Biography:
Thomas Watson (Twitter: @NotSocrates) is a veteran business journalist, management consultant and communications professional with experience spanning executive education, thought leadership development, institutional storytelling, strategic communications, public and investor relations, and media production. As a Financial Post Magazine columnist and Editor-in-chief of Ivey Business Journal—one of Canada’s oldest business publications published by the prestigious Ivey Business School at Western University—Watson is recognized as an expert commentator on topics ranging from leadership and governance to managing disruption and the evolution of capitalism.
At Ivey, in addition to managing IBJ, Watson helps promote best practices in management by developing custom case studies and executive development programs. As a guest lecturer, he also shares his experience as a young VC executive who risked his career and reputation to expose the stock manipulation of a Canadian tech market darling during the dotcom boom. Watson’s insider account of this mind-blowing international scheme was featured by Canadian Business as a cover story in 2002. Entitled “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. This led to an award-winning investigative reporting career. Highlights include: “Abandoned at the Altar,” an exclusive account of why Bay Street’s GMP Capital got cold feet when helping Ashley Madison’s corporate parent go public in 2010; “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 exclusive account of the 2006 implosion of the Amaranth Advisers hedge fund; and “An Apology for Eleanor Clitheroe,” a profile of the sexism and hypocrisy that derailed Hydro One’s attempt to go public with a female CEO in 2002.
Watson holds undergraduate degrees in history and political philosophy. As a graduate student, he studied journalism, political theory, international politics, public finance, and macroeconomics. Post-graduate studies included securities and market regulation.
