WASHINGTON — Ursula Burns, the first African-American woman to run a Fortune 500 company, will step down as Xerox’ chief executive when the struggling technology and services company splits itself in two later this year, Xerox announced Friday.
Burns, who has spent her entire career at Xerox, is to become chairwoman of the printer, copier, and document technology company created from the split, the company said. The other new company is to focus on business services; Xerox has yet to name a chief executive for either.
‘‘Our search for leadership is well underway and we have an extremely strong pool of talent across our organization as well as external candidates to build our management teams,’’ Burns said in a statement.
The news represents a backward step for diversity at the top of corporate America. Following Xerox’s split, there will no longer be an African-American female CEO at the helm of one of the largest US corporations, unless a black woman is soon named to lead one of them. Burns’s departure from the CEO role would also leave the count of female CEOs in the S&P 500 at just 23.