GENERAL SESSION: Where You Are Is Not Who You Are

Head of Retail Distribution, Evertree Insurance

Meet Jessica Fitzgibbons, Evertree’s Head of Retail Distribution. With over twenty years of sales and marketing experience, primarily focused in the real estate industry, Jessica excels in spearheading change, driving team success, and fostering leadership development. She and her team has successfully built the Evertree brand from a collection of separate acquired agencies into one unified entity. Prior to that her strategic leadership at Prosper Insurance led to sustained double-digit growth, and she notably steered the sales team through challenging industry downturns. Jessica has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the Hampton Roads Realtors Association’s Affiliate of the Year and the VMBA board’s Alex McCrone Award. She also supports charitable causes like the Samaritan House.

2025 MBA Chair and President, Lennar Mortgage

Laura Escobar is the 2025 MBA Chair and President of Lennar Mortgage. A 30-year mortgage industry veteran, Escobar has held leadership positions with both bank-owned and independent mortgage companies overseeing all aspects of mortgage banking, including production, operations, compliance, accounting, and training. Her personal ground level experience in every facet of mortgage lending has enabled her to manage and fully integrate all of these departments within Lennar Mortgage. Escobar is highly engaged in the industry, serves on MBA’s Board of Directors, and was co-chair of MBA’s IMB Executive Council from 2020–2022. She is also a director of the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, which she has supported by successfully fundraising for the foundation’s work and leading Lennar in company campaigns. Beyond her industry work, she is also a licensed mental health counselor and devotes much of her time to working with underprivileged women.

Founder, Integrum; Former Chairman and CEO of Xerox and VEON; Chairwoman, Evertree Insurance

Ursula Burns is a trailblazing executive with extensive experience in leading large companies through change. When she was named CEO of Xerox Corporation, she became the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company and led the company through its transformation into the world’s most diversified business services company serving enterprises and governments of all sizes. Her Xerox career began with a summer internship in 1989, and grew through leadership posts spanning corporate services, manufacturing and product development. After her retirement from Xerox, Burns held the roles of Chairwoman and CEO of telecommunications firm VEON, Ltd.. She is a founding partner of Integrum Holdings, a private equity firm; and a Chairwoman of Teneo Holdings LLC. Burns holds several other board seats, while also providing leadership counsel to community, educational and non-profit organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Mayo Clinic, amongst others. Burns was appointed by President Barack Obama to lead a White House program on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). She served on the President’s Export Council, including as Chair, then joined the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness as Vice Chair in 2022. Burns holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Her book “Where You Are Is Not Who You Are” was published in June 2021.