Anthony Watson C.B.E., a veteran of both Wall Street and the City of London and one of less than a handful of people in the world to successfully launch and run financial distributors in both the United States and the United Kingdom, has a distinguished career as an entrepreneur, technologist, investor & inventor (holding several technology patents), philanthropist and leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (“LGBT”) rights advocate. In 2020 Watson was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to banking. In 2023 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in His Majesty The Kings inaugural Birthday Honours.
In 2017 Watson founded The Bank of London, only the second clearing bank authorised in 250 years and until September 2024 he served as The Bank of London’s Group Chief Executive. Previously, he was one of the pioneers of the digital asset industry when, as the Founding President & CEO of Uphold he led and built that firm into the world’s largest digital asset companies, serving over 10 million consumers globally. Previously he was the Global Chief Information O[icer (“CIO”) of Nike, Inc., the Managing Director & CIO of Europe, Middle East and Global Operations of Barclays Bank, and the Senior Vice President & Global Head of Technology Services for Wells Fargo. Watson started his career at First-e (Europe’s first internet bank) and spent his formative years at Microsoft as a software engineer and project manager.
Formerly, he was the first non-American citizen (and first British citizen) appointed to the board of directors of GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBT media rights organisation. The Chair and Head Judge of The European Diversity Awards, Europe’s largest independent awards that recognise and celebrate those organisations and individuals from across the continent that have shown innovation, creativity and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. He currently serves as a patron of Diversity Role Models, the UK’s largest anti-LGBT school bullying charity.
He was named number 19 in Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 40”, number 1 in the Telegraph newspaper’s “Top 100 Most Influential LGBT Business Leaders in the UK”, number 4 in the Financial Times “Top 100 Most Influential LGBT Business Leaders in the World”, number 9 in Business Insiders “Top 23 Most Powerful LGBT Executives in the World”, amongst similar honours in Der Spiegel, Economist magazine, the Independent newspaper, the Guardian newspaper and many others.
