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Chad Wright
Retired Supervisor at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Professional Background
Chad Wright is a seasoned professional with an impressive 30+ years of experience in the Defense Department and Intelligence Community, distinguished by his exemplary service in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and its predecessor agencies, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA). He retired in 2016 after a successful career, leaving behind a legacy of leadership, innovative practices, and significant contributions to geospatial intelligence (GEOINT).
In his role as a GS-15 supervisor, Chad expertly managed and supervised multiple teams of GEOINT professionals. His leadership style emphasized collaboration and communication, fostering a productive environment that encouraged the advancement of Geospatial Intelligence projects. His advisory capacities were highly recognized, especially in his continuous interactions with representatives from various military services, intelligence commands, agencies, and US Allies, where he was pivotal in addressing GEOINT issues, challenges, and opportunities to the NGA's Director.
Chad's contributions included managing GEOINT performance studies and performing technical analyses that directly informed the strategic direction of the agency as directed by the NGA's leadership. Noteworthy among his experiences was his appointment as the NGA Country Lead in Iraq in 2012. In this role, he adeptly supported US Embassy requirements and directly addressed the Department of Defense (DoD) needs, facilitating communication between military leadership and Iraqi Government officials. Among his achievements in Iraq was brokering and implementing a groundbreaking mapping and imagery agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, showcasing his negotiation skills and deep understanding of geospatial requirements in multi-national contexts.
Chad also demonstrated exceptional organizational skills as the NGA Family Day East Lead in 2008, where he oversaw the planning and execution of an event that fostered community and recognition within the agency. His commitment to excellence can further be highlighted through his technical, budgetary, and trend analysis focused on the future capabilities of U.S. Government GEOINT, a role where he effectively positioned the agency for upcoming advancements.
Throughout his illustrious career, Chad has built and managed a renowned reputation as a digital production cartographer. At NIMA, he supervised the careers of talented digital production cartographers, ensuring that their work aligned with the high standards and specifications of DoD and the Intelligence Community. His exceptional contribution as one of DMA's initial Digital Production System data extraction cartographers paved the way for developments in digital mapping processes, where he managed to produce critical mapping support during significant operations such as Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Chad's work sanctioned the end-to-end process of map production, ensuring accuracy and compliance with the demanding specifications set forth by the Department of Defense.
Education and Achievements
Chad Wright pursued a solid educational foundation that bolstered his expansive career in geospatial intelligence. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Geography at Northeastern State University, where he achieved an outstanding GPA of 3.56, demonstrating his academic diligence and commitment to understanding the intricate facets of geography. His educational pursuits did not stop there; he continued his studies with graduate work in Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences at the esteemed University of Oklahoma, where he achieved a perfect GPA of 4.0. This academic excellence provided him with the analytical skills and technical knowledge crucial for success in his later career in the Defense and Intelligence sectors.
Throughout his career, Chad has not only contributed to the technical and analytical development of GEOINT practices but has also been recognized for his ability to lead teams through complex projects while ensuring they met the rigorous standards required in the field.
In conclusion, Chad Wright stands out as a leader, innovator, and expert in geospatial intelligence, whose 30+ years of dedicated service to the Defense Department and Intelligence Community have left an indelible impact. His blend of technical expertise, management acumen, and advising capability makes him a respected figure within the fields of geospatial intelligence, cartography, and defense operations.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.