James Taylor

James is an Airbus A320 Captain and Type Rating Instructor with over 18 years of airline experience, specialising in leadership development, decision-making, human factors and performance under pressure.

As Co-Founder of Gate 20, he applies the systems and procedures used to train aviation professionals to a very different environment. Gate 20 is a specialist training provider offering structured leadership development programmes in decision-making, error management and operational excellence, delivered in our own full-size, professional-grade Airbus A320 simulator.

James leads immersive half-day and full-day programmes for corporate teams and senior decision-makers, using the simulator as a live decision-making laboratory. Rather than talking about leadership in a classroom, teams are placed in carefully designed scenarios where they must prioritise, communicate, manage incomplete information and make decisions under pressure. Their actions are then reviewed against known optimal outcomes, offering a rare chance to see how a team actually performs, rather than how it believes it performs.

The programmes draw on established aviation approaches to decision-making, communication, human factors, and threat and error management, translated for a wide range of working environments. James is particularly interested in how the structured decision-making techniques developed in safety-critical industries can improve leadership and team performance elsewhere.

In addition to his Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence, James holds a degree in Human Physiology from the University of St Andrews.