Ursula Burns will be the
first black female serving as CEO of a Fortune 500 company when she
succeeds Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox July 1. Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering intern and worked her way up through the ranks. The black community is celebrating her appointment, but reminding the public that there is still room for improvement.
"This occasion is unequivocally, a cause for celebration," Dr. Kendra Harris, assistant professor of marketing at North Carolina Central University
told BlackVoices.com. "That said, this kind of 'first' nearly a decade into the 21st century is a sad testimony to systemic lack of awareness of the talent among the ranks of minority women."