RPT-UPDATE 3-Ursula Burns to succeed Mulcahy as Xerox CEO
(Repeats to additional subscribers)
* Ursula Burns, president, named CEO as of July 1
* Anne Mulcahy to retire as CEO, remains chairman
* Shares down 1.16 percent (Recasts, adds background, updates stock data)
NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - Xerox named Ursula Burns to succeed Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy, in a move that makes Burns one of the most prominent African-Americans to head a Fortune 500 company.
Mulcahy, 56, an economic advisor to Barack Obama during the U.S. presidential transition, will retire as CEO on July 1. She is a 33-year veteran of Xerox, where she became CEO in 2001.
An avid biker, Burns, 50, will join a list about 15 women CEOs of a Fortune 500 company and become one of only a handful of African American CEOs. She joined Xerox in 1980 as an engineering intern, was named president in 2007, and had been groomed as the next CEO by Mulcahy. [ID:nN19438536]
Mulcahy, who has been credited with revitalizing the world's top supplier of digital printers and document management services, and also serves on Citibank's (C.N) board of directors, will remain as the company's chairman.
"She has been at my side helping to turn Xerox around," Mulcahy told investors on Thursday at the company's annual shareholder meeting, which was broadcast over the Internet.
No significant strategic changes are expected as a result of the transition, which analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research characterized as "well-telegraphed."
"As the two executives have been working as a leadership team since April 2007, we expect this transition to be seamless," she said. "Burns has already been running corporate strategy, global accounts, IT and human resources."
Under Mulcahy's leadership, the Norwalk, Connecticut, company has rebounded from fiscal troubles, returned to profitability, and improved market share. Earlier this month, it introduced a new "solid ink" system that promises to shrink the cost of color prints to near that of black-and-white.
Speaking recently to Reuters about the new system, Burns, who also serves on the board of American Express Co (AXP.N), said she is not unnerved that some customers may swap their Xerox laser printers for the new ColorQube solid ink system.
"The best way to grow our business sometimes is to cannibalize our own, or to cannibalize a technology .... It's a beautiful problem to have. I lose no sleep being in this situation," she said.
She is set to take the reins at a time when Xerox has shown signs of weakness due to the economic slowdown, as its customers delay purchasing printers and supplies. In April it cut its 2009 profit outlook nearly in half. Continued...
