Impact Presents: A Conversation with Ambassador Andrew Young and Bill Curry

Join us for our first Impact Talk of the semester featuring Ambassador Andrew Young and distinguished alumnus and former GT football coach Bill Curry (IM '64), which will be moderated by Chuck Easley (IM '86), Professor of the Practice at Scheller College of Business and a standout former GT football player. A reception will follow the conversation. The event is free and open to all. Please register using the form below.

Andrew J. Young has earned worldwide recognition as a pioneer in and champion of civil and human rights. Ambassador Young’s lifelong dedication to service is illustrated by his extensive leadership experience of over sixty-five years, serving as a member of Congress, African American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta, and ordained minister, among other positions.

During the 1960s, Young was a key strategist and negotiator during civil rights campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Appointed as an Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, Young negotiated an end to white-minority rule in Namibia and Zimbabwe and brought President Carter's emphasis on human rights to international diplomacy efforts. As two-term Mayor of Atlanta, Young brought in over 1,100 businesses, over 70 billion in foreign direct investments and generated over a million jobs.

Ambassador Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad and has received various awards, including an Emmy Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and the Dan Sweat Award in 2017.  His portrait also became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Ambassador Young also serves on a number of boards, including, but not limited to, the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Morehouse College, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State and Americas Mart. In 2003, he and his wife Carolyn McClain Young founded the Andrew J. Young Foundation to support and promote education, health, leadership and human rights in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean. Young currently serves as the Chairman of the Andrew J. Young Foundation.

In 2012, Young retired from GoodWorks International, LLC, after well over a decade of facilitating sustainable economic development in the business sectors of the Caribbean and Africa. Young was born in 1932 in New Orleans, and he currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn McClain. He is also a father of three daughters and one son, a grandfather of nine and a great grandfather of one.

Bill Curry played for Georgia Tech (1962–1964) and then played in the NFL for ten seasons with four teams: the Green Bay Packers (1965–1966), the Baltimore Colts (1967–1972), the Houston Oilers (1973), and the Los Angeles Rams (1974). Two-time Super Bowl Champion, after his playing career, Curry served as the head football coach at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1980–1986), the University of Alabama (1987–1989), and the University of Kentucky (1990–1996), completing his coaching career at Georgia State. Between coaching jobs at Kentucky and Georgia State, Curry was a football analyst for ESPN.

Chuck Easley is Professor of the Practice at the Scheller College of Business. A former Rhodes Scholar State Finalist, two-times Academic All-ACC, and three-time Letterman in Football, he has been named to the Top Ten Outstanding Young Atlantans, and was recognized for his service with awards like the Camp Fire Ember Award, Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumni, and Georgia Tech Total Person-Former Student Athlete of the Year. Chuck has extensive experience in strategy execution of supply chain optimization and design, business transformation, operations improvement, process improvement, and executive coaching. Chuck holds a BS in Industrial Management and a minor in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Georgia Tech graduating cum laude. He is a member of various academic honor societies including Gamma Beta Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma, and the ANAK Society, Georgia Tech’s highest honor.

Impact is a monthly series of meaningful, free and open conversations. The main goal of the series is to engage students, faculty, staff, and the broader community on topics that matter through discussions and presentations by leaders and entrepreneurs from all sectors. Past talks are accessible on the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact's YouTube page.