Changes at Heard on the Street

Thorold Baker, who oversees the Heard on the Street column at The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement to the staff on Monday:

Spencer Jakab has joined the Heard on the Street team, following the departure of Kelly Evans.

Spencer, who previously worked for the FT’s Lex Column, will write Ahead of the Tape while also contributing to the Heard. He brings a wealth of experience to his new role. Before the FT he was a reporter and columnist at Dow Jones Newswires and he once ran Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa equity research for Credit Suisse.

Justin Lahart has also joined the Heard team to cover retail and consumer industries, industrials, autos, airlines and macroeconomic issues. Justin is a seasoned commentator, having once written Ahead of the Tape and penned a column for TheStreet.com and CNNMoney. As former econ writer for the journal, he also brings invaluable knowledge on the global economy.

David Reilly, will continue to oversee Ahead of the Tape day-to-day, as well as becoming co-deputy editor of Heard on the Street and writing about banks.

Liam Denning, who also becomes co-deputy editor, will no longer write about industrials, concentrating instead on global energy and commodities.