Tobi Merritt Edwards Young

Tobi Young leads the global privacy team, manages government relations, and oversees regulatory legal affairs for Cognizant, a Fortune 200 digital services and technology company. Given Cognizant’s global technology presence, her work spans legal, legislative, and regulatory issues in privacy and regulatory compliance, immigration, workforce, banking, AI, global data privacy, and cybersecurity standards.

Tobi also serves on the board of the Cognizant Foundation, which implements Cognizant’s corporate social responsibility mission. The Foundation recently announced a new five-year, $250 million global effort to advance economic mobility, educational opportunity, health, and community sustainability and well-being.

Tobi is active in the technology industry, serving as a board member of the Information Technology Industry Council, the industry’s global trade association; a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center’s Technology Advisory Committee; and a member of the International Republican Institute’s Business Advisory Council. These organizations address emerging policy and litigation issues like data privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, and sustainability that surround technology advancement.

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. The position required a Top Secret-SCI clearance and frequent collaboration with the White House, Department of Justice, and the National Archives Records Administration. Tobi undertook these roles 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, she 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. She was a trial lawyer and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. During that time, she was selected as a U.S. delegate to the U.N. Civil and Human Rights and U.N. Convention Against Torture convenings in Geneva. Tobi began her career as the youngest Capitol Hill press secretary, for Rep. J.C. Watts, Jr., and then as communications director for Rep. (now-Sen.) 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, Tobi is a Co-Chair of IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network. 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.