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Dylan Taylor (executive)

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Dylan Taylor
Taylor in 2018
Born (1970-10-23) October 23, 1970 (age 54)
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Arizona
University of Chicago
OccupationExecutive
Websitewww.dylantaylor.org

Dylan Taylor (born October 23, 1970) is an American executive, space tourist, and super angel investor in the NewSpace industry.[1] He is the chairman and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings[2] and former global president of Colliers International.[3][4][5]

Early life and education

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Dylan E. Taylor was born on October 23, 1970, in Denver, Colorado.[6] He grew up in Idaho where his father was a professor of metallurgical engineering at the University of Idaho.[7]

Taylor attended the University of Arizona where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1993.[6][7] He later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.[6]

Career

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Taylor began his career in Chicago working for the Swiss electronics company Saia-Burgess. At the time, he was only one of the few employees of the company working in North America. By around 2000, Taylor was a general manager at the company overseeing a few thousand U.S. employees. In the early 2000s, Taylor left Saia-Burgess to move back to Chicago where he joined LaSalle Partners, an investment banking and real estate services firm. He was promoted several times at LaSalle before he left in 2009 to join Colliers International, a real estate services firm based Toronto.[7]

While Taylor was at Colliers, the company grew from an annual revenue of $400 million to about $3 billion.[7] In 2011 and 2012, Taylor was CEO of Colliers International's operations in the US, and was based in Seattle, Washington.[6][8] He later became CEO of the company's operations in the Americas.[7]

By the time the company went public in 2015, Taylor owned a significant share of Collier.[7] From June 2015 to June 2019, Taylor served as Global President of Colliers International, before he was initially fired for misconduct relating to improper trading.[9][10] According to Ars Technica, a "subsequent investigation, however, found there had been no improper dealings", and "Taylor and Colliers issued a joint statement, amicably settling the matter."[7]

Space investment and flight

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Taylor became interested in the space industry in 2007 when he met Eric Anderson, co-founder of Space Adventures and became an investor in Anderson's ventures.[7] He was initially an angel investor and focused on the space industry.[11][12] His investments included in World View Enterprises in Arizona which is developing high-altitude balloons and Golden Spike Company in Colorado which planned to offer private commercial space transportation to the Moon.[13] Taylor, along with Mark Cuban, was an early investor in Relativity Space.[7]

In 2017, Taylor founded Space For Humanity, a nonprofit that plans to purchase seats on commercial spaceflight for people who typically would not have access.[7][14] In February 2017, Taylor became the first private citizen to manufacture an item in space when a gravity meter he commissioned and co-designed was printed on the International Space Station.[15] The item was subsequently donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.[citation needed]

In October 2019, Taylor founded Voyager Space Holdings, a holding company focused exclusively on the space industry. The firm has acquired several companies, including Altius Space Machines, X.O. Markets (parent company of Nanoracks), and The Launch Company.[16] Taylor serves as the chairman and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings.[17]

He was named by PitchBook as one of Top 10 VC investors in the space tech industry in 2019.[18] In 2020, he received the Commercial Space Business & Finance Award from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.[19][20] He has been interviewed and quoted about the future of the Space-related economy and space investing.[21][22][23] He has written articles for SpaceNews and other industry publications.[24] Taylor is also co-founding patron of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.[25] In June 2020, Xplore announced that Taylor, on behalf of Space For Humanity, had reserved payload space on its first mission beyond Earth orbit.[26][27]

Blue Origin space flight

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Taylor was among the tourists that flew into space on December 11, 2021, with Michael Strahan on Blue Origin NS-19.[28][29] Taylor was one of four paying passengers on the six-person crew that took a 10-minute flight. The New Shepard rocket launched the crew to an altitude of 351,225 feet (107,053 meters) and returned to back to Earth.[30] Taylor, along with the other members of Blue Origins NS-19, were the final recipients of the FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings,[31] an aviator wings-like badge created by the Federal Aviation Administration to encourage and draw attention to commercial space flight.

Personal life

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Taylor is married to Gabrielle V. Taylor. They have two daughters and live in Colorado.[6][32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sheetz, Michael (May 22, 2018). "How Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX beat Boeing to become a $28 billion aerospace juggernaut". CNBC. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  2. ^ Feldscher, Jacqueline (October 25, 2019). "New space holding company crafts acquisition, lobbying strategy". Politico. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  3. ^ "Colliers brokers look to better times in commercial real estate" U-T San Diego. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
  4. ^ "Doug Frye out as Colliers CEO just weeks after spin-off" Seattle Times. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  5. ^ "Colliers International Named Top Property Management Firm for the Second Straight Year" NASDAQ. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Colliers brokers look to better times in commercial real estate". San Diego Union-Tribune. October 8, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Berger, Eric (December 8, 2021). "Some "true believers" in space settlement are starting to make it happen". Ars Technica. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  8. ^ Kusisto, Laura (December 5, 2011). "A Shake-Up at Colliers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  9. ^ "Colliers fires head of real estate services for "improper trading"". The Real Deal. June 21, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  10. ^ "Dylan Taylor settles with Colliers". Real Estate Weekly. October 16, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  11. ^ "Rocketing prices: The investors eyeing the riches of space" BBC. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  12. ^ "CSF Launches Patron Program To Represent Growing Commercial Space Ecosystem" Archived February 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Commercial Spaceflight Federation News. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  13. ^ Cruddas, Sarah (August 11, 2015). "Rocketing prices: The investors eyeing the riches of space". BBC. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  14. ^ Feldscher, Jacqueline (October 25, 2019). "A 'skinny' defense bill could spell trouble for new space plans". Politico. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Cruddas, Sarah (February 17, 2017). "This Is the First Privately Commissioned 3D-Printed Object Made in Space". Seeker. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  16. ^ Alamalhodaei, Aria (May 10, 2021). "Voyager Space Holdings sets it sights on space stations with majority stake in Nanoracks". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  17. ^ "Space Holding Co. co-founder on why space could be smart investing move amid volatility". CNBC. October 3, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  18. ^ "To the moon and back: The top VC investors in space tech" PitchBook. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  19. ^ "CSF Announces 2020 Commercial Space Leadership Awards"[permanent dead link‍] SpaceRef. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  20. ^ "FROM THE CAPITOL" Politico. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  21. ^ "Space Investors Willing To Forgo Near-term Returns for Long-Term Payoffs" Space News. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  22. ^ "Private Space Station Coming Soon? Company Aiming for 2020 Launch" Scientific American. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  23. ^ "Space manufacturing and the last mile" Space News. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  24. ^ "Space for Humanity seeks 10,000 citizen astronauts" SpaceNews. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  25. ^ "CSF Launches Patron Program To Represent Growing Commercial Space Ecosystem" Archived February 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  26. ^ "Space investor Dylan Taylor reserves a spot for payload on Xplore’s first space mission" GeekWire. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  27. ^ "Xplore To Host Space For Humanity Payload On Its First Moon Mission" SpaceWatch. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  28. ^ Holpuch, Amanda (November 23, 2021). "Michael Strahan to Join Next Blue Origin Space Flight". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  29. ^ "Denver executive to fly to space with GMA host, others on Blue Origin rocket". Denver Business Journal. Archived from the original on November 24, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  30. ^ Grush, Loren (December 11, 2021). "Blue Origin launches Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley and others to space and back". The Verge. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  31. ^ https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight/recognition
  32. ^ "Gabrielle Taylor". The DGBM Taylor Family Foundation. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
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