Tobi Young

Co-Chair, WDN

• Areas of Expertise
• Women’s Democracy Network

Tobi Young has more than 25 years in government, regulatory, and legal experience.  Tobi serves on the Halliburton Board of Directors.  She is also Senior Vice President for Corporate, Regulatory, and Legal Affairs at Cognizant Technology Solutions and a Director on the Cognizant Foundation Board.

Before joining Cognizant, Tobi was General Counsel and Board Secretary at the George W. Bush Presidential Center, while simultaneously serving as General Counsel in the Office of the Former President. President Bush also appointed Tobi as his representative to the federal government under the Presidential Records Act. She worked frequently with the White House, Department of Justice, and the National Archives Records Administration and maintained a Top Secret-SCI clearance. Tobi undertook these jobs after having served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel.

In addition to her time in the White House, Tobi held important jobs in each branch of the federal government. She was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. As an Oklahoma native and proud member of the Chickasaw Nation, which has featured her for her government service, Tobi became the first enrolled tribal member to serve as a Supreme Court clerk in U.S. history. The Chickasaw Nation recently honored her as the “Dynamic Woman of the Year 2022.” 

Before that, as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tobi helped enforce laws against race, sex, and national origin discrimination in public education. She then served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, where she worked directly with the AAG to implement civil rights policies in voting, employment, religious liberties, and anti-human trafficking priorities. Tobi also managed congressional and public affairs for the Civil Rights Division. During her time at DOJ, she was selected as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the United Nations Civil and Human Rights convenings in Geneva, Switzerland.

Tobi began her career as the youngest press secretary on Capitol Hill working for Representative J.C. Watts, Jr. She also served as communications director for now-Senator Jerry Moran.

Tobi earned her B.A. from The George Washington University and her J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she has also been an adjunct professor and was honored to give the 2016 commencement address.

Outside of Cognizant, she serves as a Co-Chair of IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network and on IRI’s Business Advisory Council. Tobi is also a board member of the Information Technology Industry Council and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center’s Technology Advisory Committee. She served as Justice Gorsuch’s legal agent for his New York Times’ bestseller—A Republic, If You Can Keep It—and traveled with the Justice across the country to speak about the book. In Austin, she has been active in supporting children through organizations like Literacy First and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.