Gov. Malloy Appoints Elease Wright to the Board of Regents

Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that he is appointing Elease E. Wright of Hartford to serve as a member of the state Board of Regents for Higher Education.

“It is a privilege and an honor to join the Board of Regents and to support its vision to increase the number of students completing college and having rewarding academic experiences” Elease E. Wright

“Elease has a tremendous amount of experience, having spent a large portion of her career with one of Connecticut’s largest private sector employers,” Governor Malloy said.  “Her addition on the Board of Regents will benefit our state higher education system’s efforts to connect with important economic sectors and strengthen its focus on preparing our students to have a competitive edge in the global workforce.”

Wright built a successful career at Aetna Inc., a leading diversified health care benefits company, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources until her retirement in 2012.  In her more than 25 years of varied human resources experience, she has held numerous management and HR positions in finance, reengineering, pensions, education, and employee relations.

In her 30-year career with Aetna, Wright helped shape what is one of the nation’s most heralded business transformations.  She was instrumental in attracting and retaining key talent during Aetna’s difficult multi-year transition from broad-based insurer to health care leader.  Her focus on both business success and attention to values and employee engagement yielded a highly effective senior team that took Aetna from a period of financial decline to one of significant, continuing success.

“It is a privilege and an honor to join the Board of Regents and to support its vision to increase the number of students completing college and having rewarding academic experiences,” Wright said.  “As a long standing member of this community, I am very much looking forward to being a part of this important organization.”

A proud UConn graduate, Wright’s community involvement includes leadership roles for her alma mater, for which she serves on the Board of Directors for the UConn Foundation.  She also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Academy of Human Resources and its Foundation.  She is a past board member for Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies and the Human Resource Policy Association, and is past president of the Hartford Region YWCA Board of Directors.

She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, was named one of Savoy Professional Magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America,” one of the Network Journal's Top 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business, and one of Black Enterprise’s Top 50 Blacks in Corporate America.  She was also installed in the National Academy of Human Resources 2007 Class of Fellows and inducted into the UConn School of Business Hall of Fame in 2008.

Wright will fill a vacancy on the Board of Regents that was previously held by René Lerer.