Mr. Robert W. Young
Inducted: 2016
Service and Career
Mr. Robert W. Young, the first of the 2016 inductees, served in many capacities within the U.S. Army where he made lasting contributions to the Army Operations Research community. He retired from Federal Service in 2004 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Cost and Economics under the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller.
Mr. Young’s impacts on the Army are abundant, and he is highly respected by his colleagues and across the ORSA community. Mr. Mort Anvari, Director of Programs and Strategy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management, reflected on Mr. Young’s influence: “Mr. Young is a visionary leader that built the Army cost community from the ground up, and now Army cost analysts and their works are a key component of the Army resource-informed decision process.”
Achievements
- Provided the Army with a reliable analytical basis for decision-making on Army-wide programs, generating billions of dollars in savings, cost reductions, and cost avoidance
- Conceived and established the Cost Review Board process for developing the Army Cost Position, ensuring a single authoritative estimate for major weapon and information systems milestone reviews
- Led the Army’s cultural shift from budget management to cost and service management
- Developed Force costing models to estimate operations and special missions
- Directed the creation of cost models for military and civilian pay for future budget requirements
- Improved Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) cost estimating by introducing performance- and effectiveness-based cost relationships, enabling cost trades
- Centralized Army cost research, tools, and models to maximize research resources and improve analytical rigor
“Through vision, leadership, and innovation, Mr. Young fundamentally reshaped the Army’s cost analysis enterprise—an impact that continues to guide decision-making across the Army today.”