Hays, former WSJ and Bloomberg editor, becomes CEO of The Fuller Project

Laurie Hays, a Pulitzer-Prize winning editor who spent 30 years leading investigations and enterprise reporting at the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, has been named editor-in-chief and CEO of The Fuller Project.

The Fuller Project is nonprofit newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting that catalyzes positive change for women.

In the newly created role, Hays will oversee both the day-to-day operations of the newsroom and the business functions of the nonprofit. She replaces Fuller co-founder and CEO Xanthe Scharff, who will continue to support The Fuller Project as a special advisor.

Hays’ professional journalism career began in New Orleans as a politics and education reporter for the States-Item and Times Picayune. She joined the Wall Street Journal in 1986, where she reported from Moscow during the fall of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1993, served as bureau chief in Atlanta, national news editor starting in 2003, and finally as assistant managing editor for investigations.

After 23 years, she left the Journal in 2008 for Bloomberg News to oversee 1,200 beat reporters globally and reshape the newsroom to break more stories and pursue stronger enterprise articles. Under her leadership, Bloomberg won its first and only Pulitzer Prize, along with numerous education and business reporting awards.

She left Bloomberg in 2015 to work in crisis consulting for Brunswick and Edelman, and later founded Laurie Hays & Assoc., a strategic communications advisory firm focused on business and society, primarily working on #MeToo issues and advocating for equality in the workplace for women and people of color.