Company: Xerox Corporation

Industry: Document Services, Digital Imaging, Computer Peripherals

The Xerox Corporation is a Fortune 500 global document management company founded in 1906 and based in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company specializes in production and sales of printers ranging from color to black-and-white; it also deals with digital production printing presses, multifunction systems, photo copiers and related consulting services and supplies.

In 1981, the company released a system called the Xerox 6085 Star. Xerox 6085 was the first commercial system to integrate technologies that have subsequently become common in PCs, like Ethernet networking, bitmapped display, window-based GUI, mouse, print servers, file servers and e-mail. There was talk in the 1990s that Apple was interested in buying Xerox, but no deals were finalized.

Over the years, the company went through ups and downs, but continued to come out with reliable products. Finally, in May 2000, Anne Mulcahy was appointed as the company’s president and Xerox began its aggressive turnaround. Mulcahy helped decrease debt and increase the company’s cash flow. One of her strategies was to keep investing in research and development.

Anne Mulcahy’s service as Xerox’s CEO, which she assumed in 2001, ended in 2009. Ursula Burns, the first African American woman to lead a large company like Xerox, was named as the new chief executive officer.

Xerox publicly announced its intentions of acquiring Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion in September 2009.

Leadership:

CEO and Chairwoman – Ursula Burns
CFO – Larry Zimmerman
CAO – Gary R. Kabureck
President for Marketing Operations – Michael MacDonald