J. Gibson Watson III, CIMA®
Managing Partner, Trident Wealth Management Consulting, LLC
With more than 30 years of financial services experience, Gib Watson is a sought-after consultant, Board member, investor in, and speaker to the wealth management industry. Mr. Watson provides strategy consulting services to asset managers, RIAs, family offices, bank trusts, broker-dealers, and financial technology companies as well as private equity firms.
Most recently, Mr. Watson served as Chief Strategy Officer for Swan Global Investments, LLC, a boutique global hedged equity asset manager from June 2019 to September 2022 responsible for driving growth and profitability strategies for the Company.
Previously, from April 2012 through 2017, Mr. Watson had served as Vice Chairman, Envestnet (NYSE: ENV) with responsibilities for the firm's Envestnet | PMC division and the subsidiary, Envestnet | Retirement Solutions, LLC (ERS). Mr. Watson also served on Envestnet | PMC's and the ERS Investment Committees. Prior to those roles, Mr. Watson served as Group President of Envestnet | Prima following the successful acquisition of Prima Capital in April 2012. In that role, he coordinated the integration of Prima's research, due diligence, advice, managed portfolios, and web-based technologies into Envestnet | PMC and their Advisor Suite of technology solutions.
Mr. Watson founded Prima Capital in 1999 and served as CEO. During his 13 years at the helm of the organization, Prima became a leader in manager research, due diligence, and advice on separately managed accounts, mutual funds, ETFs, and alternative investments to the wealth management industry. Prima also managed innovative risk-based and target date multi-asset class, multi-manager portfolio strategies for clients and 401(k) plans.
Before founding Prima, Mr. Watson served as National Managing Director of the Investment Advisory Services practice for KPMG LLP where he and his team developed the asset allocation, long only and alternative manager due diligence platform, and client reporting center to support 400 KPMG financial advisors under his leadership. He was also a member of the Investment Committee for KPMG Investment Advisors. Previously, Mr. Watson served as VP of the Wealth Management division and the Denver Executive Financial Counseling office for AMG National Trust Bank in Denver, managing the two largest profit centers at AMG, Mr. Watson also advised ultra-high net worth families and C-Level corporate executives in all areas of personal finance and investments.
He is active in the industry as a member of the Investments & Wealth Institute's WealthBoard 100, the Ethics, and Standards of Practice Committees, and he has earned the Institute's CIMA® designation through The Wharton School.
As far as Board experience, he also served on the Board of Trustees of Dividend Capital's DCA Total Return Fund from 2006 through 2011. Mr. Watson currently serves on the Advisory Boards for several wealth management businesses. He is active in the Colorado business and philanthropic communities as he served on the Board of Directors for Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, the Board of Directors for the Economic Club of Colorado, and he helped found the Denver Chapter of Golfers Against Cancer.
Mr. Watson is a graduate of Lafayette College and earned his MA and MBA degrees from Wake Forest University where he was named a Charles H. Babcock Scholar for academic performance in business school.