Anthony Watson – Bank of London CEO, LGBTQ+ Advocate

Anthony, a veteran of both Wall Street and the City of London and one of less than a handful of people in the world to successfully launch financial disrupters in both the US and the UK, has a distinguished career as an entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist, and leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (“LGBT”) rights advocate.

Prior to founding The Bank of London, he was one of the pioneers of the digital asset industry when, as the Founding President & CEO of Uphold (multi-billion-dollar market cap), he led and built that company into one of the world’s largest digital asset firms.
Previously he was the Global Chief Information Officer (“CIO”) of Nike, the Managing Director & CIO of Europe, Middle East and Global Operations of Barclays Bank, and the Senior Vice President & Global Head of Technology Services for Wells Fargo & Co. Anthony spent his formative years at Microsoft and started his career at First-e (Europe’s first internet bank).

Formerly, he was the first non-American citizen (and first British citizen) appointed to the board of directors of GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBT media rights organisation.
Anthony has also served as the Chair and Head Judge of The European Diversity Awards, Europe’s largest independent awards that recognise commitment to equality and diversity. Currently, he’s a patron of Diversity Role Models, a leading UK anti-LGBT bullying charity.

He was named number 19 in Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 40”, number 1 in the Telegraph newspaper’s “Top 100 Most Influential LGBT Business Leaders in the UK”, number 4 in the Financial Times “Top 100 Most Influential LGBT Business Leaders in the World”, number 9 in Business Insiders “Top 23 Most Powerful LGBT Executives in the World”, amongst similar honours in Der Spiegel, Economist magazine, the independent newspaper, the Guardian newspaper, and many others.