Young to retire as CEO of Watertown Family YMCA

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Denise Young, who has been the CEO of the Watertown Family YMCA for seven years, plans to retire.

The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon.

Young will step down on January 1, 2024.

She was a driving force behind the funding of the Downtown YMCA Community and Aquatics Center, which is currently under construction.

With the announcement of Young’s retirement, the Y’s deputy CEO Shawna Cutuli will be in charge of the day-to-day operations.

Young will remain CEO and will continue working on the community and aquatics center, with an expected opening in November of this year. She will also be assisting management in the transition.

On January 1, Cutuli will assume responsibilities as the organization’s CEO.

Following her retirement, Young will continue to serve as the project manager to finalize all outstanding commitments related to the construction project.

“We are fortunate to have had a highly capable CEO over the past 7 years and thank Denise for navigating our YMCA through the challenging COVID pandemic as we have undertaken this historic expansion project. We look forward to transitioning that leadership to Ms. Cutuli who has proven to be very capable in helping manage the daily operations of this organization. As a long-time YMCA leader, we have complete confidence in Ms. Cutuli’s skills and abilities to continue moving our YMCA and community forward,” the Y’s board of directors said in a statement.