Sir Ian Taylor’s technology journey began in 1957 when he recalls the arrival of electricity at his home in Raupunga, a small village on the East Coast of the North Island. He was 7 years old.  

Of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Pāhauwera descent, Ian attended boarding school in Masterton and began a business degree at Victoria University, which he left in 1968 to join the rock band Kal-Q-Lated Risk. After compulsory army training, he moved to Dunedin, working various jobs including as a forklift driver for Speights Brewery and a presenter on the children's TV program, Play School, while completing a law degree at Otago University.

From 1977 to 1989, Taylor worked as a presenter, producer, writer, and director for TVNZ. He then founded Taylormade Productions, creating regional commercials and corporate videos. When TVNZ closed its Dunedin studios, Taylor purchased them with a $500,000 loan and pivoted the company towards computer graphics after meeting Professor Geoff Wyvill who ran the Computer Science Department and computer graphics laboratory at Otago University.

In 1990, Taylor founded Animation Research Limited (ARL) with Wyvill’s top students – three of whom still work for the company thirty years later. Together, they revolutionised sports broadcasting with 3D, data-driven graphics, significantly enhancing the viewing experience of golf, cricket, yachting, motorsport, and baseball through their Virtual Eye sports division. Their first major project was a TV commercial in 1991 using a $15,000 hard drive with 1GB of memory. In 1992 they revolutionised the coverage of the America’s Cup with their real-time 3D graphics animations using a computer costing $500,000. Today the animations are delivered on a standard mobile phone.

Their international client base now includes most of the major television sports broadcasters and a growing number of sports franchises such as the PGA Tour, The DP World Tour and Major League Baseball.  

During the Covid lockdown, ARL transformed the way they delivered their Virtual Eye product to the world by building a remote studio operation in their Dunedin office that has significantly reduced their need to travel, reducing their carbon footprint, whilst at the same time expanding their opportunities in an expanding global market in sports.  

Beyond sports, ARL expanded into other industries including agriculture, architecture, and aviation. They developed software to visualise the rebuild of Christchurch City following the 2010/2011earthquakes. In 2004 they built a state of the art Air Traffic Control simulator for Airways New Zealand that is still being used around the world to train air traffic controllers.  

ARL also ventured into virtual reality and augmented reality applications, demonstrating their broad expertise in animation and real-time rendering. In this field they have won three Emmy Awards, including the George Wensell Emmy for Technical Excellence.  

In recognition of his contributions to broadcasting, business, and the community, Taylor was knighted in 2021. He has received numerous honours including induction into the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame (2009), North & South Magazine’s New Zealander of the Year, an honorary fellowship of the New Zealand Computer Society, Outstanding Maori Business Leader of the Year (2013), and New Zealand Innovator of the Year (2019). In 2022 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Commerce by the University of Otago.

Beyond business, Taylor is dedicated to education, healthcare, and encouraging Maori and Pasifika students to pursue STEM fields. In 2019, he launched "Land of Voyagers" to document the Polynesian voyage to Aotearoa, aiming to educate and celebrate Polynesian history. His online platform, Mātauranga, inspires young people to explore science and technology. In partnership with Methodist Mission South, ARL has funded and built a VR platform for teaching numeracy and literacy in prisons.  

Taylor has served on the boards of Māori Television, NZ On Air, the New Zealand Film Commission, IT Professionals New Zealand, the Dodd-Walls Centre, I Am Hope and the NZ Hi Tech Trust. He was also a member of Ngā Kuitūhono, the Māori Advisory Group to NZQA.

The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame is one of the premier business awards of Aotearoa.  Each year, between 6 and 8 individuals are inducted into the Hall to celebrate their significant contributions to the economic and social development of Aotearoa New Zealand. Individuals or Laureates will be formally inducted at a gala black-tie dinner on 11^th September.  For more information, or to purchase tickets/a table, visit: Business Hall of Fame.