Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor is a laser physicist turned manufacturer who founded Laser Wire Solutions, a Pontypridd, Wales company that designs and builds machines using light instead of blades to strip insulation from hair-fine wires. After an Oxford physics PhD spent trapping a single ytterbium atom to build a next-generation atomic clock, he carried that obsession with lasers into industry and, in 2011, started a two-man operation in a Merthyr Tydfil garage. It grew into one of the UK's fastest-growing manufacturers, exporting roughly 99% of its output, supplying mission-critical kit to the medical device, aerospace, data centre and electric-vehicle industries, and winning a Queen's Award for International Trade.