Mollenkamp joined the Journal in November 1997 and covered financial institutions. He was considered one of its top reporters.
In March 2009, Mollenkamp and a team of reporters received two awards. The first came from the New York Newspaper Publishers Association in the category of distinguished investigative business reporting for the article: “Lehman’s demise: The shock heard round the world.” The second award came from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was in the breaking news category for coverage of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
In May 2008, Mollenkamp, along with a team of Journal reporters, received an award from the New York Press Club in the business category for “Mortgage Meltdown on Wall Street.” In 2008 Mollenkamp also received awards from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the New York Newspaper Publishers Association.
In April 2004, Mollenkamp, along with Journal colleagues David Reilly and Alessandra Galloni, won the Overseas Press Club’s Malcolm Forbes Award for coverage of the scandal at Parmalat SpA. In July 2003, Mollenkamp, along with fellow Journal reporters Rebecca Blumenstein, Gregory Zuckerman, Jared Sandberg, Shawn Young, Susan Pulliam and Deborah Solomon won a Gerald Loeb Award in deadline writing for “WorldCom’s Whirlwind Demise.”
Mollenkamp began his journalism career as a clerk with the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. He has worked for the Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal, Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, N.C., the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer and Bloomberg News. While at Bloomberg, he and three colleagues, wrote “The People v. Big Tobacco,” a book about tobacco litigation.
Mollenkamp was born in Atlanta and attended Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.