CNBC reporter Thomas departing for new opportunity

Lauren Thomas

CNBC reporter Lauren Thomas is leaving the news organization for a new opportunity.

Thomas is a retail reporter focused on covering mergers and acquisitions, activist investing, IPOs and bankruptcies across the industry.

She joined CNBC’s digital team in 2017 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied business journalism and Spanish. She started her career at CNBC covering the retail industry more broadly, breaking news on companies such as Macy’s, Gap and Lululemon, and interviewing dozens of top retail executives for stories and on stage at events.

In early 2022, Thomas broke a series of stories on what was unraveling inside of Peloton after its pandemic-fueled boom. That included layoffs, cost cuts and a dramatic production slowdown. She also broke a number of stories as the department store chain Kohl’s negotiated deal talks that ultimately fell apart.

She appears regularly on CNBC’s programming to discuss her reporting. She has also been on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show and MSNBC.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.