Graham Watson is an expert in corporate finance, business strategy, and leadership development. He has over 25 years of experience advising boards and leading transactions worth over £1.5 billion. He currently runs Positive Leadership Limited, which provides strategic leadership and corporate finance advisory services.

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Graham Watson FRSA LLB CA
Chief Executive
Positive Leadership Limited
Graham Watson is a recognised expert in corporate finance, business and leadership strategy. His
career in the UK and USA has given him a broad base of situational advisory expertise, from VC/PE
backed companies to FTSE 100 companies to not for profits. His network is extensive. Following 10
years as a corporate finance partner with Deloitte, he has for the past 10 years run his own
strategic leadership and corporate finance advisory firm. His appetite and motivation for
interesting and challenging work (wherever located), coupled with a passion for sharing his
thought leadership, remain undiminished.
Background
Graham Watson brings over 25 years of board level corporate advisory experience in a variety of
industry sectors to help business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors maximise the value of their
businesses. He has particular cross-border expertise. He has led multi-disciplinary teams of
professionals in executing over 100 transactions valued at over £1.5bn. He is an innovative thinker
and leader who has always sought exciting and stimulating new challenges in his career.
Summary
Graham Watson changed the name of his company (GF Watson Ltd) to Positive Leadership Limited
(PLL) in mid 2009, in order to further develop and focus the consulting business he established in
2004.
Positive Leadership is a values based strategic leadership and corporate finance advisory firm. PLL
uses its considerable experience to provide unique perspectives and innovative solutions that help
corporate leaders unlock maximum value from complex business challenges. PLL equips high
ambition leaders of today and tomorrow with the practical skills and confidence necessary to win
consistently in a competitive environment and excel under pressure.
Positive Leadership has developed an innovative approach to strategy consulting and corporate
finance that brings the lessons of leadership in business and elite sport together in a manner that
can deliver sustained performance improvement for clients.
A qualified lawyer and chartered accountant; Graham is a highly regarded strategic adviser and
negotiator, with considerable experience as an international investment banker. He is also a trained

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mediator. Previously he was the co-founder and executive director of Winning Scotland Foundation,
a director of Scotland’s leading investment bank, Noble Grossart Limited, chief executive of the
Carnegie Sports International Group and a corporate finance partner with Deloitte (in both the UK
and USA). Graham graduated magna cum laude from the University of Edinburgh Law School in
1979.
His business career has included over five years living and working in the US (1983 to 1984 and 1999
to 2003). Graham is a founding member of the Scottish Executive backed GlobalScot organisation
(http://www.globalscot.com). He is also the World Leadership Day Ambassador in Scotland
(www.worldleadershipday.org).
Graham is a member of the Congregational Board and Treasurer of Elie, Kilconquhar & Colinsburgh
Church of Scotland and a Trustee and Treasurer of The Glasgow Trust for Elie Parish Church. Graham
was also a member of the Nominating Committee charged with identifying a new Minister for his
Church in 2012. In his capacity as Treasurer, Graham is responsible for all temporal matters
pertaining to the Church, including financial planning, charity governance and accounting. The
financial position of both the Church and The Glasgow Trust is robust.
Graham is a member of the Council of The Law Society of Scotland (http://www.lawscot.org.uk), a
non-executive director of North Lanarkshire Leisure Limited, a member of the International Coach
Federation (http://www.coachfederation.org) and a mentor on the IDEAS business accelerator
programme (http://www.idea-scotland.co.uk/).
Graham also manages the business affairs of his daughter, Sally (www.sallywatson.com) who plays
golf professionally on the Ladies European Tour. He also uses his skills as a high performance coach
during his occasional work as a caddie for Sally.
Graham has been recognised as one of the Top 50 Leadership Experts to Follow on Twitter. The
Positive Leadership Blog has been recognised as a Top 50 Leadership Blog by the number of pages
indexed by Google and as one of the Top 100 Most Socially Shared Leadership Blogs of 2013.
Graham is a Fellow of The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce (http://www.thersa.org).
Graham has been widely endorsed for the following skills: Business Strategy, Leadership
Development, Entrepreneurship, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, Corporate Finance and
Executive Coaching.
Detailed Experience
Chief Executive, Positive Leadership Limited
June 2009 – Present
Graham is responsible for business development and all client engagements undertaken by Positive
Leadership (www.positiveleadership.co.uk). Graham is passionate about the significance of values
based leadership in business today. He researches comprehensively, writes extensively and speaks
frequently on the topic. Bringing the Values of Positive Leadership™ to bear on client engagements
has been extremely rewarding. By way of example, Graham used the PLL methodology to secure and
enhance the outcome of a complex and delicate transaction in which he assisted a City based client
dispose of a Lloyds of London Managing Agent and Syndicate to a US based investor. He has also
worked closely with a large Scottish family company and two Universities to help pilot and deliver

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mentoring support to an innovative business accelerator programme. He has also been involved in
media work on behalf of a community led initiative to secure ownership of one of Scotland’s leading
football clubs - http://news.stv.tv/scotland/218276-scotland-tonight-can-dunfermline-athletic-
avoid-liquidation/ Clients have included Technip, HSBC, NHS, ACCA, Stanford University, School
Leaders Scotland, DC Thomson.
Member of the Council
The Law Society of Scotland
June 2014 – Present
The Law Society of Scotland (http://www.lawscot.org.uk) is the professional body for Scottish
solicitors. The Society promotes excellence across the solicitor profession through representation,
support and regulation of its members. It also helps to shape the law for the benefit of both the
public and the profession. The Society was established in 1949 and is financed by its members
without any funding from government. All practising solicitors are members of the Society.
Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee
North Lanarkshire Leisure Limited
September 2007 – Present
North Lanarkshire Leisure (http://www.nlleisure.co.uk) delivers sport, recreational and health
improving services to the community of North Lanarkshire. This highly successful, £25m income
Company is responsible for the management and operation of over 200 sport and leisure facilities in
North Lanarkshire. During Graham’s tenure, NLL has recorded over 30 consecutive quarters of
revenue growth. Graham has been a keen advocate of a major initiative designed to ‘value the
person’ within NLL. Bringing over 700 staff who have spent their careers in local government into a
not for profit, business led organisation is a challenge. However, as a result of the aforementioned
programme, staff absence levels have almost halved. NLL has demonstrated that for every £1 of
public sector investment, it puts back over £4 into the community.
Strategic Adviser (on secondment from Positive Leadership Limited)
Bioflow Sport
May 2009 – December 2013
The Bioflow brand (www.bioflowsport.com) was created in 1995 and Bioflow has since grown into
being one of the world's leading suppliers of magnetic wrist products. Graham used his connections
to help Biolflow enter the global sports market for the first time, giving product development advice
and securing commercial endorsements with (at the time) World #1 golfer, Lee Westwood.
Strategic Adviser (on secondment from GF Watson Ltd/Positive Leadership Limited)
Macfarlane Gray Corporate Finance
March 2005 – July 2013
Macfarlane Gray Group (http://www.macfarlanegray.co.uk) – now part of French Duncan CA -
provides business advice and services to the SME and entrepreneurial market across Scotland.
Graham established a corporate finance division for Macfarlane Gray and led the initiation and
delivery of numerous M&A, business planning, corporate governance and capital raising transactions
focused on the SME and entrepreneurial market.

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Executive Director (on secondment from GF Watson Ltd)
Winning Scotland Foundation
January 2004 – May 2009
Winning Scotland Foundation (http://www.winningscotlandfoundation.org/) is an independent
business-led charity, co-founded by Graham, which is working to create a positive winning attitude
amongst young Scots, using sport as the catalyst. Under Graham’s leadership, WSF raised over £4m
from donors around the world. Graham built a high quality, superbly motivated management team
from a zero base and was responsible for initiating and leading all projects delivered by WSF. All WSF
projects involved collaboration with 3rd
parties and Graham was responsible for identifying and
building these partnership arrangements. By way of example, Graham sourced and led the Positive
Coaching project - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/7646639.stm
Partner – Corporate Finance
Deloitte (www.deloitte.com)
April 1992 – December 2003
Deloitte is the largest accounting firm in the world. As a partner, based in Edinburgh and latterly in
San Francisco, Graham led many successful corporate finance transactions for a broad variety of
clients in a wide range of industries. As a partner, Graham was responsible for all aspects of growing
a successful national practice. During his time in the USA he was the partner in charge of the
corporate finance private equity and venture capital groups. Graham was US FINRA Series 7,24 and
63 qualified. Graham’s work during this period involved all aspects of leading a successful corporate
finance firm – business development, transaction initiation and delivery, team leadership, working
with multi-disciplined teams of professionals from many offices within the global Deloitte firm, as
well as with other professional service providers and client personnel. Graham travelled extensively
around the world in this role. Graham attended the IMD business school in Switzerland on a 4 week
Deloitte sponsored programme in 1996.
Chief Executive
Carnegie Sports International Limited
1989 – 1992
Graham founded this sports management and marketing company with the backing of leading
Scottish entrepreneur, Sir David Murray. Under Graham’s leadership, Carnegie was responsible for
creating the forerunner of one of the world’s major rugby competitions, now styled SuperRugby
(http://www.superxv.com). Graham also led many stadium-financing projects, including working for
the Scottish Rugby Union, Arsenal FC, West Ham United FC and Glasgow Rangers FC.

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Director
Noble Grossart Limited (http://www.noblegrossart.co.uk)
1984 – 1989
Noble Grossart is a Scottish based merchant bank that was formed in 1969. It concentrates on
providing corporate advice and investment banking support and has a position of unique flexibility
and independence within the UK merchant banking sector. Corporate finance activities include
capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, management buy-outs, corporate restructuring and debt
funding advice. Graham was the bank’s youngest director.
Staff Accountant (based in Edinburgh and Atlanta (USA))
KPMG (www.kpmg.com)
1979 – 1983
Education
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
CA (Graduated with Distinction)
1979 – 1982
The University of Edinburgh, Law School
LLB, Graduated Magna Cum Laude
1976 – 1979
George Heriot's School, Edinburgh
1964 – 1976
School Captain 1975/1976
Passions
Family, Golf, All Sports, Travel
Personal Details
Birthday: January 14, 1958
Marital Status: Married with two daughters (25 and 22) – both Scottish international golfers

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Contact Details
Email:
graham.watson@positiveleadership.co.uk
Skype ID: gfwatson
Phone: +44 (0) 777 488 3103 (mobile)
Positive Leadership Limited
Ogilvie House
77 High Street
Earlsferry
Fife
KY9 1AH, UK
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamfwatson
AboutMe: http://about.me/positiveleadership
Twitter: www.twitter.com/posleadership
Website: www.positiveleadership.co.uk
Blog:
http://positiveleadershiplimited.blogspot.co.uk

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