FT makes editorial changes in U.S. and U.K.

The Financial Times announced Thursday several new appointments to its American and British editorial teams:

John McDermott has been named executive comment editor, responsible for editing the FT’s comment pages both in print and online. He will be based in London, reporting to Alec Russell, comment and analysis editor.

McDermott was previously a New York reporter for FT Alphaville, the award winning finance and markets blog. Prior to joining the FT in 2010, he was a policy advisor for the UK Prime Minister’s Policy Units.

Guy Chazan joins the FT as energy correspondent, based in London. In this role, he will cover OPEC and the IEA (International Energy Agency), the European majors (Total, ENI, Repsol, Statoil) and some of the national oil companies.

Chazan previously served as the Wall Street Journal’s energy correspondent and Moscow correspondent.

Tracy Alloway has been appointed U.S. financial correspondent, based in New York. She will cover Wall Street investment banks and other financial institutions. Alloway was previously deputy editor of FT Alphaville, as well as a London-based capital markets correspondent.

Vivianne Rodrigues has also joined the FT’s New York bureau as U.S. capital markets reporter, covering U.S. markets with a particular focus on currencies, as well as emerging markets. She also writes the FT’s Global Market Overview from New York.

Rodrigues joined the FT in 2010 as a writer for FT Tilt. She previously served as a foreign exchange correspondent at Thomson Reuters and as a U.S. Treasury reporter at Bloomberg News, reporting on U.S. financial markets and the economy.