Until September 2016, he was worldwide chairman and CEO of the international advertising, marketing, communications, consulting and public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather.
The first member of his family to go to university, he attended New College, Oxford, where he was Steward (a title later renamed President) of the Junior Common Room between 1974 and 1975, and where he gained a congratulatory first class degree in Modern History.
In the latter role, he was responsible for the first ever tendering out of street cleaning and refuse disposal services to much acclaim, saving money and increasing standards, professionalising the workforce's image while introducing initiatives such as the UK's first ever photometric approach to monitoring litter.
[10] During his time as a councillor, Westminster City Council, under Shirley Porter's leadership, implemented a policy known as Building Stable Communities (BSC).
Young was accused by opposition politicians of complicity, but district auditor John Magill cleared him and four other Westminster City Council officers and members of involvement in 1995.
[12] Young's tenure as leader was marked by a change in style from his predecessors, with a more hands-off approach and an overarching policy of bringing life back into central London, balancing residential and business needs.
[14] During this time, he oversaw the expansion of the Ogilvy & Mather network, doubling the region's revenue to $500 million between 2003 and 2008, and supervised building operations in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Pakistan, while also expanding practice disciplines.
[18] Young was widely credited with repositioning Ogilvy from a legacy business "imbued with a kind of insular elitism reflecting one of the bluest of advertising's blue-chip clubs".
[25] Publishers Weekly said of the book: “Ogilvy would be proud, with Young achieving his stated goal of convincing a new generation to look back at Ogilvy’s classic work, while also adding his own canny take on the contemporary advertising game.” (2017)[26] Young was elected 48th Warden of his alma mater, New College, Oxford, in September 2016, succeeding Sir Curtis Price.