Putka named managing editor of NECIR

Gary Putka, who had been an editor at Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal, has been named the managing editor of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

He starts on Nov. 23.

Putka was most recently as U.S. team leader for projects and investigations and editor-at-large at Bloomberg News. Prior to his work at Bloomberg, Putka served as a senior editor and Boston bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal, where he worked for nearly 30 years. The reporters he has captained have won or shared in four Pulitzer Prizes, four George Polk Awards, a Goldsmith Award, a Gerald Loeb award, and many other honors.

“Gary Putka’s judgment and vision have directed some of the most important investigations in the country over the last 15 years,” said NECIR executive director Joe Bergantino in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome him to our organization and to count on his expertise at this critical time in the Center’s growth.”

Putka’s experience executing high-impact investigations has included in-depth reporting and editing in the fields of finance, business, health care, and education. His reporting on Ivy-League price fixing led to a U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawsuit and consent decree. His reporters’ work on stock-options backdating fraud helped prompt investigations at more than 100 companies and the ousting of numerous executives.

Members of his team exposed fraud and neglect in the for-profit hospice industry, contributed to award-winning coverage of the Federal Reserve’s bailout of Wall Street, and revealed secret donors whose campaign spending helped change the outcome the 2010 Congressional elections. He has edited more than 400 front-page features for the Wall Street Journal and reported from Western Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as a London-based foreign correspondent.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting is an independent nonprofit news outlet affiliated with Boston University and based at the studios of WGBH News (PBS & NPR, Boston). Its mission is to hold the powerful accountable with high-impact reporting in the public interest, and to train a new generation of investigative journalists.