KINGSTON, R.I. – April 29, 2015 – About 700 students at the University of Rhode Island will receive their master’s or doctoral degrees at the Graduate Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 16 at the Thomas M. Ryan Center on the Kingston Campus.

During the ceremony they will also hear from one of the University’s distinguished honorary degree recipients, Angus C. F. Taylor, president & Chief Executive Officer of Hexagon Metrology North America, based in Quonset Point, North Kingstown.

“Angus Taylor is being awarded the honorary Doctor of Business, in recognition of his leadership in business and engineering, as well as his extraordinary commitment to advancing language immersion programs within public schools,” said URI Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Donald H. DeHayes who chairs the Honorary Degree Committee. “Mr. Taylor has also been a very strong advocate for our College of Engineering’s International Engineering Program, where his forward-thinking global business practices set clear examples for our young engineers,” said DeHayes.

Named president and CEO in 2008, Taylor’s success is largely founded on his leadership and his focus on identifying and developing the talent of his team. He has been a very strong advocate for the University of Rhode Island’s College of Engineering and has served on the International Engineering Program board.

Taylor has also championed advancing language skills statewide as part of the volunteer team helping to build the Rhode Island Language Roadmap. He is one of the leaders in business, education and government who have passionately advocated for an ambitious plan to implement k-12 dual language immersion in public schools. He and his wife, Pauline, live in East Greenwich, R.I.

Taylor has decades of experience in many industries with a strong focus on design and manufacturing. Experienced in European, Asian and North American business cultures, Taylor studied mechanical engineering at the University of Central Lancashire, formerly Preston Polytechnic, in the UK. In 1987 he joined a subsidiary of the Brown & Sharpe manufacturing company (now Hexagon Metrology) as a project engineer and successfully advanced his career by assuming increased levels of responsibility and roles before being named president.

Knowing that global companies like Hexagon need to recruit multi-lingual engineering talent, Taylor has provided internship opportunities to help URI students develop the needed technical skills as well as the critical language and cultural competence required for their global engineering success.