Career
John Taylor was educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and studied engineering at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1956 to 1959. After graduating in 1959, he joined his father Eric Taylor's company Otter Controls as a Graduate Trainee, and it is said that he "soon revealed himself to have inherited his father's inventive genius".
When Eric Taylor died in 1971, his son took over as chairman of Otter Controls. He focused on the business of Castletown Thermostats, a subsidiary of Otter Controls, and in 1979 he split Castletown Thermostats and Otter Controls into two independent companies, with Taylor becoming chairman of Castletown. Two years later, Castletown Thermostats changed its name to Strix Ltd, and in 1984, Eddie Davies was appointed as Chief Executive, with Taylor remaining chairman.
Castletown Thermostats had started by making bimetallic thermostats for use in various industries. In the 1960s, the market for electric kettles was growing, and Castletown extended its manufacturing plant to produce and test a new device for controlling kettles. During the 20 years from 1979 until 1999 in which Taylor and Davies led Strix, the company developed several successful product series, expanded worldwide, sold over 200 million thermostat controls for electric kettles, and received several Queen's Awards and other awards.
In 2001 Taylor received an Honorary Doctorate at UMIST and was made Visiting Professor of Innovation in recognition of over 150 patents in his own name. He was also elected Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
In 2000, in a bid to expand into the new growth market of coffee makers, Strix raised £50m of capital from HSBC Private Equity by selling 40% of its shares, valuing the company at £125m. This investment diluted Taylor's shareholding in Strix to 24%. In 2005, ABN AMRO Capital led a leveraged buyout of Strix; the value of the transaction was not disclosed. Today, Strix employs 1000 people, holds over 600 patents, and turns over more than £100 million per year. Strix controls are incorporated into electric kettles from many leading manufacturers, and it is estimated that they are used over one billion times per day worldwide, by over 20% of the world's population.
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