Gordon Young

Editor in Chief, The Drum

Gordon Young is one of the world’s longest serving editors in the marketing business. As a fresh-faced teenager he co-founded The Drum in 1985, which has grown into one of the world’s largest marketing platforms. Early stories saw him report on the demise of hot metal printing, and interviewing the 96 year old widow of John Logie-Baird, the man who invented television. Since then he has reported on the digital revolution that has transformed both culture and commerce. He commissioned Sheryl Sandberg to guest edit an edition of his magazine, but perhaps one of the most exciting projects was when Watson, the IBM AI system, took the editors chair to create the world’s first magazine edited by artificial intelligence. Highlights, included an interview with David Ogilvy, which took place years after his death. His latest project is The Drum Labs, The Drum’s new innovation centre in Shoreditch, which includes CornerShop the retail store of the future, which is a partnership with Capgemini and SharpEnd. It servers as an interface for innovation between the virtual and physical realm.