Shirley Young (May 25, 1935December 26, 2020) was an American businesswoman. She was an executive at

Grey Advertising Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia ...

and later at

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

(GM). She was also a cultural ambassador between the United States and China.

Biography

Young was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. She was the daughter of Clarence Young, a Chinese diplomat, and Juliana Young Koo, who was the long-term mistress for the diplomat and politician

V.K. Wellington Koo Koo Vi Kyuin (; January 29, 1888 – November 14, 1985), better known as V. K. Wellington Koo, was a statesman of the Republic of China. He was one of Republic of China's representatives at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Wellington Koo ...

, while her father was still living. Young received a BA in economics,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

, from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

in 1955 and attended graduate school at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

from 1956 to 1957.

Career

She started at Grey Advertising in 1959 where she led an internal

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Mark ...

division until 1988; she was among the only women and Asian-American employees at the firm at the time. In 1963, when Young was pregnant with her first child, she forced Grey to rethink their maternity leave policies as she didn't leave the company or take the severance package they offered. She was the president of Grey Strategic Marketing, a research subsidiary of Grey as of 1983. In 1988 she was hired by General Motors. GM had been a client of Young's at Grey Advertising since at least 1985. At GM, Young led an initiative to help the firm regain

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...

, as its reputation was suffering in the early 1990s. Young left GM in 2000 to found her own consulting firm, Shirley Young Associates, which advised US companies interested in Chinese opportunities. Young helped to found the Committee of 100 and served as a chair of the organization, and used classical music to bridge divides between the United States and China.

Personal

Young was married to George Hsieh. They had three sons, David, William and Douglas. They divorced and Young married Norman Krandall. That marriage also ended in divorce.

Publications

* *

Biography

Career

Personal

Publications

References

Further reading