President of U.S.-China Cultural Institute
When Shirley Young first arrived in the United States from war-ravaged Manila in the 1940s, her family was welcomed by nuns bearing food and toys. “I had thought we reached heaven,” Young later recalled. It was yet another stunning reversal of fortune for the daughter of a Chinese diplomat who had been executed by Japanese occupiers in the Philippines during World War II.
Born in Shanghai on May 25, 1935, Young had spent her privileged childhood dreaming of following her father Clarence into diplomacy. Instead, the war transformed her into a survivor. Her widowed mother, Shanghai society belle Juliana Yen, presided over a makeshift commune of over 40 people, the wives and children of seven Chinese consuls who had been captured alongside her husband. They lived two families per bedroom, raising chickens, ducks, and pigs in the garden, often forced to manage without running water or electricity. [SM1] Young learned early what it meant to cooperate for the greater good.
This fundamental lesson of her childhood stayed with Young throughout her life and propelled her into a career as one of America’s most pathbreaking business executives. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1955, Young sent out over 100 job applications but received no interviews. She finally secured a position in market research through a Wellesley classmate of her sister’s, and then boldly pitched a paper company to join their research division. This then led her to the doors of Grey Advertising.
At Grey, Young revolutionized the industry by championing quantitative market research over the gut instinct that still dominated the field in the 1960s. She was asked to helm the agency’s newly formed Grey Strategic Marketing in 1983. In this position, she built a Fortune 500 client roster that included General Motors (GM). In 1988, GM made her its vice president for consumer market development. She was often the only woman on the famed “14th floor” of GM’s Detroit headquarters.
Young’s most transformative work came in helping GM forge a $1.5 billion joint venture with Shanghai’s SAIC Motor to build Buicks in China. GM succeeded because, while other automakers chased profits, Young understood what a partnership required. “Our strategy changed from, ‘Let’s get a deal that’ll make us both [profitable]’—sure, we still want to get a deal that made money. But we also said, ‘Let’s be seen as the best partner for developing China’s auto industry,’” Young told journalist Bill Moyers in his television special, “Becoming American: The Chinese Experience.” It was a philosophy born from her dual heritage and wartime experience of interdependence.
Young was among the very first women and only Chinese American woman to serve on the board of Fortune 500 companies. These included companies such as Bank of America, Bell Atlantic/Verizon Corporation, Dayton-Hudson/Target Corporation, Holiday Inn/Promus/Harrah’s and Salesforce.com, all of which valued her marketing expertise and business acumen.
After retiring from GM in 1999, Young launched a second career as a cultural diplomat, using classical music to bridge US-China relations. She became a force in expanding appreciation of Western classical music in China while championing Chinese musicians in America through advice, introductions, and personal grants. She served on the boards of the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, among others.
“I always felt a sense of service,” Young told Moyer. “It was important to do something not just for myself or my family, for comfort, for fun.”
As founding chair of the Committee of 100, and former chair of the US-China Cultural Institute, she lived that ethos until her death on December 26, 2020 at age 85. From wartime commune to corporate boardroom to concert hall, Young built bridges that connected not just markets, but people.
