FTG 0068 – PIVOT! With Engineer – Consultant – Entrepreneur Reed Taylor ’14

Overview:

Engineer Consultant Manufacturer Entrepreneur Reed Taylor ’14 Engineering joins Following the Gong from Connecticut to discuss his career story of pivoting from one role to the next, all while using his skills and experiences from being a Schreyer Scholar in Chemical Engineering. Learn how Reed went from making lifelong friends at SHO Time, participated in THON, and hit the slopes with the Penn State Ski Club before embarking on the first stages of a career in pharma, consulting, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship, with a stop at Harvard Business School mixed in. Reed shares great advice for any Scholar, but especially those with an itch to constantly learn and lead new things regardless of major. Reed’s bio is available below along with chapter markers detailing the topics discussed.

Guest Bio:

Reed Taylor ’14 is the Senior Vice President, M&A, Transformation and Strategy at Summit Wash Holdings in Norwalk, CT where he sources, researches, negotiates, and closes acquisitions of new car wash locations. He joined Summit when they acquired Soapy's Car Wash, which Reed owned with his investment partners at Saddler Capital. He also served at Vice President of Manufacturing at Spot & Tango, a human-grade pet food company, while running Soapy's Car Wash. Prior to that, he worked as Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group and Process Development Engineer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Reed earned a BS in Chemical Engineering with Honors from Penn State’s College of Engineering in 2014. He also earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is happy to speak more about mergers & acquisitions, entrepreneurship through acquisition, finance, consulting, or biotech. Please feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn.

Episode Topic & Chapters:

00:00  Introduction

00:44  Coming to Schreyer from a STEM high school in VA

01:37  Experiences at SHO Time

03:10  Deciding on an engineering discipline

05:47  Penn State THON

09:00  Using club experience in your career

10:37  Penn State Ski Club

12:55  The Honors Thesis!

19:32   Job searching as an Engineering student

22:03   Insights on entry level engineering roles

26:52   Deciding to go for an MBA

30:20   Advice for b-school for non-business majors

33:43   Consulting

38:10   Pivoting to manufacturing

46:12   Reed's career in car wash ownership

51:18   Lifelong learning

55:13   External trends in the car wash sector

01:00:58   Work life balance

01:03:22   Unasked questions

01:05:52   Biggest successes and failures

01:08:26   Thoughts on mentorship

01:09:44   Shoutouts

01:10:51   Reed's final piece of advice

01:11:51   How to connect with Reed

01:12:03    Which Creamery flavor Reed would be and why / Wrap up