Journalist Drajem leaves Bloomberg

Mark Drajem, who worked on the energy team at Bloomberg News, left the news organization this week.

Drajem was a reporter before becoming editor of First Word Energy.

As a reporter covering energy and environment, Drajem teamed with Jack Kaskey for a series of stories on the regulatory failures that led to the West, Texas chemical-plant explosion. Those stories won the National Press Foundation Feddie award in 2014.

Before covering energy, he wrote about finance, the World Bank and international trade from Bloomberg’s Washington bureau. Drajem has travelled with presidents Bush and Clinton on international trips, and led up Bloomberg’s operations in Pakistan after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Drajem was a freelancer based in New Delhi. His articles from India and Pakistan ran in the Dallas Morning News, Baltimore Sun, WorldView magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

A native of Buffalo, New York and alumnus of the University of Notre Dame, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in what was then Zaire and a newspaper reporter in Canandaigua, New York.