Elease Wright

Former SVP Human Resources

Aetna

Elease Wright served as the Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Aetna, a leading diversified health care benefits company, where she was responsible for the development of all HR strategies and the delivery of HR services and programs. In December of 2012, she retired from that position after 15 years.

Ms. Wright has specialized in HR for more than 25 years. During that time, she held key positions, including Head of HR Re-engineering Implementation and Head of HR Finance and Administration. She also served in senior positions in the Education, Pension, and Employee Relations departments.

An expert in strategic education models, staffing, employee relations, re-engineering, organizational and leadership development, Ms. Wright has led many critical and successful human resources initiatives including the transformation of HR into a strategic business partner, the development and launch of a comprehensive and leading-edge benefits strategy and the creation of an integrated talent management strategy.

Ms. Wright’s community involvement includes leadership roles for her alma mater, the University of Connecticut, 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.  Elease 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. In 2009, she was named to the HR Honor Roll of Human Resource Executive magazine.

Ms. Wright holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Connecticut.