Politico names tech reporter, hires energy and financial services reporters from Bloomberg

Marty Kady, editor of Politico Pro, sent out the following staff announcement on Monday morning:

Morning all,

We have some exciting staff news coming out of the August recess for Pro, with a handful of new reporters on board and one big veteran reporter move within Pro.

First off, Tony Romm, whose tenure pre-dates the launch of Pro five plus years ago, is expanding his horizons on the Pro Tech team and moving to New York, where he will develop a more ambitious national technology policy beat that will still include a heavy dose of Washington policy coverage, but also include coverage of technology policy and influencers in New York, Silicon Valley and throughout the country. This will be a truly national Pro beat, and Tony, who has been a presence on every major tech story since we started Pro, is a natural fit.

We also have three reporters starting in September for Pro:

Anthony Adragna joins the Pro Energy team Tuesday and will soon take the reins of Morning Energy. Anthony comes to us from Bloomberg BNA, where he has been an ambitious competitor on the energy beat and a constant presence on Capitol Hill since 2012. Before that, Anthony was a freelance writer in Seattle, and he is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. Anthony starts today.

Benjamin Wermund joins Pro Education as its new higher education reporter. Ben spent the past few years covering higher education at the Houston Chronicle, where he showed a knack for aggressive accountability reporting. His stories exposed the mismanagement of a $425 million bond program at Houston Community College, the questionable spending on a $128 million football stadium at the University of Houston, and UH’s decision to spend big on a commencement day speaker: actor Matthew McConaughey was paid more than $135,000. Ben’s education beat reporting was a national finalist for an Education Writers Association award. Prior to working at the Chronicle, Ben also covered education for the Austin American-Statesman. Ben starts today.

Lorraine Woellert will join the financial services team on Sept. 20th. Lorraine covered the housing finance beat at Bloomberg in the aftermath of the financial crisis. And as a reporter at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the Washington Times and other newspapers, she’s covered everything from presidential campaigns to the national economy. She comes to us from Redfin, where she’s spent the last year creating a housing-news site and building out the company’s analysis of market data and trends. Lorraine starts in late September.

Please join us in congratulating Tony and welcome the new staff!