Désirée Younge
Ms. Younge has over two decades of experience as a cross-sector senior executive in philanthropy, for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Her professional experience encompasses entrepreneurship, leadership development, poverty alleviation and economic development, practiced through venture philanthropy and impact investing business models.
With a career dedicated to designing, launching and scaling programs specifically impacting entrepreneurs, she has led high-performing teams globally, working with cross-sector stakeholders including corporate partners, government entities, and diverse funders, from angel and impact investors and venture capital firms, to family foundations. Désirée has served as a board member for non-profit organizations in the United States, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, and as advisory board member to several start-up enterprises worldwide.
As Vice President of the Tory Burch Foundation, Désirée designed, launched, and scaled the flagship Fellows Program for multisectoral, early-stage women entrepreneurs in the United States. During her tenure, she coached more than 1,000 women entrepreneurs. The majority of the Fellows she selected remain in business, have collectively raised over $75M in investment capital; and many have surpassed the industry average for women led businesses - $1M in annual revenue. Désirée managed the $50M+ loan capital fund in partnership with Bank of America, and the foundation’s education program in collaboration with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program.
In her role as the Director of Programs at The Tony Elumelu Foundation, she developed evaluation frameworks to measure effectiveness of all programs. Her work resulted in the creation of the flagship entrepreneurship program, the largest philanthropic initiative empowering entrepreneurs across the African continent.
As a cross-sector professional, Désirée joined Amazon’s Last Mile Team as a Senior Business Coach. She provided best-in-class support to launch and scale 50+ Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) Last Mile Logistics businesses (>$1M-$5M ARR) housed at Amazon Delivery Stations. She was appointed as the lead Senior Business Coach as part of the global program management team to launch Amazon’s E-bike delivery program in New York City. In this role, she co-created SOPs with business health, fleet management, and other value-added teams to improve agile systems and processes to speed-up decision-making by all levels of managers across the Last Mile Team.
Most recently, Désirée worked at Oatly Global’s Future Lab as Deputy Executive Director. She built and managed operational infrastructure with a budget of $5M and led 2 major cross-departmental projects: a global climate justice strategy, and a market segmentation analysis on the rise of black consumers of plant-based foods and beverages. As a Futurist, Désirée initiated and supervised investigations and pilot projects in partnership with experts on Web3 and Gen Z communities, Future Economies, ESG framework, Blockchain application, and a 2040 Economic, Political, and Consumer Futurist Report. As a result, the Lab presented strategic opportunities to C-Suite executives on how an agriculture dependent and publicly traded company could continue to grow sustainably and ensure a radical better future for all.
Désirée’s education achievements includes a TRIUM Global Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), awarded by London School of Economics & Political Science, NYU Stern School of Business, and HEC Paris School of Management. She also holds a Master of Arts (MA), International Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration (BABA).
