Dr. Scott Watkins

Dr Scott Watkins is the Chief Sustainability Officer with KISCO, a Korean chemicals and inks manufacturer. He has worked with KISCO since 2015, spending a significant proportion of his time in Seoul while living in Melbourne. Scott’s role is to lead KISCO’s ESG strategy and help develop new business areas. In 2020 Scott negotiated KISCO's strategic partnership with and investment into Boron Molecular, an Australian chemical manufacturer that was a CSIRO spin-out company. In 2022, Scott was appointed by DFAT to the Board of the Australia Korea Foundation (AKF).

Scott is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and currently serves as a non-executive director and Chair of the Board for two Australian not-for-profit organisations: Pollinate Group and parkrun Australia.

Scott has a PhD in Chemistry from UNSW and spent four years in the UK working in two start-up companies, out of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, in the area of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). He subsequently spent 10 years with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, as a research scientist and manager where he led work on developing the materials and processes to enable the production of flexible solar cells. Scott served on the Industry Advisory Board for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science from 2017 to 2024.

Areas of expertise: R&D, Education, Sustainability, Governance