Researching Ian Taylor

He was a member of the gold winning Great Britain squad in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, during which he was a teacher at Bromsgrove School. Four years earlier he won Bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also won silver with the England squad at the 1986 Hockey World Cup. In the European Cup with the England squad he won silver in 1987 and bronze in 1978.

Taylor has held a number of honorary roles within sports administration including Minister’s nominee on the Sports Council (with a UK remit), director of the GB ice hockey Board and a director of the British Olympic Association. He was also a commentator for BBC Sport between 1988-1996. He was previously the chief executive for sportscotland, following the departure of Ian Robson in July 2004. He was also the short lived CEO of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain but resigned over a policy introduced under his tenure that saw the pooling of samples.

Taylor was born in Bromsgrove, England, and was a student at Borough Road College, Isleworth, London. He returned to the college on several occasions to lecture and coach hockey. He has played club hockey for East Grinstead Hockey Club.

Taylor was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1981 as the Labor Party (ALP) member for Kalgoorlie. In 1986, he was appointed Minister for Health and also held the Aged Care, Lands and Consumer Affairs portfolios at various times. Following Brian Burke's resignation in 1988, he became Minister for Police in Peter Dowding's ministry, and on Carmen Lawrence's ascension to the premiership in 1990 he became Deputy Premier and Minister for Finance (although his portfolio varied during this time) corresponding to Premier Lawrence also being the Treasurer. Labor was defeated at the 1993 state election and Taylor became Leader of the Opposition in February 1994 when Lawrence resigned to enter federal parliament. He was succeeded by Jim McGinty in October. In 1996 he resigned to contest the federal seat of Kalgoorlie against Labor rebel Graeme Campbell, who defeated him as an independent. He was only the second WA Labor leader, and the first in over 90 years, not to take the party into an election.

In 2000, Taylor announced his intention to leave the ALP over the treatment of former Labor politician Larry Graham.

A philanthropist, mainly through his Taylor Family Foundation, he was a supporter of the performing arts as a force for social good. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Royal Opera House, whose schools matinées programme, providing subsidised tickets for children from poor backgrounds, he was responsible for creating and funding. He was a supporter of the Rambert Dance Company, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Academy and the Vitruvian Group, of which he was a founder member.

A long-term supporter of the Conservative Party, Taylor made donations to the Better Together campaign (for the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence) and to the Remain campaign (for the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU). In 2016 he was reported to have asked for his name to be withdrawn from consideration for a potential knighthood in David Cameron's resignation honours list; this was apparently in response to hostile media coverage.

A regular participant in the Speakers for Schools initiative, Taylor was a founding shareholder of the British Americas Cup bid.

The Sunday Times Rich List 2017 estimated Taylor's wealth at £180 million.