Biography:

Ivey Business Journal editor Thomas Watson is a veteran business journalist and executive development consultant with decades of senior-level experience spanning management education, thought leadership development, institutional storytelling, strategic communications, public and investor relations, and media production. As the “big picture” columnist at Financial Post Magazine and editor of IBJ, one of Canada’s oldest business publications, Watson is recognized as an expert commentator on topics ranging from macroeconomics, market disruption, and white-collar crime to leadership, corporate governance, and the evolution of capitalism. Watson also works to promote best practices in management and governance by developing custom case studies and executive development programs. As a guest lecturer, he shares his experience as a young venture capital executive who risked his career and reputation to expose an international stock manipulation scheme that decimated the value of a major Canadian tech market darling during the dotcom boom. In 2002, Watson’s insider account of this mind-blowing scheme was featured as a cover story in Canadian Business magazine. Appearing under the headline “The Man Who Ambushed Open Text: And How I Helped Him Do It,” Watson’s first long-form magazine article garnered comparisons to Liar’s Poker by financial journalist Michael Lewis and was followed by an award-winning investigative reporting career. Highlights include: “Shell Games,” an exposé of criminal boiler rooms that financed the Canadian expansion of Ben & Jerry’s during the 2008 financial crisis; “ABCP: Hunter and the Hunted,” a profile of the retail market rebellion sparked by Bay Street’s unethical marketing of high-risk asset-backed commercial paper; “The Trials and Tribulations of Brian Hunter,” an inside account of the 2006 implosion of the Amaranth Advisers hedge fund; and “An Apology for Eleanor Clitheroe,” an exclusive profile of the sexism and hypocrisy that derailed Hydro One’s attempt to go public with a female CEO in 2002. Contact: watson@ivey.ca.