Business & Tech

InfoCision Management Founder Gary L. Taylor, 59

Taylor died Saturday; had been ill since a heart attack in 2009.

In 1982, Gary L. Taylor began a consulting company with his wife in the breezeway of their home. The company they named InfoCision was founded to develop telemarketing programs for its clients using an independent telemarketing contractor.

Today InfoCision is the second-largest privately held teleservices company in the world, employing more than 4,000 people in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The company provides direct marketing services for Fortune 100 companies and nonprofit organizations. 

Taylor, 59, died on Saturday. He became ill three years ago after suffering a heart attack, according to the company's website. The Taylors' son, Craig, has been InfoCision chief executive officer since October 2012.

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“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Gary,” Steve Brubaker, InfoCision chief of staff said in a statement on the company's website. “We have all lost a great friend and leader. Gary made this company what it is today through hard work, dedication and a strong sense of integrity. His mark is indelibly stamped on the industry, as well as on our company and its culture. The InfoCision Family will miss him more than anyone will ever know.”

Gary L. Taylor graduated from the University of Akron in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. In 1977, he earned his MBA at the University of Akron, while serving as a graduate assistant.

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Taylor also met his wife Karen at the school. The couple had been married 34 years.

In addition to InfoCision, Taylor was board chairman and majority stockholder of ST&P Communications, which provides advertising and sales promotion services to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.

Taylor was principal owner of Granite Golf Properties, which owns and operates Medina Country Club, the company's the flagship private club.

In the fall of 2004 the University of Akron opened the Gary L. and Karen S. Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing. In 2009, InfoCision Stadium, a state-of-the-art, multipurpose facility that seats 30,000 people. Gary and Karen Taylor made the anchor contribution to make the stadium construction possible.

In 2003 Gary Taylor received the Pioneers Lifetime Achievement Award for the positive impact he has had on the teleservice industry. The University of Akron awarded him the Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Award in 2003, and the Alumni Honor Award in 2006, the highest honor awarded to alumni by the university.

In 2005 Taylor received the American Teleservices Association Pioneer Award, and the Direct Marketing Association Teleservice Excellence Award. Also in 2005, Ernst and Young recognized him as an Entrepreneur of the Year award winner for the services industry, and inducted him into the Entrepreneurs’ Hall of Fame.

 

 


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