Clifford Young is President of Ipsos Public Affairs in the United States, and also leads Ipsos global election and political polling risk practice. His research specialties include social and public opinion trends, crisis management, corporate and institution reputation, and election polling. He works with a wide variety of corporate, government, media, and political clients.

Young is considered an expert on polling in emerging markets, as well as polling in adverse and hostile conditions. Before coming to Ipsos Public Affairs North America, he was Managing Director of Ipsos Public Affairs Brazil, where he started the practice for Ipsos. Young has polled on over 100 elections around the world; most recently he successfully completed polling on 25 races for the U.S. midterm elections in 2010, the Nigerian Presidential and Gubernatorial elections in 2011, the Federal and Parliamentary elections in Canada in 2011, as well as the Egyptian and Kuwaiti Parliamentary elections in 2011/2012.

Trained in survey sampling and survey methods design, Young has led on more than 50 full sample designs in the following countries: Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Afghanistan, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and New Caledonia.  He is a frequent writer, analyst, and commentator on elections, electoral polling, and public opinion.

Cliff earned his BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and did his graduate work at the University of Chicago (MA and PhD). He trained in survey sampling at the University of Michigan and in political psychology at Stanford University. Cliff is also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS and an instructor at both Columbia University SIPA and University of São Paulo where he teaches courses on public opinion and election forecasting.