Maurice Taylor Jr. (born August 28, 1944) is the President and
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of Titan International, a tire and wheel manufacturing company. Taylor, nicknamed "the Grizz" for his bear-like gruffness, started in
tool and die
Tool and die makers are highly skilled crafters working in the manufacturing industries. Variations on the name include tool maker, toolmaker, die maker, diemaker, mold maker, moldmaker or tool jig and die-maker depending on which area of concen ...
manufacturing before purchasing Titan Wheel International from Firestone.
Taylor was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Ellsworth, Michigan. He gained brief fame outside the business world when he made an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination in the U.S. presidential election of 1996, a campaign chronicled in his book ''Kill all the lawyers – and other ways to fix the government''. He spent over $6 million, but received about 1% of the vote in all the primaries in which he ran. His campaign is featured prominently in the
Michael Lewis
Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. H ...
book '' Trail Fever''. Taylor was also one of the subjects on the 19th episode of PRI's '' This American Life'' entitled "Rich Guys", originally aired in 1996.
In February 2013, Taylor met harsh criticism in France after a letter he wrote to the French minister of industrial renewal,
Arnaud Montebourg
Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as the Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014,Michelin is vastly larger and more profitable than Titan. In February 2015, in an interview with the French TV about the closed Goodyear factory, Taylor said that "France is a ruined country".