Getting Ahead of Physical Risk: Network Solutions for Network Effects

Mrs. Fiona Watson is Vice President (VP) and a member of the Leadership Team (LT) at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Fiona joined WBCSD in May 2023.

In her role as VP, Fiona leads WBCSD’s work on Corporate Performance & Accountability, working with members and partners to streamline and accelerate the integration of sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities into financial decision making to drive capital allocation for transformation at scale. This work includes WBCSD member programs on corporate transparency, transformation and aligning finance and value as well as convening CFO, GC and other executive forums. She also convenes the Senior Advisory Board of WBCSD’s Preparer Forum for Sustainability Disclosures with key standard setters and global reporting experts.

Fiona has more than 25 years of international experience working on transformative finance agendas. As a dual qualified US/UK lawyer, she was Head of Legal for Treasury, Disclosure and ESG at RBS Group (now NatWest) in the aftermath of the financial crisis from 2011 to 2020. At RBS she was appointed as a member of various executive committees including the Executive Disclosure Committee with legal responsibility for the Group’s global market disclosures (including risk factors) and prudential balance sheet funding activity. She was also a protagonist in the Bank’s initial response to prudential regulation of climate risk and associated disclosures. This was followed by legal and sustainability leadership roles at Amazon based in Luxembourg from 2020-2023 where she led on EU Green Deal and global ESG reporting initiatives.

Having started her career in advisory at PWC in New York in 1999, she was an Associate at Davis Polk & Wardell LLP in New York and London from 2007 to 2011. Fiona holds a LLM in International Trade and Business Law (cum laude) from Fordham University and LLB (Hons) in Law with German Law from University College London. Prior to UCL, she spent a year in Indonesia teaching in an Islamic University.