“An Evening With Ursula Burns” will air on PBS station WIPB in Indianapolis on Feb. 11 at 4 a.m.
“An Evening With Ursula Burns” features Ursula Burns, CEO of the Xerox Corporation, in an one-on-one interview hosted in front of a live audience with veteran PBS-TV news journalist Gwen Ifill as the host/interviewer. “An Evening with Ursula Burns” explores the life and career of the first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company.
Viewers are given an unique, inside look into this business and civic icon. A lifelong New Yorker, Burns tells of her poor upbringing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; her mother, Olga’s efforts to raise three children on her own; her start at the Xerox Corporation as a young engineering intern and her meteoric rise through Xerox’s corporate ranks.
Intermixed in the program are live appearances of Ursula Burns mentors. Former Xerox CEO, Paul Allaire, tells of how Burns became his executive assistant. Former Xerox CEO, Anne Mulcahy provides background on how she and Ursula spearheaded a turnaround of Xerox during a financially precarious period and how they made history when Burns became the first female to succeed another female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Then, business and civic leader Vernon Jordan speaks of the importance of Burns’ journey and how it symbolizes how she overcame class, race and gender. Others provide their perspectives on her trailblazing career and her family life. They include: American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, Executive Leadership Council’s Executive Director Ronald Parker and Viacom’s Senior Vice President Marva Smalls as well as Burns’ husband, daughter, son and sister: Lloyd Bean, Malcolm Bean, Melissa Bean and Deborah Eastman.
Burns earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University. In 1980, she started at Xerox as a summer intern, permanently joining a year later, in 1981, after completing her master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. During her thirty year career, Burns worked in a variety of roles that included product development, planning, senior vice president, president and CEO.
