Country Star Chely Wright has a new gig as company VP (exclusive)

• Country singer Chely Wright announced its new role as Senior Vice President of Company’s Social Responsibility and New Market Growth at ISS
• Wright, who in 2010 became the first major country star to come out as gay, opens up the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace
• She reveals what the new job means for her music career

Country star Cool Wright recently introduced the world for a New member of her family: A small cavapoo puppy. George and Everett, the 11-year-old twin sons Wright parts with Mrs. Lauren Blitzer, had “begging about a dog,” she says, and when their parents finally regretted the boys had the perfect name ready: Lucky.

Although the name really fits the family’s new addition, it is also a suitable way to describe Wright from late.

Once known to the world as the Wright country singer, then as Wright open gay country singerThe star, 54, now includes a new role: Wright Senior Deputy President of Company’s Social Responsibility and New Market Growth on Facility Management/Workplace Experience Company ISS, which she officially announced on Tuesday, March 25.

“I think I’m the happiest person living,” she tells people. “I try not to say no to things and I try to say yes to opportunities that come along. And this one was an undeniable opportunity.”

Although it may seem a bit from the Left field for a country music star to change the stage for a company 9-5, Wright is not stranger to the business world, after previously working for the global design company Unispace as Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion officer.

She has always had something of an entrepreneurial spirit; In first class she had her own paper route, and at 16 she succeeded in a local gas station on Sundays in her original Kansas. In 1999, the same year as her hit “Single White Female” went No. 1, she founded non -profit reading, writing and rhythm foundation to support music education in schools and has also worked closely with organizations such as GLSEN, Glaad and the Human Rights campaign since he became the first big country star who came out as gay in 2010.

But it is largely thanks to Covid that she made her latest pivot. Wright was on tour when Pandemin started in March 2020, and like all other functioning musicians, had to cancel their shows, unpack and go home. She thought things would pick up in April – but when she realized they wouldn’t, she changed course.

“I told my wife in two weeks to Covid, I said,” Babe, I think I’ll make a pivot, “she reminds.” She said, “What do you mean?” I said, “I think Covid is bigger than we really realize.” My boss and I had a conversation. I would never have done the whole leap (if not for covid). ”

“It was” singer had had what she calls her “side tip” and did cultural work in corporate areas as a consultant over the past decade. So when Covid met, and when the world rolled from the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, these clients came and wanted to host inclusion -workshops and virtual events that created safe spaces for connection in the midst of uncertainty.

“It was, I dare say, the perfect storm that really accelerated conversations about leadership, affiliation and inclusion,” she says. “I was so uniquely positioned and was the only music artist that I knew who had a foot in the corporate world.”

Wright took on Unispace as a client, and when they offered her a full -time role, she accepted, eager for the opportunity to promote belonging and inclusion through the story lens.

It is a competence that she says surprisingly well from her music career, where she always loved the business side of things. And at ISS, she is ready to share her experience with the company’s 320,000 employees – especially in the middle of the current political climate, as President Donald Trump continues to work for Eliminate diversity initiatives.

“I force people to say it out loud: diversity, justice and inclusion,” she says. For companies like ISS and the customers we have … you create environments where people belong to and feel safe. I couldn’t be more proud to be at a company that does not go away from the most important principles of inclusion and belonging. We lean in it because we know it is important. And I think everyone stays constant, we will be okay. This is a moment in time and Arc of the moral university.

It is not to say that jumping into the corporate world came without fear of Wright. She had already had what she calls “a bit of an identity crisis” in 2010, when she came out in public as a lesbian.

But part of being able to get through that period in her life was to make the conscious decision to release how others perceived her – and how she perceived herself.

“‘Oh, that’s the one I used to be. That’s the one I thought I was. That’s how the world feels.” I started releasing what when I got out of the closet because I knew I would challenge my identity, she says.

It worked, and Wright – who married Blitzer 2011 – says that during the 15 years ago, she believes that things have “1,000%” improved for queer people, especially in the country music sphere (“a famous celebrity that has come out calls me her gay whisper.

And now, if she’s gone company, can she still identify herself as a singer writer? The answer is of course yes.

“I write a little every day. It’s just the songwriter in me. I have a voice memo from yesterday with a melody that I can’t get out of my head,” says Wright, whose latest EP, RevivalCome out in 2019. “Music is not done with me and I don’t think I will ever be done with music. It is in my DNA, it is part of who I am. I will not say that I do not lead” Happy birthday “at work for some of our colleagues, so I still sing and I will do another disc, but for it is not so incredible).”

The star – who says that she 98% back to herself After a stroke in 2018 – is also difficult at work with a musical adaptation of her 2010 memoir As I: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singerthe rights acquired by the actress Jean SmartS Smartangel Entertainment.

“The universe knocked me on the shoulder said:” Oh hi, covid, you will say yes to a new one, what I call, my third life, “she says.” I think my second life was when I came out and my career changed very dynamically and I think I am in my third life. Now I wonder, what the hell will my fourth life be? ”