Michelle Wright

Michelle Wright has over 20 years of corporate leadership experience, including nearly a decade in the C-suite as both Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and a Product Executive for the largest health insurer in the mid-Atlantic region.

Her varied business and health care background includes human capital and organizational change, mergers and integration, value-based care, private equity, government programs, wellness, disease and behavioral health management, finance, corporate governance, and end-to-end product accountability. She understands complex business models and draws on her experience to help leadership teams create aligned product, care management, and workforce strategies. 

Representative Experience

As CHRO for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield—a $9 billion health insurance payor—Michelle was responsible for a 7,000-person distributed workforce and an operating budget of $250 million. Her strategies led the company to top-quartile results for employee engagement and organizational health and received national recognition for engagement, diversity, ethics and compliance, health and wellness, and recruitment. As a Product Executive across three million covered members, Michelle developed a suite of wellness and disease management products across all business segments that grew account adoption 400 percent.

As a Strategic Consultant with extensive private equity, payor, and provider experience, Michelle has aligned providers to value-based care and quality strategies while simultaneously reducing turnover and improving engagement. She advises extensively on payor relations and go-to-market strategies within commercial and government programs. She has also advised companies in the receipt of tens of millions in federal, state, and private grant programs supporting patient access, value-based care, behavioral health, technology, and provider retention.

Michelle has wide-ranging experience supporting behavioral health strategies with payors, providers, and health services companies in the commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare sectors and sits on the board of a multistate Autism/ABA health care provider. She is also an expert in the areas of medical cannabis science and regulation.

Michelle has developed value proposition strategies targeting employees, executives, clinicians, and sales. As a Certified Compensation Specialist and board member, she has extensively supported compensation, audit, and finance committees through mergers and acquisitions, integration, CEO search, succession, and transformation.

Education

• University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (M.S.)
  • Pharmacy and Medical Cannabis Science
• Johns Hopkins University (M.A.S.)
  • Financial Management 
• University of Maryland (B.A.)
  • Mathematics and Computer Science

Board of Directors

• Caravel Autism Health, LLC, Board of Directors; Compensation Committee, Member (2021 to Present)
• Maryland Workforce Development, Board of Directors, Member (Governor’s Appointment) (2015 to 2023)
• Service Coordination, Inc., Board of Directors, Vice President; Compensation Committee, Member (2012 to 2020)
• United Way of Central Maryland:
  • Investment Committee, Member (2019 to Present)
  • Women United, Executive Committee Chair (2016 to 2022)

• Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), World at Work