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Cox Enterprises names Alex Taylor as CEO

Alex Taylor

ATLANTA — The next president and CEO of Cox Enterprises is Alex Taylor, the company’s chief operating officer and the great-grandson of founder James Cox.

Taylor, 42, will take charge of the Atlanta-based media, cable and auto services company on Jan. 1, 2018, said Cox Enterprises Chairman Jim Kennedy in an announcement Wednesday. Taylor will replace John Dyer, who is retiring after 40 years with the company.

Taylor said he wants to continue strengthening the family-owned business for future generations.

“A lot of companies think quarter to quarter,” Taylor said. “We want to make sure that we optimize our operations, but never at the expense of the long-term health of the company.”

Taylor, who has held numerous positions within the company, said he’ll seek greater collaboration among its various businesses, as he did when he led the integration of television, radio and newspaper operations at Cox Media Group and unified the field operations of disparate cable systems at Cox Communications.

“We have to act like one company rather than lots of them,” Taylor said. “I’m proud of the ability to bring those many markets together to operate as one company.”

Taylor, who started his career at Cox as a reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in Colorado, oversees the company’s three business units: Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Media Group.

“It’s especially meaningful for me that a fourth-generation Cox family member will be leading the company my grandfather started in 1898,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Alex has a deep understanding of our company and its culture. Cox has thrived in business because we believe in doing good and being a contributor to society.”

He chairs American Rivers board of directors and is a board member of the Food Well Alliance and PATH
Foundation. He received a bachelor's degree in science with a focus on human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University, where he now serves on the board of trust. An avid outdoorsman and
conservationist, he is the author of "The Longest Cast: The Fly-Fishing Journey of a Lifetime."

He donated royalties from the book to the International Game Fishing Association for the preservation of endangered fishing sanctuaries.