Kristen Wright

Director, RLC - Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary

Kristen assumed the top legal role at AutoZone in 2014, becoming the Fortune 300 retailer’s first female Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel. In 2017, she was selected as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women.  Kristen is the only woman on AutoZone’s Executive Committee and is also the founder of the AutoZone Women’s Initiative (AZ WIN) and executive sponsor of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative.  She oversees AutoZone’s Legal Department, Government Affairs and Community Relations.  She has expanded the mission of her team to support the values of more than 95,000 employees across the US, Mexico, Brazil and around the globe while protecting the assets of this $10B company.  She was recently named 2018 Best of the Bar by the Memphis Business Journal. 

Kristen is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Memphis in May International Festival which, in addition to throwing the best parties in Memphis, provides expansive cultural educational programing to Shelby County Schools, and provided $138 Million in economic impact to the City in 2018.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of KIPP Delta Public Schools where she chairs the Governance and Nominating Committee, and she co-founded a Legal Aid Clinic at Orange Mound Senior Center, now in its tenth year.  Kristen frequently participates in charitable runs, raising funds for local nonprofit organizations, including the St. Jude Half Marathon and the Memphis in May Great American River Run.  She was featured on the cover of the “Fit Moms” edition of Memphis Health & Fitness Magazine in May, 2017.  She was also honored with the Girl Scouts Heart of the South “One Smart Cookie” Award.

Kristen is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in English and a minor in Communication, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society.  She serves on the University of Arkansas Alumni Association Board of Directors.  Kristen earned her law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 2001.  Prior to joining AutoZone, Kristen was a partner with the law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims in Memphis, focusing on complex litigation, commercial and financial transactions, and intellectual property and technology.  Kristen’s most important honor is being proud Mom of 14-year-old twins, Collier and Syble, and wife to Marshall Wright, also an attorney.