Christopher Young, Cae Email & Phone Number

Washington D.C. Metro Area

As chief program officer, Christopher is responsible for providing leadership in the areas of student programs, association and member services, professional learning and educational conferences for both the high school and collegiate divisions. Since his appointment as chief program officer, Christopher quickly built a new nine-member team focused on advancing DECA’s mission of preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs. Keenly aware of how student programs, association services, professional learning and educational conferences are integrated components of delivering on DECA’s programs and services, Christopher has developed a high performing, collaborative team focused on providing high quality services with one goal in mind – creating a meaningful member experience. Recognizing the importance of business and industry’s connection to DECA, Christopher collaborated to secure and expand significant, meaningful partnerships with major companies like Intuit and Facebook.

As chief meetings officer, Christopher was responsible for successful execution of all DECA’s in-person meetings, with an event portfolio of 10 events per year, including the annual city-wide. In this role, he conceptualized, strategized, identified and implemented new opportunities and strategic initiatives, developing winning partnerships and leveraging existing successful meetings that support the membership. He partnered with leadership to ensure that in-person offerings are successful in growing membership, sponsorships and exhibits and conference attendance. From important meetings with key leaders to the annual international conference that attracted a record 20,000 attendees, he raised the bar for innovative conferences in the education space.

- Provide leadership in the areas of program development, member services, conferences and communications for the association’s division that serves nearly 220,000 members in 3,500 chapters in 55 associations. - Establish strategic direction for division and develop, evaluate and refine major programs. - Employ membership strategy comprised of recruitment, retention and engagement plans resulting in annual growth. Since joining DECA Inc., high school division annual membership has increased by 21% (38,426 members).- Coordinate eight annual educational conferences with attendance from 150 to 19,000, responsible for site-selection, planning, programming, promotion, communications and on-site implementation.- Manage budgets totaling $5 million annually from development to reconciliation and through contract negotiation.- Employ emerging digital communications strategy, developing an integrated approach to support functions such as program engagement, membership development and brand awareness. - Serve as editor-in-chief of all publications, including quarterly magazine and online products.- Provide technical assistance to 55 association leaders to align programs at local, state and national levels.- Collaborate with departments to align programs and services to organization’s objectives and brand.

- Developed and implemented professional development programs for business and marketing educators. - Employed membership strategy leading to division growth and managed on-boarding program.- Coordinated integrated communications strategies including traditional and electronic media. - Assisted with conference management including planning, promotion, communications and on-site implementation.- Led organization-wide rebranding initiative, including logo, collateral, messaging and programs.

- Collaborated with the board of directors to develop and employ strategic plan, policy and fiscal management for both high school and collegiate divisions. - Developed and employed membership strategy resulting in annual growth and surpassing 10,000 member milestone. - Coordinated five annual education conferences with attendance from 200 to 2,000.- Recruited and coordinated 125 business volunteers annually. - Managed communications strategies, including weekly e-mails, website and social media.- Developed strategic partnerships with education organizations and businesses generating a combined $10,000 in revenue for the organization. - Manage $1 million annual budget from development to reconciliation and through contract management.

- Coordinated 16-member student officer team and its annual program of work. - Reviewed and revised student leadership program.- Assisted with planning and on-site implementation for annual leadership conferences.

- Provided state-level leadership in the areas of program standards, curriculum, instruction, professional development and student activities to 800 business and marketing education programs in public schools.- Managed curriculum and instruction projects including annual reviews and revisions. - Evaluated local education agency programs and provided implementation guidance based on state policies.- Developed and implemented professional development programs for educators, including a comprehensive two-year onboarding program for new teachers.

- Coordinate daily activities for the three-week academic program. - Contribute to weekly planning committee and assist in program administration. - Coordinate media interest from news outlets and maintain website. - Photograph events for news and promotional publications. - Teach daily three-hour journalism course.- Design student-written publication and produce electronic slideshow.

- Photographed events including spot news, feature, political, sports, portraits, and stories. - Edited and prepared digital photographs with cutlines on deadline for daily newspaper. - Performed general assignment writing on deadline as needed.- Served as sports editor for weekly newspaper responsible for articles, stories, layout, editing and special sections.