Email : belinda@ladygeek.org.uk
May
The New CEO of Xerox
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There are not many female CEOs of companies around. Although women are traditionally underrepresented in technology professions, there were a number of high profile CEOs in the US in recent years. We can think here of Carly Fiorina, formerly of HP, and Anne M. Mulcahy, of Xerox. Now Xerox has entered history books by appointing the first African American female CEO to lead a major US corporation: Ursula Burns. Interestingly enough she is also the first female CEO who succeeded another female CEO.
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Burns had a long-term career at Xerox. Burns, who holds degrees from NYU and Columbia University, joined Xerox in 1980 first as a summer intern and then in product development and planning. In 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services and in 2007 she became president of Xerox.
Business Week suggests that part of reason that Xerox appointed two female CEOs in a row is Xerox’s commitment to diversity. 30% of Xerox’s executives are women and 22% are minorities. Xerox has a long tradition of affinity networks. Xerox also had a Executive Diversity Council early on. In addition there are leadership programmes that foster diversity and managers are evaluated in their performance reviews on their ability to recruit, retain and promote underrepresented groups. If they fall short of expectations their chances of promotion are diminished and they pay is negatively affected. This shows that diversity programmes do have an impact – even though it might take decades for them to unfold their power. Â
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Interestingly, the same day this article was written, Stuart Rose said in the Observer ‘there are really no glass ceilings, despite the fact that some of you moan about it all the time.’ Clearly it is easy for a man to say this. I imagine he has a stay at home wife that does everything for him and for his children. In order to have successful career in my experience, you have to ‘pretend’ you do not have children so its clear to management that your ‘priority’ is your job. Well done Ursula Burns for having made it to the top. Lets hope she is an inspiration and role model for other women.
I totally agree with Brenda. Whenever a woman makes it to the top of an organisation, it is assumed that the glass ceiling is a thing of the past. If that would be the case, why are there only 10-15% of women in senior management positions?
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