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Ursula Burns

Chairwoman, Teneo Holdings LLC

Search every verified Ursula Burns interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a June 2021 conversation at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Ursula Burns discussed her career and the structural barriers she observed in society. She stated that "we cannot be in a world that has such clear lines of demarcation of who is allowed to have access to this and who is not," describing these as "structural lines" that extend beyond individual perceptions. Burns also advised that if someone is "continuously undervalued and irrelevant" in a workplace, they should "find another place to work," adding that such an environment is "not worthy of your talent." Burns, the first Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, reflected on the importance of mentorship in her own career, saying she "would have never made it" without help from figures such as Vernon Jordan and others at Xerox. She currently serves on the boards of Nestlé, Exxon Mobil, Uber, MIT, the Mayo Clinic, and the Ford Foundation.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“there are there is a reality that some of the things that we are targeting the United States is targeting president the Trump Administration is targeting to tax there are no options to get anywhere else if you want an advanced chip you can say all you like about whether these guys were good bad or indiff you can buy it from what Source today One Source maybe one and a quarter sources but that's it so I think many CEO”

“this is a friendly to trade a friendly to growth Administration it's also one that it seems like there'll be a little bit less attention on the details and a lot more like the shiny object in front so businesses know how to play in that world very very well”

“We have less rights today than we did last year. We are thought of differently today than even last year. The rhetoric is absolutely we need to be cared for, we need to be protected, we can't have independent thought. When did that happen? Five minutes ago I guess.”

“The corporate model is white male and we're conforming to the structure built by them. We're preparing the world for them because if we don't do something that changes the old paradigm which is there's a playing field white men laid the field out, there are rules they decided on the game, they wrote the rules, there are judges referees whatever the hell CE who judge the they are the judges and then they say to us the”

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