Peter J. Taylor

Peter J. Taylor retired as president of the ECMC Foundation in 2023. He was founding president of the foundation, the mission for which is to inspire and to facilitate improvements that affect educational outcomes among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation. At his retirement, the foundation’s annual grantmaking budget was $65 million, with a focus on postsecondary education, emphasizing vocational education, and college retention. Previously, he spent five years as chief financial officer of the University of California. As the first CFO in the history of the UC system, he oversaw financial management for the $25 billion institution. Most of his career was in the investment banking industry, with nearly 16 years in municipal finance banking for Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, where he was managing director. Early in his career he was a legislative aide to the Assembly Majority Leader in Sacramento.

Active in the community, he served as an appointee of Governor Brown to the board of trustees of the California State University system, where he chaired the Finance Committee and Educational Policy Committees. As well as PPIC’s Statewide Leadership Council, he also serves on the boards of Edison International as board chair, Pacific Mutual Life Insurance, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, 23andMe, and the Western Asset Fund Boards. Previously, he served as chair of the board of directors of the James Irvine Foundation, chair of the board of directors of the UCLA Foundation, president of the UCLA Alumni Association board of directors, and alumni representative on the UC Board of Regents from 1998 to 2000. From 2006 to 2017, he served on the board of the J. Paul Getty Trust, where he chaired the Audit Committee for six years. He was a director on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, where he served one year as chair of the Audit Committee in 2013. In 2004, he was appointed to the California Performance Review Commission by Governor Schwarzenegger. From 2000 to 2002, he served on the board of the California Student Aid Commission as an appointee of Governor Davis. He received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and a master’s degree in public policy analysis from Claremont Graduate University. He is also a graduate of the one-year Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs.