Darren Watts
Founder · Talon Global

Darren Watts

GRC, ISO management systems — and the technology that makes compliance actually work.

13+ years5 ISO standards certified5 entities · 5 jurisdictionsDubai, UAE
Profile

For years I've designed integrated ISO management systems — treating the frameworks as design tools, not paperwork — and taken them through to certification across some of the hardest-regulated operations there are. But, unusually for a compliance lead, I never handed the technology to IT and hoped it held. I built it myself: the platforms, portals and reporting tools that make a management system run on operations, not on one person holding it together. That's what brought me here — I'm now building Talon Global, turning the way I do compliance into an AI-native product, so it works without me in the room.

Expertise
ISO systems — 18788, 28000, 28007, 9001, 45001, 27001, 42001; working 22301, 31000, 14001
Integrated MS— multi-standard design, build & group certification
Audit leadership— Stage 1 & Stage 2 as accountable lead
Risk— 5×5 H&S and PESTLE security/business frameworks
Sanctions, KYC & DD — screening, third-party due diligence, controlled goods
Human rights— VPSHR & ICoCA frameworks
Compliance tech — LMS, incident reporting, portals, screening tools
Applied AI — building AI-native compliance tooling, and the governance to keep it audit-defensible (ISO 42001, EU AI Act)
The short version
Before 2011
The technical grounding
Electronic security and operations.
2011
The ground floor
Into the industry as an operations administrator.
2014
Compliance becomes the craft
First dedicated compliance role.
2016
Building the technology
Product manager — software, not just policy.
2020
Back to operations
Director level, running the operation.
2025
Group Compliance Director
The big one — an integrated system, five ISO standards, certified.
Now
Founder, Talon Global
Turning it all into an AI-native product.

The full history is on LinkedIn →

What I've built

A management system that only lives in policy documents doesn't survive contact with an audit. What makes it hold is the tooling around it — and I've built that, end to end.

So far: a company-wide learning platform with AI-assisted assessment and certification; a live incident and near-miss reporting app; client-facing due-diligence and audit portals; sanctions-screening and KYC tooling; and the integrated management system that ties it all together. Talon Global is where that goes next — the same instinct, built as a product.

Let's talk

Same fights. Different problems.

A compliance brain shaped by twenty years in one of the world's hardest-regulated industries, taken somewhere new.