Harrison Young

Born and raised in the United States, Harrison Young graduated from Harvard in 1966 with a job as a reporter for The Washington Post and an aspiration to have an interesting life. The Vietnam War derailed his journalistic career. He spent five years in the U.S. Army, becoming a captain in Special Forces, learning rudimentary Chinese and serving in Okinawa and Vietnam. 

He joined Citibank in 1971, moved to Morgan Stanley in 1975, and went on to become the U.S. government official in charge of failing banks in the early 1990s. Harrison was the CEO of China's first investment banking firm, served as vice-chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and Morgan Stanley Australia, has been a director of the Bank of England, chairman of NBN Co and a non-executive director of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He also led the restructuring of global online news network The Conversation in 2017.

Harrison has had a remarkable investment banking career spanning more than forty years. His career has seen him conduct business in twenty countries and advise twelve foreign governments on banking system matters. He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, and calls Melbourne his home. He's the author of four published novels, Partners, Submission, Nantucket and The Daughters of Henry Wong, and delights in collecting Australian artwork and paintings.