Ronald L. Taylor is co-founder of the Keller Graduate School of Management and retired CEO and former member of the Board of Directors of Adtalem Global Education Inc. (formerly DeVry Inc.).
Taylor co-founded Keller Graduate School of Management in 1973 and served as CEO from 2004 until he retired in 2006. In 1987, Keller Graduate School of Management acquired from Bell & Howell the assets of the DeVry Institutes of Technology. Renamed DeVry Inc., the combined company completed an initial public offering in 1991. Taylor served as CEO of DeVry from 2004 until he retired in 2006 and remained on the Board of Directors until 2017 when Adtalem sold the DeVry and Keller divisions. For his years of service and contribution to DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management, Taylor was given the distinction of being named an Honorary Lifetime Trustee in 2022.
Taylor previously was the Commissioner for the Commission on Adult Learning and Educational Credentials, American Council on Education; a former state chairman for the Illinois Committee for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve; and mentor for the Next Generation Leadership Institute at Loyola University Chicago.
Likewise, Taylor is the former Chairman of the Proprietary Schools Advisory Committee for the Illinois Board of Higher Education; and was a consultant-evaluator, evaluation visit team chairman, member of the Institutional Action Committee and former member of the Accreditation Review and Investment Committee for the Commission on the Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of College and Schools. He also served two terms on the Board of Trustees of NCA, as well as on the boards of SPR Inc., La Petite Academy, the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, and the Better Business Bureau of Chicago & Northern Illinois, Inc.
Closer to home, Taylor was elected to the Hinsdale, Illinois Elementary School District 181 Board of Education in 1983 and re-elected in 1987. He was the board president for two years and served as the board’s finance committee chairman for six years.
In 1966, Taylor graduated Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree at Harvard University and his MBA at Stanford University in 1971, after serving in the Army as a commissioned officer in Vietnam, where he was a First Lieutenant. He was assistant Chief of Staff for Communications - Electronics at Ft. Leonard Wood following his tour of duty in Vietnam and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Taylor was also awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1998.
Taylor, a resident of Sarasota, Fla., is married and has four daughters and 10 grandchildren.
