Ian taylor: 1956-2020

摘要

Ian Taylor, the chairman and former chief executive of Vitol who has died aged 64 after a long battle with illness, was a pivotal fgure behind the growth in the im- portance and infuence of the merchant oil trading sector over the past 30 years. A mix of charm, political instinct and business acumen helped Oxford-educated Taylor turn Vitol into a global commodities trading titan with close commercial re- lationships with major oil producers worldwide. More importantly, he was one of a handful of executives credited with making oil trading a more respectable business. “His abiding achievement was that he turned a buccaneering commodity trading industry, with a well-deserved reputation for being sleazy and unethical, into a re- spectable career choice for smart young people,” Argus publisher Adrian Binks says.