Anne Mulcahy

Born on October 21, 1951 in Rockville Center, New York, Xerox Corporation Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Journalism from Marymount College (a branch of Fordham University) in 1974.

Anne Mulcahy started as a sales representative for Xerox Corporation in 1976 and steadily climbed her way up the corporate ladder. She served as the organization’s vice-president for human resource strategy, labor organizations and unions, management development and employee training from 1992 to 1995. She also served as the vice-president and staff officer for customer operations.

In 1997, Anne Mulcahy became the company’s chief staff officer. A year later, she was named as Xerox Corporation’s senior vice-president. By 2001, despite her intentions of leaving the management of the company to someone else, the board of directors chose her as the organization’s CEO.

When she took on the role of CEO, Xerox’s stock price plummeted from $64 to $4.43. In order to drive a company that has $154 million in cash and a debt total of $17.1 billion, Anne Mulcahy resorted to cutting 30% of the workforce and scrapping the desktop department of Xerox Corporation.

To bolster the morale of the company’s employees, Anne Mulcahy visited the company’s international offices and personally checked the operations of their satellite offices. She was hoping for a mirror effect; by seeing her in action, her employees would be encouraged to work harder. The tactic proved to be effective as her visits boosted and improved the overall performance of Xerox. The company gained big operating profits for four straight quarters while increasing the stock price of the company to $11.

With Anne Mulcahy’s high profile achievements, she is widely recognized as one the greatest female business leaders in the world. U.S. News and World Report hailed her as one of the best business leaders in the country. Prior to that recognition however, The Wall Street Journal had already dubbed her as one of the Women to Watch in 2005. The same year, Forbes declared her as the 6th of the Most Powerful Women in America.

Aside from Xerox Corporation, Anne Mulcahy also sits as a board member for Citigroup Inc., Catalyst, Target Corporation, and Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd. She is also a member of The Business Council.

Anne Mulcahy’s program in saving Xerox from bankruptcy when she took over the helm.

This article from Time describes the steps Anne Mulcahy took to save Xerox from its debt trouble.