Muhlenberg College Hosts Guest Speaker Blair Taylor, Leading Business and Nonprofit Executive
The Muhlenberg community will host leading business and nonprofit executive Blair Taylor for a public lecture entitled "A World of Change: Ethics, Leadership and Global Citizenship in the 21st Century."
By: Iulia Tibrea Thursday, January 25, 2018 00:00 PM
The event is free and open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m., Wednesday, January 31, in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum.
With an impressive track record that spans over 25 years of expertise across the private, public and nonprofit sectors and a focus on building communities and helping them thrive, the upcoming lecture by Taylor will give the audience some insights into what ethics, leadership and global citizenship look like in the context of an increasingly interconnected world.
Drawing upon his extensive experience in the for profit, nonprofit and government sectors, Taylor will discuss the current prospects for today’s college students, including a framing of the political, economic and social environment and opportunities. He will identify the personal skills and attributes that will be cornerstones of a fulfilling and successful career in the 21st century.
Taylor is the former chief executive officer of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBK Alliance), a nonprofit launched by the White House and President Obama to advance communities of color broadly and boys and men of color more specifically.
Prior to joining MBK Alliance, Taylor served as a member of the Starbucks Coffee Company’s senior leadership team. He led all corporate social responsibility and government affair functions while also serving as the executive vice president of Starbucks Global Partner Resources and also served as chief community officer and president of the Starbucks Foundation, where he led Starbuck’s efforts to help communities thrive globally in more than 60 countries.
From 2002 to 2005, Taylor was the executive vice president of College Summit, a national college access initiative with a track record of nearly doubling the college enrollment rates of low-income students.
In 2014, Taylor was recognized by Fast Company Magazine as one of the nation’s most creative senior executives. He was also named a PR Week Top 50 Innovator (2013), a Non Profit Times Top 50 CEO (2008, 2009) and one of the UCLA Anderson Graduate School’s Top 100 graduates. For his groundbreaking entrepreneurial work, he was named as the state of California’s Mass Mutual Blue-Chip Entrepreneur of the Year (1999).
Taylor holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he recently completed a six-year term as a trustee and an M.B.A. in marketing and entrepreneurial studies from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, where he was recently named as one of the school’s most inspirational alumni (Top 100 Inspirational Alumni).
This event is sponsored by the Offices of the President, Provost, Advancement, Career Center, Dean of Students, Multicultural Life and the departments of Economics and Political Science.
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private, four-year residential, liberal arts college located in Allentown, Pa., approximately 90 miles west of New York City. With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences as well as selected pre-professional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health. A member of the Centennial Conference, Muhlenberg competes in 22 varsity sports.
