Deborah Wright

Deborah C. Wright is Chairman and CEO of Carver Bancorp, Inc. ("Carver") the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank. Carver is the largest publicly traded African-American operated bank in the United States, with approximately $650 million in assets, 135 employees and ten full service branches in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Wright joined Carver in 1999 and was named "Community Banker of the Year" in 2003 by The American Banker. Black Enterprise Magazine named Carver the Financial Services Company of the Year in 2006. US Banker named Wright one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking in October 2010. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Time Warner, Voya Financial, Inc. and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Career

Wright was President and CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone from 1996 to 1999 where she oversaw an annual operating budget of $3 million and a capital budget of $250 million, funded equally by the city, state and federal governments. From 1994 to 1996 she developed and lead a strategy to New York City-owned residential properties to private ownership as Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and led the City's redesign of housing and tax foreclosure policies. "Building Blocks" returned 40% of the City's residential properties to locally based entrepreneurs, non-profit developers and tenants. This strategy, along with tax reforms including the sale of tax liens, was codified in legislation adopted by City and State legislatures. This initiative subsequently received one of only ten "Innovations in American Government" awards - the government equivalent of the Oscars - selected from among 1,500 applicants nationwide, by the Ford Foundation and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Wright substantially expanded leverage of private capital and partnerships, utilizing the agency's capital budget, land and buildings to spur development of affordable housing. At the time of her departure she administered an annual budget of approximately $800 million and a staff of 3,000 employees; funded development of 21,000 affordable housing units; sold 17,000 city owned housing units; and management of 43,000 residential properties.

Previously, Wright was a member of the New York City Housing Authority Board, appointed by Mayor David Dinkins, who also named her to the City Planning Commission. She began her professional career at First Boston and the Partnership for New York City.

Wright previously served as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, The Children's Defense Fund, Kraft Foods Inc. and was 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, MBA and law degrees from Harvard University. Wright was reared in Bennettsville, South Carolina and Dallas, Texas.

External links

• Article on Deborah Wright's appointment at Carver Bancorp
• Time Warner biography of Deborah Wright (with photograph)
• Black Entrepreneur Profile of Deborah Wright
• Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone