After law school, his judicial clerkships, and positions at two law firms, Young joined the United States State Department and served as Deputy Legal Adviser, Deputy Under Secretary for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, and Ambassador for Trade and Environmental Affairs in the Bush administration.[3] Among many other international agreements, Young worked on treaties related to German unification, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Uruguay Round negotiations leading to the World Trade Organization and Earth Summit.[6]
Following his State Department work, Young became a professor and administrator at Columbia University from 1994 to 1998 and George Washington University from 1998 to 2004.[3] His academic positions there included Fuyo Professor of Japanese Law and Legal Institutions and Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies at Columbia, and Dean and Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at GWU's law school.[7]
Young was president of the University of Utah from August 2004[7] to May 2011.[8] From 2011 to 2015, Young was the president of the University of Washington. He became president of Texas A&M University in May 2015.[9]
Young announced his intention to retire from the presidency of Texas A&M University on September 2, 2020 to be effective in May 2021.[13] In November, it was announced the resignation would take effect earlier on December 31, 2020.[4]
Young married fellow BYU alumna Suzan Stewart in 1972, whom he met during her freshman year while dating her roommate, and they are the parents of three children.[15] They divorced in 2010.
On June 3, 2011, he married Marti Denkers (Young).[16] Young's relationship with Denkers was the subject of some controversy: Denkers was a student at the University of Utah during the time Young presided over it,[17] and she was formerly married to Steve Denkers, a member of the wealthy Eccles family that has given hundreds of millions of dollars to the University of Utah over the years.[18]
^Tiffany, Scott, ed., City Saints: Mormons in the New York Metropolis. (New York: Nauvoo Books, 2004) p. 62
^Desmond, Theresa (Fall 2004). "Go West, Young Man". Continuum, The Magazine of the University of Utah. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
^'Incoming UW President Michael Young gets married', in The Seattle Times, June 7, 2011 [1]
Jon, Marmor (June 2011). "The Challenge of a Lifetime"(PDF). Columns Magazine: The University of Washington Alumni Magazine. 30 (6). Seattle, WA: The University of Washington Alumni Association: 24–27. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
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