Former ADS Securities London CEO James Watson joins drone film and video company as Advisor to the Board
From the senior level board posts at large electronic trading institutions to drone video! James Watson goes high tech
After leaving ADS Securities London recently, where he held the position of CEO, James Watson has joined Skyfly Video Ltd as a Business Advisor to the Board, based in London.
Mr. Watson, an astute and very senior institutional FX industry professional, will be making a diversion from the boardrooms of large electronic trading firms into this ultra-modern highly advanced startup, where he will be assisting the board of a young, new and exciting ‘Drone Film & Video’ company to develop their products and strategy to build on their success to date.
Joining ADS Securities in London at the very start of the firm’s inauguration in the world’s financial and electronic trading capital, Mr. Watson became CEO for the London division of the company in October 2014, assuming the leadership role after two and a half years at prominent ECN FXall’s EMEA division, prior to the firm’s $625 million acquisition by Thomson Reuters.
At FXall, Mr. Watson headed the London division of the firm, responsible for all EMEA transactions. He was subsequently moved to Thomson Reuters with the acquisition in the autumn of 2012 and then managed both Buy and Sell side (Matching) business in and across EMEA within the new Thomson Reuters Marketplace Division.
In December 2009, Mr. Watson joined Morgan Stanley as Executive Director, Head of Sales for the buy side division, concentrating on equity electronic trading.
During his two years at Morgan Stanley, he was responsible for new sales across Europe and the United States, before leaving the firm in April 2012 to join FXall.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Watson was Head of Electronic & Execution Sales at Societe Generale in London between September 2008 and December 2009, having joined after three years at Lehman Brothers where he was Executive Director and headed the electronic sales desk via the multi asset RealTick platform.
Various senior executive positions preceded his tenure at Lehman Brothers, many of which were within large institutions including Reuters, where he spent thirteen years between 1985 and 1998, with leadership roles across the world ranging from Australia, where he was responsible for Thomson Reuters’ TRIARCH Sales, culminating in a post as Head of FX for North America.
Mr. Watson was educated at Canberra Institute of Technology in Australia, leaving in 1979 after studying part of a Business Administration degree. An entrepreneur and commercial leader from the outset, Mr. Watson left his degree to begin a commission sales post, and never looked back.
