Steve Taylor, HBS '71, Section I update

Above: Margaret and Steve Taylor. Park City, UT. Summer 2019.

Dear Class of '71, Section I, Scribe,

Margaret and I have been retired since 1998. Since 2003 we have lived full time in Park City, Utah. Our two married children, daughter and son, with five children between them, live nearby.

Post HBS, I spent twenty years with Citibank. The first fourteen of the Citi years were spent outside of the US, including Lebanon, India, Australia, Philippines and Japan. We returned to the US in 1985 where, before leaving Citi in 1991, I ran, from McLean, VA, Citi's Mid Atlantic mortgage originations, was CEO of Citi's Miami, Florida thrift and finally, senior credit policy officer for Citi's US Consumer Banking Group, based in New York City.

In 1991 I left Citi and returned to Miami where I became CEO of a publicly traded, troubled thrift, American Savings of Florida (ASF). With a little help from forbearing regulators, an engaged bankruptcy trustee, and the Fed's reduction of interest rates, we were able to keep the bank from the clutches of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). While at ASF, I served for two years on the Thrift Advisory Board to the Federal Reserve Bank, travelling quarterly to Washington, D.C to brief Fed head Greenspan and Fed Governors on the state of the thrift industry.

In July of 1995, ASF was sold to First Union Corporation. The sale of ASF created a liquidity event for our family giving us some flexibility in making future life plans.

While maintaining Florida residency, taking a break from daily tennis playing at a club where we were part owners, I took a position in 1997 as CEO of National Insurance Premium Finance Company (NIPF) in Mesa, AZ. Eighteen months later,1998, on my recommendation, NIPF's VC owners decided to liquidate the company, with all creditors being paid in full.

Since becoming a full time resident of Utah in 2003, I've served on a couple of Utah bank boards. I currently serve on the board of a Park City based non-profit which provides assistance to the families of fallen Utah police officers, "Utah 1033 Foundation." We're Hoover Council members at the Hoover Institution and enjoy attending Hoover's semi annual retreats at Stanford, University in Palo Alto, CA. We're investors in a couple of west coast based private equity funds and go to San Francisco every year to Limited Partner meetings to hob nob with some of the most creative people in the world. We are supporters of several Park City non-profit initiatives.

We've done our share of cruises and travel to India frequently.

Twenty years ago, I teamed up with some Chicago based motorcycle aficionados and have done motorcycle expeditions in countries too numerous to mention here. Margaret has been a willing good sport on some of these trips. In 2015 she rode, seated behind me, on a BMW R1200 GS Adventure motorcycle, as we toured Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and a few southern Russia Republics: Dagestan, Chechnya, North Ossetia and Ingushetia. I've ridden a BMW F800 GS motorcycle from Park City to Alaska and back a couple of times.

I coordinate a morning ROMEO (retired old men eating out) coffee group at Wasatch Bagel in Park City. Our scheduled AM speakers have included Fortune 500 CEO's, Silicon Valley pioneers, nationally recognized economists, a Federal Reserve Bank head, Boeing's chief engineer, and US senators and congressmen/women. One recent speaker was Brian J. Cole, MD, head of the Rush Orthopedic Clinic in Chicago. "Want to live a long life?" Dr. Cole asked. "Don't get injured and don't be obese."

Over the last ten years I have skied at least a million plus vertical feet a year at Deer Valley (Park Citi, UT)… my winter morning regimen when I'm in town. In summer, default exercise is walking and hiking. I encourage any Section I classmate coming to ski in Park City to get in touch for a ski date.

I try to keep up on reading. I'm currently plowing my way through Bernard Cornwell's twenty novel series on British soldier Richard Sharpe as he follows Arthur Wellesley, The Duke of Wellington, over his twenty year military career in India, Spain, and, of course, Waterloo, in Belgium.

Today, our five grand children are the best part of our lives. In February 2020, Margaret and I traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where our thirteen year old percussionist grandson's salsa band, La Onda Carabina, was a participant at the Puerto Vallarta Jazz Festival. Another grandson, nine, recently completed an extensive Lego construction of the Taj Mahal for his school presentation on India.

Many thanks to Scribe Steve who has done a masterful job keeping Class of 71, Section I in touch.

Steve Taylor
09 March 2020
Park City, UT

-----Original Message-----
From: Mr. Stephen B. Wyman via HBS Alumni Messaging <[email protected]>
To: staylor326 <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, Feb 24, 2020 10:09 pm
Subject: Notes

Harvard Business School
MBA 1971, I
From:Mr. Stephen B. Wyman
Sent: 02/24/2020
To: MBA 1971, I
Subject: Notes
Message Purpose: Keeping in touch
Folks, there is a month before the next set of notes is due at the school. News from you will will save people from being forced to read my musings on nothing in general.
So please write
Thanks,
The Scribe

https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/