A seasoned professional, Paul Taylor brings over 35 years of cross-sector experience in financial services, education, technology, and more. From leading enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, to operating model overhauls across blue-chip firms, Paul’s expertise is unmatched. Parallel to this, Paul Taylor is also an acclaimed speaker, mentor, author, and Open University Associate Lecturer in Technology Management, delivering expertise with strong communication and thought leadership.
Career Trajectory of Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor started his professional journey in 1988 joining the IT department of a well-known UK private bank. As a small bank offering a wide range of services, he got an exposure to a wide range of businesses, people, and technology in his first role.
Eventually, he spent over two decades working for various financial services firms, becoming Head of Software Development for a large bank’s European subsidiary that performed outsourcing. After considering taking a risk, he decided to go freelancing. Initially, Paul worked as a project manager across financial services, working on various projects such as outsourcing, product launches/changes, technology, regulatory changes, interim management, and more.
He reflects, “Once I was reasonably comfortable working as a freelancer, I decided to transition my career to a portfolio structure with several roles.” Currently, his portfolio career covers Consultancy and Project Management work, Chair, Trustee, NED, and Board advisory roles. Paul also offers his services across education and teaching landscapes, speaks and hosts conferences, writes books and articles – authoring five books so far, and even mentors people on a 1-2-1 basis.
Spark Behind the Journey
Speaking about his journey as a freelancer over the years, Paul mentions, “I decided to go freelancing in 2007 with an initial focus on change and project management in the Financial Services area. However, after a while, I decided to evolve into a portfolio career, which has allowed me to cover teaching, chair, NED, board advisory, writing, mentoring, and speaking activities. Apart from giving me some variety, it has helped me develop, which has allowed me to give a better service to customers.”
Current Offerings by Paul Taylor
With a wide range of services to offer, Paul believes his top-notch offerings include, Consultancy and Project Management work, covering value for money, being honest and doing the best job for his clients. Moreover, in the education and teaching sectors, apart from sticking to the scope of the course, Paul tries to be as open and accessible to his students, ensuring they do not feel alone and feel supported. In his speaking roles or while hosting conferences, Paul focuses on trying to speak about real and pragmatic issues as opposed to high-level theories or thoughts, as he believes that the listeners will enjoy this.
Sharing about his mentoring services, Paul states, “The key point in mentoring is trying to understand what the real issue is, so we can work out how to address the problem. This can be awkward if the issue is challenging. Therefore, tactful questioning is required.”
Recently, Paul has finished an important project at a large UK Wealth Manager, which involved outsourcing changes, product mergers, and rolling new technologies around cost/charges and dealing. Regarding his Chair, Trustee, and NED work, he still works with one firm that supports gambling addiction awareness, and has even started working on advising a smaller consultancy, and working with a charity that focuses on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.
He adds, “I am due to receive my next batch of students in October 2025, so I will start preparing for them in late September. Finally, the gap in consultancy work has allowed me to focus on writing a lot more articles, which are appearing on my website.”
Staying Updated with the Latest Trends
To keep his services fresh, innovative, and in step with the latest industry trends and technologies, Paul prioritizes constant learning and development. He believes the only constant thing in life is that it is constantly changing, which covers technology, the political landscape, customer behaviours, regulation, and more. Therefore, it is important to keep learning to ensure the skills, behaviours, attitudes and understanding are up to date as possible.
The second area, as Paul believes, is to always provide the best service to the clients, regardless of whether they are a regulator, a large enterprise, or a retail client, as without clients, no business can exist. He comments, “The final is to remember the human side. Nearly all the work I do involves working with people, whether they are clients, suppliers, colleagues, students, regulators, or industry peers. Therefore, it is important to understand how people feel, how people are motivated, what other issues they have, etc, so you can align your behaviour appropriately.
There is a fourth trait, but that is to be a nice person. Nice people do succeed.”
Words of Wisdom for Beginners
Looking back, Paul Taylor offers a piece of advice which he wished he had when starting out—and would like to pass on to new entrepreneurs today. “There are many pieces of advice that I would give, but the key point I would stress is to study and learn from other people, both good and bad. This could be reading about them, watching videos, or working with them to understand how they work at close quarters. Learning from other people provides a good learning source,” Paul shares.
Connect with Paul Taylor on LinkedIn to learn more.
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