Born in
London, his father was a
Labour Party councillor at
Lewisham London Borough Council and his mother was a headteacher of a London comprehensive. He attended
King's College, Cambridge and received a masters in history. He began work as an
auditor for
Coopers & Lybrand in 1991 and qualified as a
chartered accountant three years later. He moved into investment in 1994, starting at
Barings LLC initially as a
financial analyst and then the manager of its Eastern Europe and Emerging Europe Trust funds. It was there that he found his specialty, managing the newly launched Nevsky Fund, initially with Rory Landman and Eoghan Flanagan, and then with Nick Barnes, with a focus on
identifying price inefficiencies. Management of the Fund was transferred to
Nevsky Capital LLP, which Taylor ran as his own company from 2007 onwards. Under his management, the Nevsky fund achieved an average annual USD net return of 18.4% for its investors from the period 2000 to 2015, over double the average of other emerging market funds. He initially focused on companies in the
former Soviet Bloc, investing in those deemed set to benefit from economic reforms as these economies democratized. His investments include Russian telecom companies such as Vimpelcom and assorted companies in the energy sector, including
Gazprom and
Lukoil. The Nevsky Fund then widened its investment remit after 2002 to all emerging markets, including Asia and Latin America, before then expanding the remit further after 2005 to also include all developed markets, such as the US and European Union. The Nevsky fund began as a $20 million
Cayman Islands-based vehicle and was later relaunched in
Dublin as a $800 million fund. In 2010, Taylor and Barnes announced their intention to close the long only $3.3 billion Nevsky Global Emerging Markets and Asian funds, citing unsustainable working hours, but continued to manage the Nevsky Fund. Taylor's career was covered by
Jack D. Schwager in his 2012 book
Hedge Fund Market Wizards. Taylor returned to investment in 2019 with a $1.6 billion fund under
Crake Asset Management LLP ==Political donor==