Kevin Younis

Kevin Younis is Chief Operating Officer and Executive Deputy Commissioner at Empire State Development (ESD), New York’s economic development agency. In this role he provides leadership and oversight for critical ESD operational and programmatic functions. He is extensively involved in promoting the state’s long-term economic development goals and objectives, with a focus on business development, particularly corporate retention, expansion and relocation and working to ensure insure the State’s economic development efforts benefit all New Yorkers.

Younis has more than 25 years of experience in the public sector, focused primarily on economic development policy and operations, and has been with ESD since 2007. For more than seven years, Kevin has led the State’s efforts to strengthen and grow the semiconductor industry in New York State. He was instrumental in the creation and passage of New York’s Green CHIPS Act, the state’s pay-for-performance, semiconductor industry focused incentive program, and in the creation of GO-SEMI, New York’s centralized office formed to develop and advance policies to attract the semiconductor industry, supply chain, and skilled workers. Most recently, Kevin was named 2023 “Economic Developer of the Year” by the New York State Economic Development Council for his efforts to bring Micron technology to Central New York.

Prior his work in government, Younis taught English in Taiwan and worked with a youth public service program in Syracuse. He holds a certificate from Harvard University, an MPA from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and earned his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Cortland.

A native of Syracuse and lifelong New Yorker, Younis lives in Albany with his wife Erin and daughter Eleanor.