Liv Apneseth Watson

Director of Global Business Development, WebFilings

Liv Apneseth Watson is a globally recognized expert in corporate governance, financial reporting, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. As one of the original developers of the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) standard and a founder of the XBRL International consortium, Liv has been at the forefront of modernizing and integrating reporting frameworks.

She co-authored “Bringing Order to the Chaos: Integrating Sustainability Reporting Frameworks and Financial Reporting into One Report with XBRL,” featured in Harvard Business School's eBook “The Landscape of Integrated Reporting.”

Liv's contributions extend to working with leading market regulators, accounting associations, and institutions as a global ambassador for IFRS and Enhanced Business Reporting concepts. She frequently speaks at international conferences, sharing her expertise on corporate governance and global reporting standards.

Her leadership roles include serving on the International Accounting Standards Advisory Board and the XBRL International Steering Committee.

As an accomplished writer and commentator, Liv has co-authored or contributed to several influential books, including:

• XBRL for Dummies

• The Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook

• Trust Meltdown

Her articles and insights have been featured in prestigious publications like the Harvard Business Review and Strategic Finance. Notably, one of her articles received the Lybrand Silver Medal in 2007 and was included in the International Federation of Accountants’ (IFAC) Articles of Merit.

In addition, Liv developed one of the Institute of Management Accountants’ most successful CPE courses, “Accounting System Technology for the 21st Century.”