Stephen B. Young on Moral Capitalism

Stephen B. Young is the Global Executive Director of the Caux Round Table, an international network of experienced business leaders who advocate a principled approach to global capitalism. Young has published Moral Capitalism, a well-received book written as a guide to use of the Caux Round Table ethical and socially responsible Principles for Business. In 2008 Prof. Sandra Waddock of the Carroll School of Management of Boston College listed Young among the 23 persons who created the corporate social responsibility movement in her book The Difference Makers.

Steve Young was educated at the International School Bangkok, Harvard College (graduating Magna Cum Laud) and Harvard Law School (graduating Cum Laud).

Young volunteered for service during the Vietnam War. After a year of language training, he worked in village development for the CORDS Advisory program in South Vietnam from 1968 to 1971. In 1975 Young took the initiative to begin the resettlement program of refugees from Indochina after the Vietnam War was lost.

He came to Minnesota in 1981 to be the third dean of the Hamline University School of Law. Previously, he had been an Assistant Dean at Harvard Law School.

Young has also taught at the University of Minnesota Law School, Vietnamese history for the College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota and Public Office as a Public Trust for Minnesota State University - Mankato. He has published articles on Chinese jurisprudence, the culture and politics of Vietnam and Thailand, legal education, law firm management, Native American law, the history of negligence, and the law of war. His most recent article on legal philosophy discusses the morality of American law.

He has written numerous opinion articles for the Pioneer Press and the Minnesota Journal on Law and Politics and has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal. 

He has practiced law for firms in New York City, St Paul and Minneapolis and was appointed Honorary Consul of Singapore in Minnesota for 5 years.

Young has served on the boards of the John Vessey Leadership Academy, a charter school in St Paul, Minnesota, Ready4K, an advocacy group promoting the benefits of early childhood education, the Citizens League, Resources for Child Caring, Vietnam's Women Memorial, Vietnam Social Service, Minnesota Sons of the Revolution and as Chair of United Arts in St Paul and the Minnesota Museum of Art. He is the founding board chair of the Center of the American Experiment.

Young was the keynote speaker at the 2005 annual conference of the European Business Ethics network and one of only two non-Muslims invited to speak at the 2005 World Islamic Economic Forum. Young has spoken to audiences at the Harvard Business School, the Hass School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, the Chicago Business School, and schools at Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. He was also invited to speak on Moral Capitalism at the University Club in Chicago and the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.