LinkedIn hires Siew as financial services editor

Walden Siew

Walden Siew, who has worked at Investment News, Bloomberg and Reuters, has been hired by LinkedIn as its financial services editor.

Siew writes, “Joining LinkedIn is a departure for me from a traditional journalism path. But it really feels like a natural transition that mirrors the transformation and disruption that is shaking up the entire media industry. The move also is a continuation of my work at Crain’s InvestmentNews — where I have served as News Editor for investing and technology coverage over the past year, overseeing the newsletter service and projects such as the 2016 40 Under 40 class of top financial advisers — and my previous work at Bloomberg News and Thomson Reuters, where I helped launch the Global Markets Forum, an online community for financial professionals. At LinkedIn, I will be part of a team that is building a modern newsroom on one of the most exciting and influential global digital platforms.

“When I started covering finance in 2000, the financial services industry was in the midst of a tech-fueled boom that was about to go bust. Venture capital money was pouring into any startup that would replace traditional brick-and-mortar businesses; Silicon Valley was the driving force of the new economy that would displace Wall Street as a financial center. Sound familiar? The crash slowed the tech takeover down — and finance soon had much bigger problems: the U.S. subprime mortgage bubble and 2008 financial crisis paralyzed global financial markets and led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Now, as the new financial services order has adjusted to the “New Normal,” it’s suddenly coming to grips with more disruption: the rise of fintech, the potential and problems of blockchains and the populist pressure that led to the surprise victory for President-elect Trump and other anti-establishment leaders, which will have a profound impact on global finance centers (search LinkedIn for Brexit and banks to get a sense!).”