8 / TalentScotland


GLOBAL SCOT


There’s no place like home, says globetrotter Ellis


Media mogul Ellis Watson has travelled the world, but nowhere can match the beauty of living on the banks of the River Tay


AFTER more than 25 years of heading up well-known companies in publishing, entertainment and transport, Ellis Watson has returned home to Scotland for his next challenge: to develop a new strategy for DC Thomson, the family- owned publishing company based in Dundee, so it can take advantage of the opportunities that the digital revolution presents. Although he is driven by challenge at DC Thomson, he’s also had a long-held wish to return to his homeland – and this position was the ideal opportunity to make it happen. Ellis was adopted out of Scotland,


grew up in England and left school at 16 with no qualifications and, by his own admission, with no real work ethic either. However, his first job as an assistant in a small tour operator opened his eyes to the potential of marketing. His career as a ‘marketeer’ took in him to London in the


1980s, and he became the Marketing Director for The Sun, the UK’s biggest- selling tabloid newspaper, ultimately reporting to owner Rupert Murdoch in his later roles.


This became the launch pad for other exciting opportunities: CEO of Celador


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International, licensing ‘Who Wants to Be Millionaire?’ to more than 100 countries around the world; Managing Director of the Mirror Group of Newspapers on Fleet Street; heading up the Menzies international distribution group and then joining the board of FirstGroup – the world’s largest privately-owned public transport operator. He worked in the US to turn around


the fortunes of the iconic but ailing Greyhound bus company, and afterwards teamed up with the impresario Simon Cowell to run his Syco entertainment business, which co-produces X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. These demanding roles have taken


him around the world, from Mexico to Canada, and Dallas to Hollywood. But while he has enjoyed all these experiences, Scotland has always been at the back of his mind. Ellis said: “I’ve always wanted to


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