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Twelve years later, Taylor recalls the 30-year journey his company, now a world leader, has been on by receiving one of the highest rewards on the New Years honors list, a Knight Companion of the Order of Merit of New Zealand (KNZM).
“In the Maori worldview there is a saying: ko nga tahu ao tapuwai inanahi, hei tauira mo apopo, which are the steps you put in your past to create the cobblestones of where you are today.
“Those steps and that worldview are always in front of me. It’s amazing to be sitting here today and looking back and seeing all those steps and seeing everyone who joined in those steps that made this possible. These cobblestones wouldn’t exist if a lot of things hadn’t happened here in Dunedin. “
One of those things was a pivotal moment in April 2008, when Mr. Taylor came into work planning to go out of business; he was $ 2 million in debt and a major contract had failed in India.
“I walked in and our receptionist, who is still here, was sitting at the front desk and she held up the newspaper and said ‘Look at this, how awful it would be.’
On the same day, Fisher & Paykel Appliances announced it would cut 430 jobs at its Mosgiel plant and Tamahine Knitwear revealed it would close, eliminating another 50 jobs in Dunedin.
“I looked at Liz [his wife, Liz Grieve] And I thought we couldn’t do that today And we didn’t. “
That night, he said he had an idea to fix the situation and the staff gave him their support.
A few weeks later, the America’s Cup resurfaced and the company won an air traffic control simulator contract to power it.
“If Fisher & Paykel hadn’t closed that day, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Taylor said his partner, Liz Grieve, had been a strong supporter of him and that none of his successes would have come without her.
Mr. Taylor is convinced that his knighthood is due to him being just the focal point and narrator for ARL and the staff “who actually wrote the story and continues to write it today.”
“I really know that none of this would have happened, I couldn’t get this done on my own because I don’t know anything. I’m surrounded by people who are much smarter than me.”
Many of the people who started ARL with Mr. Taylor are still there.
He gives a special credit to Graham McArthur, who took a chance with Taylor to buy his first TV One studio 31 years ago using a $ 500,000 bank loan.
He also gave credit to Dr. Geoff Wyvill, who told him in 1989 that the future of computer graphics was going to turn digital data into images.
“I had no idea what he was talking about,” Taylor said.
“And he said ‘Here are four students who will do that for you.’ Those four students are still here,” Taylor said, referring to Paul Sharp, Stu Smith, Craig McNaughton and Chris Haig.
Sharp and Smith wrote the code for the first America’s Cup the company worked on, in 1991.
“This is the year this honor is given, the America’s Cup is being played in New Zealand when it is announced and the two guys who wrote the code are here working on the America’s Cup in Waitemata.”
The ARL founder recognized Sir Eion Edgar, Murray Valentine and Graham Gosney for their support in the early years of the animation company as the first people to invest in it.
Taylor, who was named a New Zealand Fellow of the Order of Merit in 2012 for his services to television and business, was also recognized for his work outside of ARL. He is working on an initiative called Tech for Good, which develops technology tools for use in education and healthcare.
Mr. Taylor has helped create virtual learning environments for inmates in a collaboration between Dunedin Methodist Church and ARL.
For the Tuia 250 commemorations, he developed digital simulations of the recreated ancestral journeys made for the commemoration, and those virtual journeys were made freely available online.
