President
Black McDonald’s Operators Association
Chicagoland and NW Indiana (BMOA)
Whatever Chicago native Derrick Taylor does, he does it big. From his years at Percy L. Julian High School, where Taylor was the running back on the national high school football championship team, to his collegiate years at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where his team won the NCAA Division I-AA football title in 1983, he has always been driven to succeed both on and off the field. Taylor received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in automotive technology and business management from Southern Illinois and at that same time was a free agent for the NFL’s Denver Broncos.
Prior to his college graduation, Taylor was hired by the Oldsmobile automotive company as a service engineer in Lansing, Michigan. Wanting to pursue other opportunities, he soon returned home where he secured a job with the city of Chicago. He worked for the city for 14 years and then accepted a position as assistant commissioner for O’Hare international Airport.
Taylor and his wife Chery| are now the owners and operators of eight McDonald’s restaurants in Chicago, employing more than 300 members of the community. “I genuinely love people and wanted to do whatever | could to be a pillar of the community and provide jobs,” said Taylor, a father to three sons and a daughter. Taylor serves as the current president of the Black McDonald’s Operators Association of Chicagoland and NW Indiana (BMOA). “It has been my life-long dream to become a successful businessman and entrepreneur, and McDonald’s has enabled me to do just that,” said Taylor.