Bernard Taylor

Bernard Taylor CVO CBE DL DCL FRSC has served as Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire since 2011. He is part of the Lieutenancy team focused on South Oxfordshire and holds the Lieutenancy’s science and University brief for the County.

Bernard studied chemistry at St John’s College, Oxford. Since that time, he has accrued more than forty years’ experience of corporate business and finance experience at Smiths Industries, Baring Brothers, Robert Fleming, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Evercore.

Bernard has also been active for many years in the charity world, with a particular interest in education, science, heritage, and the arts. Nationally, he is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Royal Society, having formerly served as Chair of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. He has also served as Director of the ERA Foundation, which supports engineering skills development. In 2017, his work the ‘Taylor Review of the Sustainability of English Parish Churches and Cathedrals’ was published, and it is now being piloted in selected regions around the country.

Within Oxfordshire, Bernard has served as Co-Founder and Chair of ISIS Innovation, which manages the University of Oxford’s technology transfer and consulting activities. Additionally, he was one of the first Lay Trustees of the University and has been a member of senior University committees and a Deputy Steward of the University since 2012. He is an Honorary Fellow of his old college, St John’s, and Chairman of their Development Committee. Bernard has also served as Chair of the Ashmolean Museum and Garsington Opera and is now a Patron of the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust. He was for many years a director of Oxford Instruments and is now Director of the investment company Oxford Science Enterprise and Chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority of Harwell Campus in Culham.

Bernard lives in Rycote Near Thame with his wife Sarah.