Former Xerox boss Ursula Burns was tapped as chairwoman of Teneo because the embattled consulting agency grapples with the resignation of CEO Declan Kelly over drunken habits at a charity occasion.
The ex-Xerox CEO mentioned she is going to give attention to enhancing Teneo’s tradition whereas additionally sustaining and rising the agency’s illustrious roster of well-heeled company purchasers, Teneo mentioned Tuesday. The information was first reported by The Wall Avenue Journal.
A former Teneo shopper and paid senior advisor, Burns, 62, mentioned she “has a deep understanding of the enterprise” and the “wants of its purchasers.”
“The agency’s persons are among the many finest advisors on the planet, offering a novel mixture of providers not accessible at different companies,” Burns mentioned. “I’ve a deep understanding of the enterprise, the wants of its purchasers, and a honest appreciation for all the nice Teneo professionals around the globe. As chairwoman, I intend to give attention to advising and rising Teneo’s purchasers, in addition to persevering with to construct a world-class agency tradition.”
Burns’ appointment comes every week after Teneo CEO and co-founder Kelly resigned from the high-flying agency after he confirmed up drunk on the celebrity-filled World Citizen charity occasion the place he acted inappropriately with quite a few girls.
The charity eliminated Kelly from the board on Could 3 and Teneo’s shopper, Normal Motors, dropped the agency as an advisor in late June. Final week, Teneo named one in every of its co-founders, Paul Keary, as CEO.
Below Kelly, Teneo had amassed a strong Rolodex of political and company contacts that have been paid to assist Teneo ink large offers with a number of the world’s largest companies, similar to GM, Boeing, Coca-Cola, GE, Starbucks, and the London Inventory Change.
The agency introduced in and paid a community of extremely influential particular advisors to pitch Teneo to work as an advisory agency for his or her rich, highly effective friends.
Teneo tapped particular advisors like Dow Chemical’s Andrew Liveris, former Home Speaker Paul Ryan, former Senate majority chief George Mitchell, Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent, IBM’s Ginni Rometty and Burns, amongst others.
Burns, who can be a board member of Exxon Mobil and Uber Applied sciences, mentioned she expects to proceed working with Teno purchasers and with Keary to repair Teneo’s tradition after it has been rattled by the Kelly PR disaster.
Burns is named an exec who isn’t afraid to shake issues up. She grew to become the primary black lady to go a Fortune 500 firm when she was tapped as CEO of Xerox in 2009. The exec has been vocal about placing an emphasis on variety on company boards and altering the tradition of boardroom hiring. The exec left Xerox in 2016 and later served as CEO and chairwoman of telecommunications firm, Veon.
