Merrill Mid-Atlantic Division Executive Craig Young represents the potential of wealth management, an opportunity he says he’s trying to pay forward to the next generation.
Young grew up hungry and even homeless for a time prior to playing football for the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He spent time after graduation in football coaching roles at Southern Oregon University, Princeton University and California State University, Sacramento.Then he broke into the industry more than a decade and a half ago as an advisor, eventually moving into management and joining Merrill in 2015. In December, Merrill appointed Young to lead the region covering 15 markets in five states and the District of Columbia with 3,200 employees and $2.3 billion in annual revenue. He credits his late mother for instilling him with the perseverance and values that led to his success.
In recognition of this month being Black History Month, Young spoke with Financial Planning Chief Correspondent Tobias Salinger about the people who have inspired him and how the industry can support more success stories like his in the future. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
FP: I love the phrase ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ because it recognizes how those who came before us helped us attain our position today. We are using that phrase a lot this month because it’s Black History Month. Who are some of the current or historical figures either in finance or other fields who have inspired you over your 16-year wealth management career?
Craig Young: The people who inspire me I likely never met. And what I mean by that is, these are going to be shoulders that I'm standing on that I didn't even realize I'd be standing on them one day, people who started in this financial services industry years ago.
We had a gentleman who retired from Merrill Lynch after 40, 42 years. He retired at the end of last year and, if it wasn't for him 42 years ago, there is no Craig Young here today. And so, for me, it's the unsung heroes. It's not always the one who gets the headline that I'm appreciative of.
I certainly do value those who are doing it in the most public way. But I think, in many cases, it's the unsung heroes who took the risk to begin in the career when it probably looked a lot, murkier, if you will, than when I started ,who have ultimately given me my opportunity. And then I would just pivot and say, to your point about standing on the shoulders, in thinking about it from an unsung hero perspective and recognizing that it's those who came before me that give me my chance, I do. I also recognize that, at some point, someone will be standing on my shoulders as well. And so, while I sit in the space now, meaning in a position of influencing wealth management, I have to be cognizant of what I'm doing within that space to make sure I'm creating opportunity for others.
That's how I think about it. When I think specifically about the day-in and day-out role models for me, it's advisors across the business. By that, I mean it's because they're providing so much for our clients and giving so much by way of opportunity for our clients to go out and live their lives. And it's special. This is a very virtuous business. I love the work that our advisors do, our client associates who are here day-in and day-out supporting clients as well. Those are like real heroes to me because they're on the front lines making an impact in people's lives. In many ways, it's the people who are just around me daily, and I recognize that clearly someone's going to be standing on my shoulders in the future. So I need to hold space and do things the right way in my current role.
FP: Building wealth is a civil right. Which figures from Black history do you think really spoke to that connection between wealth and all of our rights as Americans through their activism or their businesses?
Young: The greatest figure, that goes without saying, is Dr. Martin Luther King. While that may be someone who's spoken about regularly, I don't think there's any better figure that represents our progression as a people, both spiritually as well as economically, and stood up for our right to be, No. 1, treated as human. But part of what comes along with that is our ability to provide and have economic freedom along the way. And so as we saw him develop throughout his career, he went from speaking specifically about our human rights to our economic rights. And so those are the shoulders for all of us to stand on as we've come forward in financial services.
And just in terms of being able to provide for our families on a level playing field now, the reality is we still have more work to do as a broader company. You see us doing some of that work in the way that we ensure our leadership teams are reflecting the communities we serve and allowing that to trickle down to the way that we provide opportunities for others to join our firm. Specifically for me, if there's one figure that represents all of it, it would be Dr. King and all the work he did both from a human perspective, but then from an economic perspective. As we flash forward, we still have more work to do, and companies like ours are standing in a space to do that work.
FP: I’m told that your journey into your current role in December and your career overall has been anything but traditional and marked by a lot of grit and perseverance from the lessons you learned growing up. How would you describe your childhood and early career in football, and how has that background influenced your wealth management career?
Young: Look, statistics would say I shouldn't be in this interview. Right? But the beauty about life is that we don't live statistics. What I learned very early on is that you can build relationships. And when you operate at that really, really high level and consistently find common ground with the people that are around you, great things can happen, starting with what happens with yourself, where you can find joy and happiness yourself, and then you can convey that to other people.
Early on, I started in a really difficult way. I was the youngest of a big family with a single mother, and it was a very challenging environment to grow up in, no question. And football did give me my opportunity and provided me my way. I had some very strong football coaches who gave me guidance and some teachers who also gave me guidance to keep me on the right path, which got me to university.
And it wasn't until university where I actually had my eyes opened up to realize that there was so much I could achieve in this world. Coming out of that, I played football there and had a great career and learned a lot through football about life, with some of those things being what you heard me mention earlier. On a team, you have a number of individuals from all different walks of life, but all of the individuals walk into that room with one common purpose, and the common purpose is to win a game and to be a successful team along the way.
And then what we do as a team is, we put all of our individual pursuits to the side for the focus of the overall greater good. And that's the same thing when you think about what we do in business day in and day out. It's the same thing we do every day as a company on behalf of clients, in support of each other and you name it. Having grown up in a tough way, going to a university where many people typically think of me and people like me as just athletes, I had points to prove.
And so when I graduated university, I did what was natural and continued to operate in the sports world. But at some point, I wanted to branch out and do something different. And so for me, I did it for two reasons. One was because I wanted to challenge myself to get outside of just the realm of sports and to try to have success in a different way. And I thought my philosophical approach to life could translate from athletics into corporate America. And so it's a challenge, No. 1. But No. 2, I wanted control over the most important resource in my life, and that was time. I wanted to be in a profession that allowed me to live in a very virtuous way, philosophically in that you can really get to know people and support people and through those types of relationships, help people build wealth and then ultimately have success myself.
There have been some challenges, no question, along the way. Being a diverse leader in the industry can throw challenges at you, but I tend to find it's how you respond to those challenges that will define the way things happen for you going forward. And I've been fortunate to operate with realistic optimism in the way that I approach every day of my life so that I can continue to move forward.
And I'll finish by just bringing it back to the first question. Part of that is certainly in the way that I honor and respect those that have come before me. While I may think something is a challenge in this day and age, compared to what my ancestors went through, it's not. Then on the flip side of that, I have to be cognizant of the path that I leave. And I want to make sure that I'm taking on as much adversity to leave that path as wide as possible for everyone coming behind me.
Look, statistics would say I shouldn't be in this interview. Right? But the beauty about life is that we don't live statistics.
FP: Would you feel comfortable sharing a bit more about how you grew up in a difficult environment?
Young: I don't mind sharing at all. We were homeless. When I was in university, my mother came and slept on my couch because I had scholarship funds and had money to be able to do things based on having a Pell Grant and scholarship. There were many times as a young person where we would come home and there wasn't anything in the refrigerator. You have to figure out how to make it work, how to make ends meet. You know?
When I say that statistics would say that we shouldn't be here, I mean a lot of the people that I was around growing up are in very challenged situations right now in their personal lives. It was tough. So it's like, what gets you through? I don't know how in-depth we want to get here. But what gets you through? No. 1 is my mother's love, there's no question. No. 2, her teachings around me being grounded in who I am and understanding who I am and living my life with a purpose and having goals and values and things that are important to me, readings that she wanted me to go through and books that she gave me to read. These are not, you know, corporate books, but just personal books that ended up being on my values board.
Life was really, really tough and, ultimately, we persevered and we made it through. And I say "we." My mother's no longer with me, but it's her value system through which I live and demonstrate everything to the world. She's still living within me, and she's thriving, based on what she taught me.
FP: Fewer than 3% of executives, senior officials and managers in the finance and insurance industries are Black, according to data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So you’re one of about 2,600 Black senior executives nationwide out of more than 100,000 overall in those two industries. What does that mean to you, and why do you think you’ve been so successful in this industry?
Young: It means I sit in a position to influence, so that I should leverage the position of influence to ensure that number continues to get bigger. And so when I think about the work we're doing as a company, we talk about diversity and inclusion being a commercial imperative. We certainly understand the moral aspects of it, but from a commercial perspective, all of our businesses, including wealth management, we feel must reflect the communities that we serve. That starts at the top of any organization. As a board, we're 50% diverse. As a global management team of the broader company, we're over 50% diverse. When you think about our Merrill Lynch Wealth Management leadership team, we're over 50% diverse there as well.
And that matters because having diverse leaders at the top of the organization ensures that diversity is pulled through the fabric of everything we do. And so if you think about some of the things we do here as a business, we have different community groups within the company here that help support and draw our strategy along the way. One is our Black Executive Leadership Council, which is 200-plus highly engaged Black, African American leaders that come together with a focus on retaining, attracting and developing Black or African American talent across the company at its highest levels.
Our wealth management leader, Andy Sieg, is the executive sponsor of that. He understands the importance of everything we're doing. Then there's other groups we have as well. But if you think about the impact of our leadership council, our management ranks for Black or African American leaders at the top three levels of our organization have increased over 130%, and that's in large part due to the way this group essentially focused on it. It also reflects the fact that, from [Bank of America CEO] Brian Moynihan down, they want to create communities like this that can have an impact on strategy to create that type of change.
And so it's very powerful. When I hear you say "2,600," my mind immediately says, "We've got a talented group of Black professionals out there in corporate America." That number shouldn't look like that, but then the fast follow behind that is, what are companies doing about it? And what I love about our company is that we're taking a stand by having diverse leaders and then creating a business structure that allows those diverse leaders to own strategy that will impact diverse representation down the line. And it's being done at the highest level of the organization all the way through our Merrill Lynch business.
FP: You have been a chairman of the Merrill African American Leadership Council, and, as you mentioned, you’re currently a member of the Bank of America Black Executive Leadership Council. How can wealth managers like Merrill help more young people from historically excluded groups advance to leadership roles and build successful advisory practices?
Young: It starts with getting people in the door first. And then we have to create communities within companies that allow people to flourish and be successful. And we have to reward those people with increasingly bigger opportunities for them, and then repeat the cycle all over again. We partner with more than 200 external organizations to identify diverse talent, including the [Executive Leadership Council], the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the National Black MBA Association. We also partner with and recruit and support more than 60 Historically Black Colleges as well, because there's a lot of young talent on the campuses.
