Knowledge informs. Execution transforms.

Josiah Waters brings extensive experience at the intersection of international finance, geopolitical strategy, and national-security analysis. As the founder of 1201, he advises senior leaders, global institutions, and public-policy stakeholders on the strategic implications of capital flows, regulatory systems, and state-directed economic behavior. His work focuses on how financial architecture influences global power dynamics and how institutions can position themselves to make informed, resilient decisions in an increasingly complex strategic environment.

Mr. Waters has deep and long-standing experience in China, informed by direct engagement with Chinese financial institutions, state-linked commercial entities, and senior industry figures. During the early expansion of China’s private-equity sector, he played a key role in introducing multiple top-tier private-equity firms into the Chinese market at a time when China’s financial system was rapidly institutionalizing and when U.S.-China financial relations were becoming strategically consequential. His insight into China’s economic architecture, regulatory posture, and geopolitical aims has guided advisory work for major United States financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan, and has led to his participation in high-level banking forums, keynote programs, and strategic policy roundtables.

Before establishing 1201, Mr. Waters co-founded a firm responsible for more than 1.8 billion dollars in real-estate and mixed-use development financings. He earned distinction for structuring sophisticated multinational capital arrangements and for navigating politically sensitive and heavily regulated environments across several jurisdictions.

Mr. Waters served on the Forbes Finance Council in 2022 and 2023 and brings advanced expertise in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, political and regulatory strategy, joint ventures, equity and credit structuring, leveraged finance, and global deal architecture. His advisory portfolio integrates financial analysis with geopolitical and national-security assessment, supporting clients who operate in environments where economic policy, state priorities, and strategic competition shape institutional risk and opportunity.

In addition to his advisory work, Mr. Waters maintains equity interests within the dining and hospitality sector across more than two hundred locations and four national brands.

He currently resides in Washington, DC.