Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

Xerox Corp.’s split into two companies later this year will leave CEO Ursula Burns as board chairwoman of resulting document technology company, which has the majority of its operations in Rochester.

However, it appears that there will be new chief executive officers of both that company and the business processing outsourcing company that also will be formed.

"This reflected my focus on a strategy that was best for Xerox," Burns said during Xerox's annual shareholders meeting, the last as a unified Xerox.

The company, based in Connecticut but founded in Rochester, announced back in January that it would split into two independent and publicly traded companies, one focusing on business processing outsourcing work and the other on its legacy document technology business. Burns will remain in her role as chair and CEO of Xerox until the split. She said CEO searches for both companies are ongoing.

The leadership change was expected, given the company's reorganization.

"The company has had some challenges. They have had, obviously, some shareholder concerns, and they are changing directions," said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "She was, for a long time, identified with that (original) direction."

For Elson, the more interesting question is how long Burns retains a board leadership role: "Is that permanent? Will she become an executive chair, or is it something that is more honorific or temporary?"

Burns, who began her career at Xerox as an intern, has been CEO of the company since 2009, when she replaced Anne Mulcahy. She is a 35-year veteran of the company. She is the first and only African-American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Though not speaking about the personal significance of her changing role, Burns noted the final shareholders meeting was "an important inflection point."

"A little bit of a sad day for me," she said, "but a happy day as well."

The two companies that emerge from the Xerox split are equally attractive and challenging for what should be a large field of potential candidates, Elson said. And that field is more diverse today in both race and gender, at least in comparison to 2009. Said Elson: "It's a different world."

Shares in Xerox, which has roughly 6,500 workers in the Rochester area, closed up .09 percent Friday at $9.14.

Here's the text of the news release: