Adrian Watkins.
Singapore. 25 years across Asia and Europe.

Operator. Builder.
Governor.

Senior commercial and governance leadership for organisations adopting AI seriously. Creator of the EDGE Framework for Applied Intelligence.

I have spent 25 years building and governing commercial businesses across Asia-Pacific and Europe. The last five have been about one question. Why do most organisations adopt AI like they are buying stationery, then act surprised when nothing compounds?

I built EDGE to answer that question for the teams I work with, and to give boards a working language for AI capability that does not collapse the first time someone asks "but what did it actually do?".

I am SVP of Commercial Operations and Governance at SQREEM Technologies. I sourced and led the integration of the TotallyAwesome acquisition in 2024. I also publish AIinASIA.com, which reaches around 10,000 readers a month without paid distribution, and I built PromptAndGo.ai because Asia deserves AI prompts that respect the register, the market, and the language.

If you are a CEO, a board chair, or a sponsor and you need someone who can carry the commercial number and the governance memo in the same week, I take on a small number of advisory, fractional, and non-executive engagements a year. The rest of this site explains how.

SVP, SQREEM Technologies Advisor, BlackStorm Group Coach, Beyond4Tech Publisher, AIinASIA.com Moderator, Ortus Club Builder, PromptAndGo.ai
Adrian Watkins. Black-and-white editorial portrait. Singapore.
Singapore, 2025.

Selected work.

Three named engagements where the public record speaks for itself. The longer list, with anonymised cases, sits on the work page.

M&A integration, 2024

SQREEM acquires TotallyAwesome.

I sourced the target, helped broker the deal, and led the go-to-market and operational integration. Two commercial stacks became one, with governance controls in place from day one. The internal lessons sit in the EDGE Govern pillar.

Public commentary on the acquisition is on record.
Owned media, since 2020

AIinASIA.com.

I founded and publish AIinASIA, an editorial brief on how artificial intelligence is actually being adopted across Asia-Pacific. Around 10,000 readers a month, zero paid distribution, written for operators rather than tourists.

Advisory, since 2020

BlackStorm Group.

Advisor on growth, transformation, and AI adoption for BlackStorm's Asia-Pacific portfolio of founders and scale-ups. Workshops, board prep, and the harder conversations about which AI initiatives to stop.

How I work.

Four engagement shapes. I take on a small number of each per year. Selection happens both ways.

One

EDGE Diagnostic.

A 25-minute structured conversation that produces a board-ready snapshot of where your AI adoption actually is. The output is a single-page memo, not a slide deck.

Two

Fractional leadership.

Embedded commercial and governance leadership on a defined cadence. For founders and operators who need a senior peer, not a consultant.

Three

Advisory and board.

Non-executive, advisory board, or specific board-committee work. AI governance, commercial readiness, and the hard parts of Asia-Pacific go-to-market.

Four

Capability workshops.

One-day and multi-day executive workshops built on the EDGE pillars. Outputs are working artefacts your team uses on the Monday after.

The EDGE Framework.

A practical structure for applied intelligence. Four pillars. Used by founders, operators, and boards.

Artificial intelligence is widely accessible.
Structured capability is not.

01

Evaluate.

Where you actually are. Capability, exposure, and the gap between what your AI tools do and what your teams say they do.

02

Define.

What "good" looks like for your organisation. The specific outcomes AI is allowed to chase, and the ones it is not.

03

Govern.

The decisions, controls, and review cadence that turn AI activity into AI capability. Board-legible. Not theatre.

04

Elevate.

What changes about your people, your operating model, and your competitive position when the first three are in place.

Tools and diagnostic live on democratising.ai. Built on the EDGE Framework.

/now.

What I am working on this quarter. Updated monthly. Borrowed from Derek Sivers.

Q3 2026. Building EDGE Diagnostic v2, a 25-minute structured conversation that produces a board-ready AI capability snapshot. Advising two businesses, both anonymous on the public site: a catering business in Singapore where I am also an investor, and a professional services firm in Malaysia. Drafting the EDGE field manual for nominating committees, due this quarter.

SDG Open Hack 2026 NP Edition mentorship is underway. Moderating Ortus Club executive roundtables on a rolling basis. Standing panellist work continues across business strategy, operational implementation, and AI. Reading: Heffernan, Levinson, Slouka, Tett, McGilchrist.

Last updated 1 July 2026.

Read the full /now log →

More of me.

Five places to go deeper.

Weekly

Friday Frame.

A 200-word frame on what I noticed this week. Operators, governance, Asia-Pacific. Cross-posted to LinkedIn, archived here.

Read the archive
Quarterly

Reading list.

Five books a quarter, one line each, with the date I picked them up. The Patrick Collison move. Current: Heffernan, Levinson, Slouka, Tett, McGilchrist.

Read the list
Long-form

Essays and cross-posts.

The canonical executive writing. LinkedIn Pulse essays archived here, plus AIinASIA cross-posts that earn a longer read.

Read the essays
This quarter

/now.

What I am working on this quarter. Updated monthly. Borrowed from Derek Sivers and the nownownow.com convention.

See what is current
Stage and panel

/speaking.

Recent and upcoming keynotes, panels, and moderation. Selected engagements across Asia-Pacific and beyond.

See the calendar

Recent feature.

A longer conversation on the craft behind the work.

Recent and upcoming.

Selected engagements. Full calendar on the speaking page.

Adrian Watkins on stage opening the Taipei City Government Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 event.
Opening keynote, Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025. Taipei City Government, November 2025.
November 2025

Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025.

Guest of Taipei City Government. Opened the event with "Democratising Intelligence for a Sustainable Future" and moderated the startup panel. Post-event reflection on LinkedIn Pulse.

Since May 2026

SDG Open Hack 2026, NP Edition.

Mentor on the Ngee Ann Polytechnic edition of SDG Open Hack 2026. Running across the hack window and beyond.

Ready for a real conversation about AI?

I am selective about what I take on. A 30-minute call is the right place to start, even if we conclude we are not a fit.

I typically respond within two business days. Singapore-based, available across Asia-Pacific time zones.