Derek Watson

Background

About Derek Watson

I woke up one morning with this idea buzzing in my head. Let's set up a community for founders to have 24/7 vertical access to a bunch of people with real scar tissue who just want to make the startup grind less grindy, no fluff, just actionable insights when founders need them. Welcome to Fusion42, for founders, framers and funders to get **it done- Derek founded of N2 Technology Ltd, a platform designed to connect start-up opportunities with investors. This venture is a manifestation of Derek's 30+ years of experience and expertise in private markets and start-up ecosystems, but I shut it down. Here's why > https://open.substack.com/pub/derekwatsonfusion42/p/no-distance-left-to-run-closing-n2?r=g9u6q & utm_campaign=post & utm_medium=web & showWelcomeOnShare=true Derek co-founded and served as the CEO of Wake Asset Management, a Geneva, Switzerland-based hedge fund manager that oversaw more than $500m in assets with a gross market exposure of $3.5b. Under his leadership, Wake Asset Management acted as the manager for Wake Alternative Investments, a segregated portfolio company located in the Caymans. Within this structure, Derek operated a multi-disciplined alternative management platform, managing a variety of strategies as a portfolio manager. These included convertible arbitrage, long-short equity, distressed, credit, statistical arbitrage, and venture capital. Crucial to the firm's success was the development and implementation of advanced technologies for effective data collection, cleaning, and modelling. This infrastructure supported enhanced risk management and facilitated algorithmic trading. Profitability optimization included strategically managing funds across prime brokerage agreements with major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch, as well as discretionary accounts with Julius Baer. This movement was crucial to risk management and profitability optimization From Wake Asset Management, he launched Wake2o and Wake-x, providing advisory services to private markets and creating an online secondary marketplace for illiquid private market assets. Before his leadership at Wake, Derek was a Senior Portfolio Manager for the Decillion Convertible Arbitrage Fund. His career in finance began at Salomon Brothers, where he spent 9 years in the Japanese warrants & convertibles proprietary arbitrage group, stationed in London, Zurich, and Tokyo. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Derek is a father of three who enjoys mountain climbing and alpinism.