Stephen Youngwood

Steve Youngwood is CEO of Sesame Workshop, the global educational media nonprofit behind Sesame Street and so much more. He directs the Workshop’s efforts to deliver critical early learning through media, technology, formal education, and social impact programs. Under Youngwood’s leadership, the Workshop has dramatically grown its commercial and philanthropic efforts; greatly expanded the amount of content; entered the school curriculum market; increased licensing and themed entertainment efforts; expanded globally in China, Japan, Latin America, South Africa, Middle East, and beyond; and expanded investment in and supported mission-aligned start-ups.Youngwood has 25+ years' experience as a global senior executive working to advance businesses at the intersection of media, content, education and technology, including as President of Media & Education and COO at Sesame Workshop and Executive VP & General Manager of Digital Media & Entertainment Products at Nickelodeon/Viacom. He was also a management consultant for McKinsey and Co. and worked at Disney Education Publishing. Previously, he was a Board Member at Leapfrog Enterprises (NYSE) and Learning Resources. He holds a BA Cum Laude from Yale in History and an MBA from Stanford, is an Advisory Board Member at GSV Ventures, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the Board of Directors at BEGiN and the nonprofit Northside Center for Development.He lives in New York with his wife and three children.