12 People of Waterstons – Bruce Watson

Bruce works with businesses that are looking to buy or sell other businesses, either to enable them to grow and do more, or to make money for their investors, and he shows them just how the team at Waterstons can help them achieve this.

He studied Product Design Engineering at Glasgow Uni/Glasgow School of Art and began his career designing high speed weaving machinery before going into a Design Consultancy, designing everything from ATM’s to Lawnmowers to Pacemakers. After running the UK and US engineering Teams for a number of years as Engineering Director, he left to run the Design Research Centre at Northumbria University.

With an MBA under his belt, he held a few central roles in the university, including Head of Business Development and led Northumbria’s Design Lead Innovation Lab. After holding business development roles within robotics companies, technology consultancies and software developers, Bruce joined Waterstons, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We asked him about his job, career highlights and what he’s looking forward to in 2024.

“Getting out and meeting businesses and people is definitely the best part of my role. I love finding out what people do, how they do it, then trying to help them unpack and define the problem they may be wrestling with.

“Being able to make a positive impact on a client always feels good, however I’m particularly proud of building Northumbria’s Design Led Innovation Centre, which started as a ‘wouldn’t it be good if’ throw away comment, and built into an off-campus Innovation Centre used by Unilever, Mars Foods, Diageo and a range of regional businesses.

“2024 is an exciting time for the Private Equity sector, with the view and value of technology growing fast - changing from being seen as a ‘necessary cost’ to being recognised as a ‘strategic investment opportunity’ to grow value. This is a positive movement and a real opportunity for Waterstons to position our full-service offer capability.”

Think you have an opportunity for Bruce and the expert team to get the best from your upcoming deal? Get in touch at bruce.watson@waterstons.com