Mel Young is a social entrepreneur and has been for most of his life. He is a change-maker and believes passionately that homelessness around the world can be ended.

He currently has three roles:

President of the Homeless World Cup, which he co-founded in 2003. Under his leadership, the organisation has expanded all over the world and now has partners in 75 countries, touching the lives of over 100,000 homeless people every year – more than one million people in the last decade.

There have been 17 annual events across the world since 2003, including Cardiff in 2019, Mexico City, Rio, Paris, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Santiago, Melbourne and Milan.

Chairman of Sportscotland – the national agency for sport in Scotland. Sportscotland sees a country where sport is a way of life, at the heart of society, making a positive impact on people and communities.

Mel is passionate about the role of sport in changing the world for the better. He believes that the values which underpin sport can bring communities together and create a positive culture for society. Sport in itself is inspiring and there are hundreds of stories about how high-performance athletes have encouraged the wider community to get involved.

Mel is also a writer, blogger and speaker about social innovation and the power to make change. His book about the Homeless World Cup (Home Game) was published by Luath Press in 2017.

Previously, Mel worked as a journalist, editor and publisher. He co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland and is the former President and Honorary President of the International Network of Street Papers which he co-founded. He was also co-founder of Senscot (Social Entrepreneurs Network Scotland) and is a former member of the World Economic Forum Sports Agenda Council and former non-executive director of Glasgow Life.

He has been a Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum since 2001 and was named a Senior Fellow by Ashoka in 2014.

Mel has five honorary degrees from Scottish universities, and was awarded the Jackie Robinson Humanitarian Award from the United States Sports Academy in 2016.  In 2017, he was awarded an MBE.

If you are an organisation interested in booking Mel to speak, you can contact his agent Debbie Byers at Speaker Buzz on debbie@speakerbuzz.co.uk or +447880 300 309. More information about his talks is available here.