Holy sh-t, this is a big deal,’” Burns, 63, tells CNBC Make It.
The spotlight was new territory for Burns. So was the job: Xerox, a 100-year-old tech giant, was struggling to keep up with the times. Burns realized she didn’t know nearly half of what she needed to know to run the company.
But she had an intense work ethic, she says. And she was used to thriving in corporate settings as an outsider — being both Black and female. “My natural comfort is being the only or the few in a room,” she says. “I became very good at playing in that space.”
Burns says she never minded being the only Black woman in any room, even considering it an advantage. “If I raised my hand in any meeting, almost surely, it was called on,” she says. “You’re so different that, at least in open spaces, they can’t ignore you.”
Here, Burns discusses growing up in a poor single-parent household, her ascent up the career ladder and why she’s a firm believer in “not being too nice.”
