We are thrilled to welcome Teri and Chris Taylor as this year’s Austin Game Changers Co-chairs!
Teri’s life so far is series of wonderfully-timed sharp right turns. Born a Texan, Teri attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts where she received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Seeking a warmer climate she skipped across the country to start a career at a large advertising agency in Los Angeles, working for her first love, the automotive industry. She then crossed over to the client side to join Nissan North America, Inc. as a leading member of a global cross-carline design team in charge of developing early-phase vehicle design and development requirements for everything from drivetrain performance to interior color schemes. She then moved to Nissan’s global Perceived Quality team, working with her global Nissan, Inc. counterparts to develop design standards influential to a consumer’s perception of vehicle quality. Life took a fun turn with her move to Austin and the birth of her two girls, just one year apart. Taking time away from a full-time career to see them enter school, she’s now turned her attention to her second love: fitness. As the founder of Row On Austin, an indoor rowing studio that combines strength training with indoor rowing, she’s had the opportunity to see first-hand how fitness can improve the quality of someone’s life. But she still finds plenty of time to tinker with fun cars!
For Chris Taylor, the entrepreneurial spirit took hold early on. As a fourth-grader in rural West Virginia, he launched his first business, the Taylor Turtle Ranch, which housed and fed turtles caught by neighborhood kids. As his peers lined up to pay “rent,” Chris became hooked on startups. In 2006, Chris started Square Root in Austin, Texas with the goal of making enterprise data more actionable. Today, Square Root is a leading edge enterprise SaaS provider that leverages data science to deliver intelligent software that empowers large companies to optimize operations. With a rapidly growing client list that includes some of the biggest players in automotive and retail, Square Root was named the 2nd best company to work for on Fortune’s annual Best Small and Medium US Workplaces list. As the CEO of Square Root, Chris gets to do what he loves: make meaningful improvements at huge companies. Before Square Root, Chris graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Carnegie Mellon and held operational and strategic roles in several Internet and software startup companies, including: Trilogy, TrueCar, carOrder.com, and Brighthouse.
For more information about this year’s Austin Game Changers, visit our Game Changers page.