Andrew Watson Email & Phone Number

London, United Kingdom

Rethinking Capital’s mission is to take the net zero, nature and sustainability applications of normative accounting for intangibles to market—at scale, rapidly and for the common good. Rethinking Capital began with a serendipitous introduction to Robert McGarvey and Joe Batty. We decided to bring together our two bodies of IP and to begin an open community of experts in managing and measuring Intangible Assets.I brought and further developed the first standard taxonomy of Intangible Assets and a system design to demonstrate the interactions and flows between them.We then created the first method to capitalise all Intangible Assets to create the concept and practice of a Parallel Balance Sheet applying current accounting principles and International Accounting Standards. Our co-creation continued to inspire many new innovations and breakthroughs, leading in 2020 to normative economics, normative accounting, normative governance, a new team joining us and a collaboration with the IWAI at Harvard. We know now that we’ve cracked the intangibles problem. Fortunately a growing group of believers also realises it. The challenge now is to prove it and take our work to adoption. If we do our work well in 2021, the outcome will be profound. And then I can rest.

London, Greater London, United Kingdom

Thank you to Lumeon for giving me a route back into law in a great in-house role. One very tough C Round fundraising and being part of a team that closed the Medtronic collaboration were highlights. And some of the very best and talented people that I have worked with.

London, United Kingdom

The challenges to bringing intangibles into business awareness and transparency remained substantial.But we do seem to have reached a time when regulation, law and best practice will replace voluntarily managing and reporting of these assets. Tax transparency and controversy may just provide the catalyst. Leading companies have an intrigue to know which of their assets are creating value and how they can be managed and reported better. I have written a white paper titled "Value Disciplines of Market Leaders in a Socially Connected World" which describes my 16 year journey and insights into Intangibles. This includes the Intangibles Tree, the first taxonomy of intangibles.

London, United Kingdom

We began to build the first IP strategy practice inside a Big 4 firm. This required a large commitment of time and energy to identify and build integrated offerings. IP expertise added to a global brand was very stimulating and provided senior level access in multinationals which was my ambition when joining. I learned a vast amount in 20 months and can only thank the large number of people who helped my knowledge of IP's relevance to Audit, Risk Management, Sustainability, Valuation and M&A. I was unrecognisable from November 2014.The high point was undoubtedly winning and helping in the delivery of a project scope to build a Total Value decision-making model for the monetisation of intangibles for a Fortune 50 company.It’s not trivial to try to build an innovative practice area inside of a global consulting firm super focused on short term revenues. Clients got it when we got in front of them, but getting past the internal gatekeepers proved the hardest challenge. I left not quite knowing what to make of the firm’s culture. That’s probably best left for a private conversation.

London, United Kingdom

ipVA was an IP strategy & advisory business started in 2004 and which became one of the pioneers in the IP Strategy market. We successfully delivered over 300 IP Strategy projects and studies. A little ahead of its time—maybe 10 years or more. But it’s better to be early to market and make your mistakes before others I’ve found. By 2014 after three near death experiences I took a small team into EY, confident that a global platform would be the key to opening up the market.

Reading, United Kingdom

Quadriga operated in over 80 countries and is the global leader in entertainment and technology solutions to the hospitality sector.

Sophia Antipolis, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur, France

I became interim Head of IP as part of ipVAs project with Amadeus leading to the recruitment of a permanent Head of IP.

Board chairman of this fascinating growth company that aims to ensure that every pound donated to UK good causes gets spent on those causes, not on overhead

I was lucky whilst at Thirdspace to find an area where my curiosity could prosper, in intellectual property. And a visionary CEO in Brian Keating who trusted me to get on with our actually very good IP and to build business value with it. Add in meeting Andrew Gray, one of the best CFOs you could wish for, Shaheed Haque and Dr Dave Robinson, technologists to be humbled by, and the simply IP superb Craig Opperman and Tom Ewing and you get quite a cast list. A shame that Alcatel didn't give us the chance to prosper.

Managing Partner of Thames Valley office and Transactions lawyer. I still look back on my time at Andersen as among the favourite parts of my career. It was the time that I last had a truly inspiring world class boss, leader and mentor rolled into one, in Malcolm Naylor.