Watson was born on May 2, 1964 in San Antonio, Texas. He is the son of Mark E. Watson, Junior., the President of Titan Indemnity Company. He grew up in the insurance world.
His grandfather owned a small insurance company in San Antonio, which his father took over before he created Titan.
He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of International Holdings (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation: AGII), an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products in the property and casualty market. Watson earned his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University and his law degree from the University of Texas Law School. When he was young, Watson spent summers working with his father, learning about reinsurance.
In 1989, Watson was a legislative aide to Texas State Senator Donald Henderson.
He helped draft legislation creating the first college savings bond program in the state and the first mandatory alternative fuels bill, both of which were enacted into law. After school, he joined Kroll & Tract, a law firm focusing on international financial services, including insurance.
He returned to San Antonio as General Counsel then Executive Vice President at Titan Holdings and worked with his father to take the company public. He worked there for six years, at the time of its initial listing on National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation, then on the New York Stock Exchange and then through acquisitions by USF&G and Saint Paul Insurance.
He also joined the Board of Governors of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America in June 2005, and the Houston International Insurance Group, Limited in December 2010.
Watson became a Director of United States (aka Argonaut Group, a subsidiary of International Holdings) in 1999, and President and Chief Executive Officer in 2000. In August 2007, he became President, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Investor Relations of International Holdings He has overseen the company’s transformation to an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products.
