MENTOR Announces Dr. Larry Wright as New CEO

October 29, 2009: Willem Kooyker, MENTOR's chairman of the board and chairman and chief executive officer of Blenheim Capital Management LLC, announced today that Dr. Larry Wright has been appointed the new chief executive officer of MENTOR, the nation's lead champion for youth mentoring.

"We are excited to have Larry Wright at the helm of MENTOR," Kooyker said. "Larry has a proven track record of success with the mentoring movement in Washington State, and we are thrilled for him to bring his unique experience and vision to the national level."

Before joining MENTOR, Wright was executive director of Washington State Mentors in Seattle, Washington. During that time, the organization grew to become one of the largest mentoring partnerships in the country. While at Washington State Mentors, Wright helped quadruple the organization's membership. He also helped secure a multi-million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and saw the number of youth with a mentor nearly double in four years.

"I am honored to lead MENTOR," said Wright. "For almost 20 years, MENTOR has been a leader in the field, expanding our understanding of quality mentoring and providing resources for programs to achieve meaningful outcomes. I look forward to building on that foundation to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to achieve their potential as an individual and a citizen."

Wright has worked as an editor at CBS radio in Seattle and as the marketing director for the College Success Foundation in Washington State. He has a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University. Committed to community service, he has served as an elected official on his local county council and as a commissioner on the Washington State Commission on Homelessness.

MENTOR is the lead champion for youth mentoring in the United States. An estimated 17 million children in America need and want mentors. MENTOR helps kids in need through building: a capacity of mentoring programs nationwide; quality for mentoring in general (through standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools); and capital (MENTOR helps the mentoring movement raise funds to continue its critical work). MENTOR works closely with State Mentoring Partnerships and more than 5,000 mentoring programs throughout the country, serving more than three million children. Founded in 1991, MENTOR is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

For more information about Wright and MENTOR, contact Ellen Christman at echristman@mentoring.org.