DON WRIGHTJob: Chairman and senior vice president of develpment for Wright Global Graphics SolutionsIndustry leadership: Past chairman of the International Sleep Products Association and winner of the 2012 Robert MacMorran Memorial award for service to the mattress industry.Age: 51Education: Bachelor’s degree in printing management technologies from Rochester Institute of Technology.Career: He joined the family business, then known as Wright of Thomasville, after graduating from college in 1986 and added a branch to serve the floorcovering business in Dalton, Ga., in 1990. He became vice president of sales and marketing in 2000, chief marketing officer in 2005 and company chairman in 2010.Personal: He and his wife, Beverly, have two daughters and reside in Chattanooga
Don Wright has had a love affair with printing since he ran a die cut press while still in high school.
Although the rug labeling business he heads shrank by nearly a third during the recent recession, Wright insists “it’s still a fun business to work in every day.”
“I guess I have ink in my veins and I used to have the scars on my hands [from lead spilling out of Linotype machines] to prove it,” Wright said.
The 51-year-old Chattanoogan heads the family printing and labeling business his father started in North Carolina in 1961 to serve the rug, furniture and bedding industries. Over the past two years, Wright also has headed the principal trade group for the mattress industry — the first supplier to do so in the 97-year history of the International Bed Products Association.