James Taylor was raised on a family cattle ranch in Southwest Oklahoma; graduating from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education and matriculating graduate work from Kansas State University in Psychology. Following teaching school and coaching sports, Mr. Taylor served as a Surface Warfare officer in the U.S. Navy transitioning with more than 20 years of service as a decorated Veteran (O-6 / CAPT). His Navy assignments included leadership positions aboard ships, submarines and aircraft carriers; shore duty and joint combined assignments in the U.S. and overseas, and two joint duty assignments with U.S. Central Command and U.S. Strategic Command.
Mr. Taylor military, civilian and government experience in the US and overseas provided him with a wealth of corporate, government organizational knowledge, technical research and scientific applications, diverse cultural & human resource exchanges, and successful business-to-business opportunities. Mr. Taylor worked in corporate, academia and private business industry before becoming a federally trained Veterans Representative and Program Manager with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. He served as the Program Manager for America’s Jobs Center / Oklahoma Works Workforce Office in Lawton.
In 2018, Mr. Taylor began his position as a Small Business Management Coordinator with CareerTech at Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton in Business Development, Marketing, Human Resources and Business Plan Incubation.
In 2019, he began developing the business to business integration concept and now serves as Director for the Fires Innovation Science & Technology Accelerator (FISTA) Innovation Park in Lawton (under the FISTA Development Trust Authority) to directly support Fort Sill’s Fires Center of Excellence, U.S. Army Futures Command and the two Cross Functional Teams (Long Range Precision Fires and Air & Missile Defense) creating high-tech jobs in R&D, S&T through a collaboration of industry, academia, defense and defense-related organizations.
He currently serves on local and state boards and committees including Lawton Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce, USO Oklahoma, and President, FIRES Chapter – Association of the U.S. Army.
Mr. Taylor is married to the former Karlin Gumapac.