Meet Our Founder – Soraya Wright
Soraya Wright, Founder & Chief Risk Officer of SMW Risk Management Consulting LLC, has over 30 years of experience managing complex risks for global businesses. She leverages her experience to identify and evaluate enterprise risks and determine appropriate mitigation and risk finance strategies to protect an organization’s earnings and reputation. Soraya’s previous executive positions include VP- Global Risk Management & Crisis Management at The Clorox Company, where she was responsible for leading the company’s enterprise risk management program, global insurance strategy, crisis management and business continuity for worldwide operations; President-Board of Directors of the company’s captive insurance subsidiary, which she formed; and, VP- Enterprise Risk Management at Target, where she was recruited to launch the strategy and centralized oversight of the company’s post-breach enterprise risk management program. In each role, Soraya advised C-Level executives on smart risk-taking and presented her findings to the Board of Directors.
Soraya is a champion for diversity and inclusion, leveraging her influence to develop strategies, change policies, establish protocols and implement practices that enable organizations to drive success through diversity and inclusion efforts. Soraya served on the Diversity Advisory Board at Clorox, Co-led an African-American Employee Resource Group (ERG) and served on a Women’s ERG Leadership Team, to name a few. She currently serves on the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s (RIMS) Diversity and Inclusion Council and is sought out as a keynote speaker on diversity matters. She also is a noted thought leader on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) as a business risk – offering organizations small and large with strategies to develop a competitive advantage through embracing untapped talent.
Soraya has served on the Client Advisory Board of several insurance companies and commercial insurance brokerage firms, including ACE (Chubb), FM Global, and MARSH. She is currently on the advisory board at Indenseo, an insurance telematics services company. She is a frequent speaker RIMS, Advisen, and Hawaiian Captive Insurance Forum conferences, covering a broad range of risk management topics, including Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) strategies, supply chain risk management, forming captive insurance companies and managing complex losses.
Soraya is passionate about community service. She has served in a leadership capacity at over a dozen community and professional organizations including Treasurer at the African-American Arts and Culture Complex in San Francisco and serving on the Boards of the East Oakland Youth Development Center and Oakland’s Children’s Hospital Foundation. Soraya currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Holy Names University. In recognition of her community service, The United Way honored Soraya with the Adele K. Corvin Outstanding Agency Board Volunteer Award.
Soraya received her BA in Business Administration & Economics from Holy Names University. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In December 2015, Soraya was named by Business Insurance as a “Woman to Watch.”