Former Barclays Bank "tall, rich and handsome" jumps to Bitcoin company

Anthony Watson, former CIO of Barclays, joined Nike as its CIO , but left after just six months. It was understandable, but still a little confusing. After all , he was one of the 40 most successful people under 40 and seemed to have made a good career for himself. Six months later, everything was clear. Just a few months after joining Bitcoin startup Bitreserve , he had been promoted to CEO of the company , demoting founder Halsey Minor to "Chief Vision Officer." It wasn't long before he became the ruler of Bitcoin.

Bitreserve is the perfect combination of Watson's passions and previous jobs: banking and technology. After leaving Nike, he received many offers from big banks, but he preferred to do something more entrepreneurial. "I was hungry to make an impact," Watson said. At Nike , he didn't do enough to make that impact. He said he was convinced to join Bitreserve after just 10 minutes with founder Halsey Minor.

Beyond that, Bitreserve ’s theme of financial inclusion — the network’s biggest flag-waver loves to talk about bitcoin benefits — and Watson’s ambition to help the unbanked and underbanked fits perfectly,” he told Fortune . “When I met the Bitreserve team, it spoke to me on a social and equality level. Opportunities like that don’t come around very often.”