Taylor to depart the business this month after nearly nine years at the company
Data Select senior vice president Roy Taylor is leaving the distributor after almost nine years.
Taylor (pictured), who joined Data Select from 20:20 Logistics in 2006, made the decision following the news his wife of eight years Deb, had been diagnosed with stage four secondary breast cancer following three years in remission.
Taylor, who will leave the business this month, compared his wife’s condition to that of Rebecca Ellison, the wife of recently retired footballer Rio Ferdinand, who tragically died from the same disease in May, aged 34.
He told Mobile News while he was “very sad” to leave the business, his family must come first and receive his full devoted attention at this difficult time. Taylor has three children including a 17-year-old stepson who has a rare life-threatening condition called Friedreich’s Ataxia.
“I need to spend time with my family,” said Taylor, who would have celebrated nine years at the firm in September.
“There’s no cure for what she has and it’s now becoming more of a question of life-span.”
Family focus
“What happened with Rio’s wife and what I read, really crystallised everything in my head. My wife jokingly calls me a virtual husband, due to the demands of the job and time spent away.”
Taylor is now planning a series of holidays with his family, including visits to cancer specialists around the world,
including the US, seeking medical advice as they seek a “miracle cure”.
“We’ll go over there for a few months and see what opportunities may be available to us. We’ve been in touch with some clinics in Tampa and Jacksonville where there is more experimental trials going on. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
Taylor also reserved special thanks to Data Select owner Peter Jones (pictured right) who he described as being “incredibly” supportive. Jones informed staff of his decision to leave last week and has left the door open for a potential return in the future, should the circumstances be right.
“It’s sad to leave because we have achieved so much in such a difficult market.”
Jones added: “Roy has been taking some time off recently because of the sad news about Deb. Recently her condition has deteriorated and, last week, everything crystallised in his mind and he now needs to spend 100 per cent of his time with his family.
Full support
“We are all right behind Roy and will support him and Deb in any way that we can. I would like to genuinely thank Roy for everything that he has done for Data Select over the last nine years – it goes without saying that we will all miss his character around the place. From a business perspective, Richard Daly, the Brandpath Group CEO will continue to lead things and will ensure business as usual for our partners.”
