乌苏拉•伯恩斯

    公司：施乐公司

    《财富》500强排名：131

    从暑期实习生到CEO，在施乐公司工作29年之后，伯恩斯于2009年成为《财富》500强（Fortune 500）公司首位黑人女性CEO。伯恩斯是一名接受过培训的机械工程师，她向其他同事证明，自己具有很强的学习能力，是一个坦率直言的人。她从基层崛起——曾负责产品开发、商业计划，还担任过一系列管理职位，这些让她在2000年施乐重组时进入公司核心。她与前任安妮•马尔卡希也建立了密切的工作关系，正是这种关系促成了近期商业历史上最平稳的、最周密的权力交接。马尔卡希钦点伯恩斯作为她的接班人，为了顺利完成一位施乐老兵向另一位施乐老兵的权力交接，两人采取了一种权利共享的安排。在去年的《财富》杂志最具影响力商界女性峰会（Most Powerful Woman Summit）上，伯恩斯表示：“我们有许多相同之处，这让我能轻松完成转变。我们在这家公司度过了一生。我们喜欢这里，我热爱这里的每一个人。”

Ursula Burns

    Company: Xerox

    Fortune 500 rank: 131

    From summer intern to CEO, Burns became the first black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2009, after 29 years at Xerox. A mechanical engineer by training, Burns, who proved herself a quick study and an outspoken colleague, blew through the ranks—taking on product development, business planning and a series of managerial roles that in 2000 put her at the center of Xerox's restructuring efforts. She also developed a close working relationship with her predecessor Anne Mulcahy, a relationship that led to what has been called one of the smoothest, most thoughtful successions in recent business history. Mulcahy hand-picked Burns and the two worked out a power-sharing arrangement that made for a gradual torch-passing, from one Xerox lifer 'to another. "We had a commonality that made my transition easy," Burns said at Fortune's Most Powerful Woman Summit last year. "We spent lives at this company. We loved it and loved the people in it."