Sheena Wright

President & CEO, Abyssinian Development Corp.
New York City. Age: 36

In her roles as president, CEO of the Abyssinian Development Corp., a nonprofit organization dedicated to building human, social, and physical capital in New York City’s Harlem community, Sheena Wright, Esq., is following in her mother’s footsteps. “My mother is a tremendous [source of] inspiration to me. She has devoted her life to helping segments of the community that most people would rather write off,” Wright says. Her mother, Debora Fraser-Howze, is the founder and chief excecutive officer of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. Wright herself is so devoted to her community that if she had more time and money, she would continue to do “everything that I am doing now but more of it,” she says.

Wright previously worked as general counsel and executive vice president of business development for Crave Technologies, a minority-owned software company with offices in New York City and Baltimore; a senior associate at the law firm Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard and Kristol; and as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, Wright describes herself as a person of faith who is devoted to her family and to her community. “The most important element that propels me forward is my faith. I am committed and encouraged to do the work God set out for me to do to the best of my ability,” she says.

While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Wright participated in varsity track & field and cross-country. While at law school she became a founding member of the Pan-African House, a cultural institution and residence for Black students on the school’s campus. She is a member of the New York State Bar and serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Advisory Panel and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Neighborhood Investment Advisory Board. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; a member of the Citizens Union Foundation’s board of directors and a trustee and deaconess of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

A mother of two sons, Wright is married to Gregg Walker, a vice president at Goldman Sachs.