Paul Elbridge Wright

Wright was a member of the board or advisors for the Colleges of Engineering for Cal Poly and the University of Pennsylvania. He also served as a director of the Iteris Subsidiary from January 1999 to October 2004. Wright was the President of Wright Associates. He also served as a director of the Iteris Subsidiary from January 1999 to October 2004.

Wright was president of Wright Associates, Engineering and Business Consultants, a company he formed in 1997. He joined Carlisle Enterprises, LLC, a private equity firm in that year. He served on the boards of two public companies, Odetics and its successor, Iteris.

In 1988, Wright was named Chairman of Chrysler Technologies Corporation (CTC), the aerospace and defense electronics arm of the Chrysler Corporation. Wright guided the company's focus toward spacecraft, defense electronics, and selected industrial products. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1996.

In 1986, Wright was named as President and Chief Operating Officer of Fairchild Industries From 1986 to 1988, Wright served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Fairchild. There he led a reorganization of the company that returned it to profitability. Part of that restructuring required the closing of the Fairchild Republic Company aircraft manufacturing plant on Long Island after the loss of the Air Force contract for the Fairchild T-46A.

Following President Ronald Reagan's 1984 trip to China, Wright participated in two trade missions to China. The first (July 21–26, 1984) focused on the aerospace industry and the second (March 21 – April 4, 1985) dealt with the electronics industry. In 1995, President Bill Clinton named Wright a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). In 1987, he was named the Cal Poly College of Engineering Alumnus of the Year. In 1988, Wright was awarded the D. Robert Yarnall Award for "outstanding contribution in the field of engineering to society, either in public service, private industry, or education, that has enhanced the image of the University of Pennsylvania".

In 1981, Wright was named division vice president and general manager of the RCA Government Systems division. Wright spent 28 years at RCA, rising to the position of Senior Vice President, Corporate Planning and Development in 1985. He was responsible for developing and administrating the strategic plans for RCA.

After graduation, Wright joined the Advanced Technology Laboratory at RCA in Camden, New Jersey. While working at RCA, he earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania. Later, while director of ATL, Wright attended the Harvard Business School six-week Advanced Management Program in 1976 and 1977. In 1969, he became a registered professional engineer in the State of New Jersey.

Wright served as director of RCA Advanced Technology Laboratories from 1972 to 1977, now part of Lockheed Martin. In 1978, he was appointed vice president and general manager of the AstroElectronics Division. During his time there, they built the largest thermo-vac chamber for the testing of satellite systems in a space-like environment. Wright also led bidding on two satellite contracts that would become the first communication satellites to use solid-state amplifiers. The bids leveraged the common engineering costs for the two projects, assigning one-half the common costs to each project. Winning only one of the contracts would be been financially disastrous for the Astro division because one-half of the satellite's engineering costs would exceed Astro's profits from the contact. Winning both contracts, however, made meant that engineering costs were covered by the two satellite contracts.

Wright's early work at RCA focused on electrostatic printing, including a five color electrofax machine designed for the U.S. Army to print maps. This work led to three patents (U.S. Pat. 3,133,484 - Electrostatic Printing Apparatus, May 19, 1964; US 3,274,565 - Optical-photoconductive reproducer utilizing insulative liquids; U.S. Pat. 3,343,956 - Electrostatic Printing Process Wherein Development is Achieved by Sequential Application of Carrier Liquid and Developer Particles.)

The Wrights raised four children; Neil (b.1958), Sue (Potter, b. 1961), Warren (b. 1962), and Anne (Thrush, b. 1966) while living in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

After his honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1954, Wright returned to Morro Bay and enrolled in California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). He was an engineer with the State of California from 1954 to 1958. In 1956, Wright married Virginia Ann Peterson, the daughter of Leonard Vincent Peterson and Helen (Woolums) Peterson. Wright earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly in June 1958.

Wright graduated from San Luis Obispo High School in 1949. In 1950, Wright enlisted in the US Air Force, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. Most of his tour was spent in Newfoundland as a clerk and bookkeeper. He also served on Consolidated PBY Catalina search and rescue aircraft looking for downed planes.

Paul Elbridge Wright (June 24, 1931 – June 4, 2017) was an American business executive, engineer and inventor.

Paul E. Wright was born on 24 June 1931 in Haviland, Kansas to Clifton E. Wright and Mattie Louise (Huff) Wright. Wright has one sister Naomi Wright Landorf, born in 1933. The family moved to Atascadero, California in 1933 and later to Morro Bay.