Stephen Taylor is a Managing Partner of The Palo Alto Consulting Group. He has over 30 years of marketing, operating and boardroom experience in the computer industry, including five years as a venture capitalist, eight years in marketing and software development, and twenty years as a consultant to high technology companies.

In 1989, Mr. Taylor founded The Palo Alto Consulting Group, a high technology consulting firm that advises emerging growth companies in the software, Internet, communications, computer, and semiconductor industries. During the past 20 years, Mr. Taylor has completed over 350 engagements with more than 180 organizations worldwide. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs and senior managers launch new businesses, formulate effective marketing and corporate strategies, market products and services more effectively, and evaluate and consummate acquisitions and divestitures. While Mr. Taylor works primarily with start-ups, his clients also include Amdahl, Apple, Cisco, Fujitsu, Great Plains Software, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Informix, Intel, Intuit, Los Alamos National Labs, Linotype-Hell, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, Quantum, SDL, Sage Software, SRI International, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Verity, and Xerox PARC.

His consulting assignments frequently include interim marketing positions at firms such as RivalWatch (online competitive pricing information), dotFX (security software), NewsTin (information services), Intacct (SaaS financial software), Symantec (Internet tools division), State of the Art (financial application software), Verity (search and portal software), InterFax (enhanced fax messaging software), Vertex Design Systems (AutoCAD-based application software), Auspex Systems (storage systems), Informix Software (data warehouse division), and Berkeley Design Automation (EDA software).

From 1984 to 1989, Stephen was a partner at Xerox Venture Capital, where he financed and advised private companies such as Sequent Computer Systems, Catalina Marketing, Cymer, Imagen, Read Rite, NetFrame Systems, MicroLinear, Netwise, and ParcPlace Systems. His investments resulted in seven IPOs and two sales or mergers. As a consultant, he has helped spin out PlaceWare from Xerox PARC and Nuance Communications from SRI International and orchestrated the management buyout of Spectra Diode Labs (SDL) by Sprout Group. These three companies subsequently went public.

Stephen previously held marketing and technical positions at the minicomputer division of Sperry-Univac where he was responsible for pre- and post-sales technical support for operating system, database, communication, and transaction processing software products. His four years with Sperry-Univac included a 12-month assignment in Zurich, Switzerland. Early in his career, Stephen held marketing and software engineering positions at two start-up companies, DayFlo, a microcomputer software database company, and New World Computer, a microcomputer systems integrator and disk drive developer.

Mr. Taylor holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Information and Computer Science from University of California, Irvine, and an MBA from UCLA.