Gifted with the entrepreneurial spirit of her parents, Wright began her own Executive Coaching business five years ago, suitably called the Wright Choice. Because of her role at IBM and active community involvement, Wright started seeing a lot of interest from people who wanted to know if she did outside coaching. Wright saw this as an opportunity to build her credibility outside her already established identity at ibm.com. Today she coaches on average two clients an evening, three evenings a week via telephone. It’s no surprise she considers leadership her niche. “I really have a curiosity about leadership and the impact it has on a corporation, both negatively and positively” she says. Client Jesse Burgess said Wright has helped him find his “authentic self” through coaching. “She has been instrumental in helping me to understand my strengths and how I can use them to both my advantage and the advantage of my organization,” Burgess says. “When I came to her, I was having difficulty helping my team get to the next level of performance. Beverley was able to help me find a few small adjustments that I could make to my style of management that helped tremendously.” According to Burgess, “Beverley ‘the Coach’ and Beverley ‘the person’ are identical. She is a caring, patient, and wise confidant. She is selfless in her dedication to make others better. She has an effervescent personality and a humble spirit, so it is no surprise that people gravitate towards her.” Community And ICF Ties While Wright’s specialty is working with leaders, she is regarded as a respected leader herself within her local ICF North Texas Chapter and the greater Dallas/Fort-Worth community. When she was the North Texas Chapter’s vice president of membership in 2006, she set up new systems that supported membership growth. Membership doubled that year under her leadership. “I learned so much,” says Wright of her chapter involvement. “It stretched me in ways I thought I would never be stretched.” She went on to serve as the chapter president in 2008 and now serves on the global level as a trustee on the ICF Foundation Board.

“Beverley’s 30-plus years experience working for IBM in diverse areas of business gives her a rich background for coaching corporate and business professionals” said former ICF Board member Ginger Cockerham, MCC. “Her leadership in the North Texas Chapter has been an incredible gift to our chapter and has taken us to a new level of member participation and professionalism.” Wright’s leadership skills and passion resonate throughout the Dallas community as well. She was honored in March by the Dallas Business Journal with a Minority Business Leader Award. For IBM, she serves on the Corporate Dallas Fort-Worth Diversity Council and has past board involvement in a long list of other community projects and organizations, including United Way of Dallas, African American Museum, and the Urban League, which saw record profits the year she co-chaired their major fundraiser. One project particularly close to her heart is the Dallas Dinner Table (dallasdinnertable.com), an independent nonprofit which promotes multicultural dialogue and providers an opportunity to hear and to share diverse perspectives about the impact of race on the daily lives of Dallas residents.  During her first term as a board member on the Leadership Dallas Alumni Advisory Council (LDAAC), Wright stepped in to chair the Dallas Dinner Table’s transition from an LDAAC project to an independent nonprofit. After the transition, Dinner Table attracted 300 participants from across their community and has seen up to 1,200 attendees since.

“Dallas Dinner Table is making a positive impact on race relations in our community, one dinner at a time,” Wright says. At this point in her life, Wright says she’s focused on her legacy, quoting Marian Wright Edelman’s book, Lanterns: “Be a good ancestor.” It seems she has nothing to worry about in that area as she continues to leave things better than she finds them. “Bev’s impact continues to grow,” says Church. “Her work to develop leaders who focus on developing other leaders, continues to impact the broader IBM.”