Director of HP Labs Bristol Appointed Top Science Advisor to UK Government

Business Wire, August 5, 1998

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 5, 1998--Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that John M. Taylor, director of HP Labs Bristol, HP's European research center, has been appointed Director General of Research Councils in the UK's Department of Trade and Industry by Secretary for Trade and Industry, Peter Mandelson.

In this key position within the Department's Office of Science and Technology, Taylor will advise Mandelson on strategies for using the government's $2.19 billion budget for science, engineering and technology research in UK universities and research institutes.

The appointment, a three-year assignment, begins Jan. 1. In announcing the appointment, Mandelson cited Taylor's extensive experience in computer and communications research in both government and the private sector.

Taylor received his doctorate in Electrical Science from Cambridge University in 1969, and has held various high-level research posts in the UK Ministry of Defense, becoming head of the Command, Control and Communications Department in 1981. In 1984, he joined HP Laboratories Bristol as the director of the center's first lab, the Information Systems Lab. He became director of the center in 1986.

Under his management, HP Labs Bristol has grown to represent roughly a third of HP's central research activities and now focuses primarily on two strategic technology areas: Internet computing and personal information systems. In addition, Taylor has established extensive external and collaborative research activities in European and U.S. universities, including the Basic Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in conjunction with Bristol University and the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. HP Labs Bristol also is credited with the development of several core technologies that have led to new businesses for HP, including the Telecommunications Systems Division in South Queensferry, Scotland.

"Citizenship is one of our corporate objectives, and I'm delighted that John has elected to accept this important post," said Lewis E. Platt, HP chairman, president and chief executive officer. "I'm confident that he will serve the British government with distinction."

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