Track Star Inducted

Ray Taylor ’07 made history his senior year when he became Cornell’s first NCAA individual track and field champion since Charlie Moore ’51.

For his athletic accomplishments in the triple jump, Taylor was inducted into the Cornell University Athletics Hall of Fame last fall.

Taylor says he chose to study at ILR for a number of reasons.

“The ILR program was quite interesting to me for a couple reasons,” Taylor said. “There was a big focus on industry and I was sort of a history geek. Secondly, my stepdad was a bus driver for a better part of 30 years and I always heard about unions, but from the son of a union guy, so my stepdad was excited his stepson was going to become a labor lawyer.”

At ILR, Taylor had the challenge of balancing the rigors of an Ivy League education with being an athlete.

“The quality that you have to develop especially at an Ivy League school is time management,” Taylor said. “There were plenty of times that I would have to finish classes, go to the library to get a few hours in and then practice 4:30 to 7. I would then eat quickly and then study.”

Taylor winning the national championships for the triple jump came during a season of hardships.

“I had a very challenging time leading up to that meet and nobody expected that type of performance from me, given all the things that I gone through,” Taylor said. “I still remember to this day my coach coming to grab me and crying after I got the trophy. It was one of those things that you think about in terms of historical context of something that had not been done at Cornell in many decades.”

Taylor enjoyed being part of a strong team.

“My last year at Cornell, I was team captain and led us to victory against our archrivals at Princeton,” Taylor said. “When you realize it was your last Ivy League championship it was very special.”

After Cornell, Taylor had one more year of athletic eligibility, but could no longer compete in the Ivy League because he had received his undergraduate degree.

“The next step was to see if I could make the Olympics,” Taylor said. “At the time, Florida State was the best track program in the country and the coach reached out to me from a friend of mine and we ended up winning a team national championship.”

At Florida State, he took more economics and finance classes to be ready for his role at Goldman Sachs.

After Goldman Sachs, Taylor moved to J.P Morgan. “I raised my hand for an international role in London that was originally going to be a three-to six-month project. We ended up doing quite well and I was asked to stay on longer.”

Six years later, Taylor continues to live in London and is a principal with KKR, a leading global investment firm.

Taylor learned about his induction into the Hall of Fame from a couple friends who texted to congratulate him, along with a note from Cornell Men’s Track and Field Coach Nathan Taylor.

“It was a massive surprise for me, my family and my coach,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s advice for current students is to have optionality in terms of skill sets.

“One of the worst things that you can do is just being immersed in just one specific major or minor and not expanding your brain,” Taylor said. “When I look at resumes, I want to see personality and flexibility, along with lateral thinking capability.”