Because of her involvement in the college and impressive career, the Tippie College of Business has chosen Sue Taylor (MBA01) as the 2021 Tippie Alum of the Year.

Born a first generation Chinese-Canadian in a small town in Manitoba, Taylor has a passion for bringing a broad perspective to address complex problems. She has traveled to over 40 countries and as a lifelong learner and teacher, she leverages her international life lessons and technology experiences to mentor many, especially women in STEM.

Taylor has been with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a variety of roles since 2016. Most recently, as their chief information officer, she leads the team that develops, implements, and maintains all the enterprise applications and platforms supporting core business processes across the foundation. She has announced that she will retire in 2021.  

Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, she served as vice president of applications and business transformation at Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions, chief information officer, vice president of human resources at Intermec Technologies, and accounting leader with Fujitsu Business Systems and Allied-Signal.

Despite a full, high-level career, Taylor has been a supportive partner to the Tippie College of Business and its students. Examples of her involvement include serving on the Tippie Advisory Board and speaking in numerous classes, at college-sponsored conferences, and to collegiate groups both in person and virtually. She also helped the Department of Business Analytics secure a case sponsorship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the college’s 2021 Iowa Graduate Business Analytics Case Competition.

Since she graduated from the Executive MBA Program in 2001, Taylor has given generously to the college’s MBA program, the Tippie Excellence Fund, and the College of Business Scholarship Fund.

One of her nominators thought of Taylor when recalling the Maya Angelou quote, “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.”

“When I think of who resonates with this ideal, I think of Sue Taylor,” they said. “Sue has been a shining example of leaving a legacy on the students, faculty and staff at Tippie.”

The Alum of the Year honor of is awarded once a year to an alumnus of the Tippie College of Business who has achieved a distinguished level of professional/career success and is engaged in the life of the college.

Meet Tippie's 2021 Young Alum of the year, Roberto Paniagua.