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Deborah C. Wright is a member of the Kraft Foods Board of Directors and is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Carver Bancorp, Inc., (AMEX:CNY) the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered savings bank and the nation's largest publicly traded African- and Caribbean-American operated bank. Carver operates in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The American Banker, the financial industry's daily newspaper, named Wright "Community Banker of the Year" in December of 2003. Wright was named to her current position at Carver in 1999.
Previously, Wright was President and CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation from 1996 to 1999 where she successfully led the start-up of the nation's largest empowerment zone. From 1994 to 1996 Wright served as Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. She led the city's redesign of housing and tax foreclosure policies and successfully launched the "Building Blocks" program, which returned 40 percent of the city's residential properties to locally based entrepreneurs, non-profit developers and tenants. This initiative received one of 10 "Innovations in American Government" awards from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Prior to this appointment, Wright was named to the New York City Housing Authority Board by Mayor David Dinkins. Previously, Wright worked at the New York City Housing Partnership and began her career as an Associate in First Boston's Corporate Finance Group.
Wright is a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She also serves on the boards of The Partnership for New York City, and the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board of the American Baptist Churches. Wright served as a founding member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, charged with rebuilding lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
Wright earned her bachelor's, Masters in Business Administration and Juris Doctor degrees from Harvard University. | 