Dr. Peter Watson

Peter is President & CEO of The Dwight Group, the D.C.- based investment bank, serving earlier as President Bush 43’s President & CEO of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Prior to OPIC, Peter was Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and Senior Advisor to Armitage Associates, LLC. Peter served at the White House from 1989-1991 as President Bush 41’s Director of Asian Affairs/National Security Council, previously serving as Outside Counsel to the NSC, 1983 to1988.

In July 2108 Dr. Watson became a Partner in the Trans Guatemala Pipeline project (TGP), and serves as its EVP for Policy.

Peter is a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars Award for Public Service, and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Peter has served on the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the Board of Visitors for the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, and as Visiting Professor, St. Peter’s College, Oxford University. Other appointments include Distinguished Lecturer/Adjunct Faculty Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Peter was long-term co-chair of the American Bar Association's Senior International Appointment’s Committee, and holds Doctoral and Master’s degrees in International Economic Relations from McGill University, and a L.L.B. from Auckland University Law School. He also holds an MBA in International Business.

Peter has published over 50 articles on international business and trade policy. He is author of The Economic Arsenal in the War Against Terror, principal author of Completing the World Trading System: Proposals for a Millennium Round, and is co-author of CSIS’s National Conformity Assessment Schemes: Non-Tariff Trade Barriers in Information Technology.

Peter is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ras Al Khaimah Centre for Advanced Materials, appointed by His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi. On January 1, 2002, Dr. Watson was awarded Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM), by Queen Elizabeth II, and on January 1, 2012, she awarded him Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM).