2022 Annual Report 2022 | Page 30

Tom Taylor ‘ 84 inducted to the Academy Engineering Excellence for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering

Virginia Tech ’ s College of Engineering recently inducted five members into the Academy of Engineering Excellence , including Tom Taylor ‘ 84 .
Taylor and the rest of the cohort were selected from the more than 74,000 living Virginia Tech engineering alumni . Academy members have made sustained contributions in engineering and leadership throughout their accomplished careers .
Mechanical engineering seemed to be Taylor ’ s destiny from a young age . “ To my mom ’ s consternation , I was always taking something like a car or refrigerator apart and mostly putting them back together ,” Taylor said .
His lifelong belief in Ut Prosim ( That I May Serve ) began his first year on campus when a classmate encouraged him to join the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad .
PETER MEANS FOR VIRGINIA TECH
“ The people I worked with and the service we provided on campus was the most rewarding thing I did in college ,” Taylor said . “ I went on to become the president of the squad . An early experience in people leadership .”
Taylor , the senior vice president of Alexa for Amazon , has worked at the company for over 20 years . During that time , he has held multiple roles at the company , including launching and growing the Fulfillment by Amazon program that allows online sellers to utilize Amazon ’ s numerous huge warehouses to store and ship the products they sell through the Amazon website . When he looks back on the winding path that brought him to this point , he attributes his success to curiosity , good health in body and spirit , and a little bit of serendipity .
“ Leading a 10,000-person organization at a Fortune 5 tech company with a vision to develop general artificial intelligence is certainly not what I was planning when I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1984 ,” Taylor said . “ Staying curious and always raising my hand to try new things has been an important element of getting here .”
Throughout his career , Taylor has obtained five patents — three for anti-lock brake systems while working at General Motors and two for manufacturing services provided online during his time at Amazon .
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