UCLA Anderson School of Management honored Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, with the 2015 John Wooden Global Leadership Award on October 6, 2015, at the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles.
The award, named for legendary UCLA basketball coach, author and leadership expert John Wooden (1910–2010), is given each year to an exceptional individual in corporate America whose leadership style and service to the community reflect the same high benchmarks of performance, integrity and ethical virtues set by Wooden.
According to UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian, Burns was selected for the 2015 award based on her extraordinary 35-year track record at Xerox, where she rose from intern to CEO and chairman. As the first black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Burns has fueled Xerox’s leadership in diversified business process services through bold strategies, including the largest acquisition in Xerox history, the $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services. Throughout her tenure, Burns has taken an active role in continuing Xerox’s heritage of innovation while evolving its culture of tolerance and equity.
“Coach Wooden’s example of leadership for the greater good couldn’t be more relevant for the opportunities and challenges that the world faces,” said Burns.
The awards event featured a moderated conversation with Burns by Maggie Wilderotter, executive chairman of the board of Frontier Communications Corporation.
Burns is the eighth recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award, first presented to Coach Wooden himself in 2007.
“Underlying Coach Wooden’s definition of success was a sense of pride, a commitment to ethics and a respect for teamwork,” said Dean Judy Olian. “During the last 35 years, Ursula Burns has demonstrated her embodiment of these qualities in multiple capacities. She guided Xerox’s transformation from a global leader in document technology to the world’s most diversified business services company, serving enterprises and governments of all sizes. This kind of transformative leadership exemplifies the standards Coach Wooden is remembered for upholding.
Previous John Wooden Global Leadership Honorees include: Paul E. Jacobs (executive chairman, Qualcomm), Robert Iger (chairman and CEO, Disney), Indra Nooyi (chairman and CEO, Pepsico), Peter Ueberroth (managing director, Contrarian Group and president of the Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee), Peter Smith (president and CEO, FedEx), Kenneth Chenault (chairman and CEO, American Express Company) and Howard Schultz (chairman, president and CEO, Starbucks).
The 2015 event began with a tribute to Coach Wooden by Keith Erickson, a member of the 1964 and 1965 NCAA Champion teams, whom Coach Wooden later described as the finest athlete he ever coached. Erickson went on to play for the Warriors, Chicago Bulls, the 1972 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns.
Erickson recalled Coach Wooden starting with a team lesson in putting on socks, of all things. The lesson, he said, was, “If you do the little things right they turn into good big things.”
Net proceeds from the event fund fellowships for UCLA Anderson students who embody Coach Wooden’s leadership ideals and commitment to improving the lives of others. During the event, Dean Olian recognized the four 2015 recipients, each of whom will receive a $25,000 fellowship:
Tiffany Cantrell – FEMBA 16 (BA 2006)
Christian Dunbar – EMBA 2016
Virginia Tancioco – MBA/MD 2016
Robert Douk – GEMBA Asia Pacific 2017
Dr. Rob Douk said, “There’s one word that fuels why Coach Wooden was so inspirational and it’s right at the top of his Pyramid: faith. I try to maximize faith over fear.”
