Beverly Watson is a dreamer, a schemer, and a doer. She is a lawyer, educator, entrepreneur, and international development professional. She has worked with thousands of young people and communities across the globe, sowing seeds of possibility about what they can build with their talent, imagination, and drive. She’s passionate about identifying innovative ways to address pressing global issues. She regularly consults for entrepreneurial leaders building strategic social impact projects. As a prior board member of the non-profit dev/color, Beverly has supported black software engineers in becoming industry leaders. As a board member of the racial justice accelerator Daylight, she supports important racial justice and equity work around the world.

Ms. Watson brings over 20 years’ experience working in a combination of fields, including international development, education, law, and business. As a principal at Watson Strategic Consultants, she partners with entrepreneurial leaders in the education, business, and non-profit spaces to strategize and operationalize new initiatives.

Previously, Ms. Watson was the Managing Editor of OZY Media, a news and entertainment platform that focused on the "new and the next." Before that, she served as the Director of the Scholars Program at King Philanthropies, a family foundation whose mission is to alleviate extreme poverty by multiplying the impact of high-performing leaders and organizations. Prior to that, she was the Chief Operating Officer of XQ Institute, a newly created foundation dedicated to transforming high schools in the U.S. Ms. Watson was responsible for talent, people operations, and business operations. Before joining the XQ team, Ms. Watson was the VP of Relationship Management for Laureate Education, focused on increasing the academic and business performance of Laureate Institutions by leveraging an innovative mix of products and services from the global network of 80+ universities across 28 countries. 

Prior to Laureate, Ms. Watson was the President and CEO of Global Imprints LLC, a company designed to empower communities and individuals to address pressing global issues through meaningful interactions and strategic international exchanges. Ms. Watson’s other career highlights include: 

• Associate Country Director for Mozambique for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States corporation founded in 2004, whose mission is to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth; 
• Project Development and Finance Associate at the law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP in NY; 
• Director of the schools division for Achieva.com, an internet start-up that helped high school students in the college application process.