2010 Outstanding Alumni

A resident of Albuquerque, NM, Clay Wright earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1981 from Texas Tech University. Currently, Wright is the executive producer and owner of Desert Gem Productions Inc., a growing production company, with diverse projects covering news, broadcast, film and corporate accounts.

Wright has been a freelance producer and reporter for NBC, primarily for Nightly News, where his assignments included Hurricane Katrina, Enron, United States-Mexico border issues, the shuttle disaster, Elizabeth Smart, the U.S.-Iraq War, American POWs, and fires in California and New Mexico.

In the high-definition format, Wright has done projects for UFC, High Noon Entertainment, Rainbow Media and the Food Channel. He also has done work for the Discovery Channel, CNN, Warner Brothers, the History Channel, HGTV, the Travel Channel, and National Geographic.

His work in the film industry focuses on electronic press kits, behind-the-scenes, DVD extras and actor interviews.

His corporate clients have included Ethicon, the U.S. Department of Energy, Honeywell, the Boy Scouts of America, Ford Motor Company, the National Environmental Technology Network, AARP, AlliedSignal, the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Franklin Covey, Montana Specialists in Surgery, Pfizer, CH Bard, Chevron, the National Republican Committee, the National Democratic Committee, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Army, Johnson & Johnson, NIH, the National Science Foundation, and Fujitsu.

From 1995 to 2007, he was senior media specialist with Honeywell, FM&T. His reporting experience includes working for KOB-TV in Albuquerque, NM, KAMR-TV in Amarillo, Texas, and KCBD-TV in Lubbock.