Timmermans hired to run Reynolds Center at Arizona State

Jeffrey Timmermans has been named the Reynolds Chair in Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Timmermans will direct Cronkite’s Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, which works with journalists around the world to improve the quality of coverage of business and the economy, as well as teach business journalism courses.

As head of the Reynolds Center and an endowed chair, he will develop strategies to advance business journalism in the digital age, build partnerships across the university and industry, and expand training programs for business journalists domestically and abroad.

“I’ve been using Reynolds Center’s materials in my teaching for years, so it’s a tremendous honor to take on this new role,” Timmermans said in a statement. “Business and financial news impacts all of us, and business journalists today face a daunting task in helping readers and viewers make sense of it all. The Reynolds Center will continue to be at the forefront of that effort – globally.”

Timmermans currently is associate professor of practice and director of the undergraduate journalism program at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches economics and business and financial journalism courses for both graduate and undergraduate students.

He has more than a decade of professional experience as a business journalist in the U.S. and Asia. He covered the finance and banking industries for many years, serving as the Tokyo correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, correspondent for the AP-Dow Jones News Service in Tokyo, and correspondent for the International Financing Review in Hong Kong. He also served as senior correspondent and Hong Kong bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires.

In 2000, Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal named Timmermans news editor with responsibility for overseeing equities coverage for the Asia-Pacific region. He was subsequently named managing editor, holding that position until he left in 2007 to become associate director for public relations at Bain & Co., one of the world’s top business consulting firms, where he was responsible for leading and implementing the company’s public relations strategy in Asia.