MIT
Forefront

Ursula Burns has extensive international experience in large companies confronting technology change of their industries. In June 2017, she was appointed as chairman of VEON Ltd. She became chairman and CEO in December 2018 until June 2020. Burns joined Xerox as an intern in 1980 and ended up as the chairman of the board of the Xerox Corporation from 2010 to 2017. US President Barack Obama appointed Burns to help lead the White House national program on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) from 2009 to 2016. She also provides leadership counsel to several community, educational, and nonprofit organizations. Burns, who regularly appears on Fortune’s and Forbes’s lists of the world’s most powerful women, is a board director of Exxon Mobil, Nestlé, and Uber. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.