Napier names Greg Watson as CEO
Napier has named its current Chief Operations Officer Greg Watson, as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect, as former CEO Julian Dixon moves into a full-time role as Founder and Board Member.
Greg’s tenure at Napier as well his wealth of experience in operational management and business strategy, gained at the likes of Fenergo, HSBC and UBS, makes him the ideal choice to lead Napier into its next phase of growth, building on the past several successful years of rapid expansion for the company.
“Greg’s an outstanding candidate for the position. His experience and understanding of our products and clients is exemplary, as is his commitment to making Napier the pre-eminent provider of AI-enhanced financial crime risk management software. I’m looking forward to seeing him take the company from strength to strength,” said Julian Dixon.
Since joining the company in 2020, Greg has worked closely with Julian and the executive team at Napier to put in place a robust operating model to support Napier’s rapid growth.
Greg Watson said: “I am proud to be taking the mantle from Julian. Since founding Napier in 2015, Julian has built a world-class tech company from the ground up, steering it through a period of exceptional and rapid growth into the leading financial crime risk management business that it is. Filling Julian’s boots will be no easy task, but this change is very much about evolution, rather than revolution. My job now is to take Napier to even greater heights, as we continue to innovate and to deliver increasingly higher levels of customer satisfaction.”
Following a period of expansion, Napier has presence in key financial hubs across the globe including North America, UK, Europe and APAC. As provider of choice to over 200 enterprise clients including banks, payment providers, asset managers, FX, gaming, crypto exchanges and other financial institutions, Napier doubled its annual revenues in 2021 by providing its AI-enhanced platform for intelligent AML and financial crime compliance.
Napier’s Board of Directors also includes Andy Maguire, Chair of Global Banking and Managing Director and Senior Partner in the London office of The Boston Consulting Group. Other Board Directors include senior partners from Big Ideas Group, Rosa Howard and its founder Sebastian Gray, while Wall Street veteran John Neary and ex-PwC partner John Barnsley sit in global advisory roles.