Vamos named first O’Neil chair in biz journalism at SMU

Mark Vamos, former editor-in-chief of the national business magazine Fast Company and a former senior editor of both Newsweek and BusinessWeek, has been appointed the William J. O’Neil Chair in Business Journalism and senior lecturer at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He will start in August with the beginning of the fall term.

At SMU, Vamos will teach business journalism and media management and will coordinate the new business journalism program in the Meadows School Division of Journalism with new business and financial reporting programs at the Cox School of Business.

He also will coordinate the ongoing William J. O’Neil Lecture Series in Business Journalism, a program that each semester brings outstanding business journalism professionals to the SMU campus.

“We are thrilled to have a professional of Mark Vamos’s caliber as the first O’Neil Chair in Business Journalism,” said Tony Pederson, the Belo Distinguished Chair of the Division of Journalism at the Meadows School. “It is clear just from recent news events that business and financial journalism is growing in importance, and globalization and converging media will only heighten this trend in coming years.”

Vamos joined Fast Company in 2003 and served as executive editor for two years before becoming editor-in-chief. He oversaw the redesign and re-launch of the innovative business monthly, which has a circulation of 725,000; set editorial strategy; oversaw a staff of 25; and made numerous media appearances and gave talks before civic, academic and industry groups.

Prior to joining Fast Company, Vamos was an adjunct professor for a year at New York University, where he taught introductory reporting and writing to undergraduates and was invited to return as an adjunct in the graduate school of journalism.

From 1999-2002, Vamos served as deputy editor and then editor-in-chief of SmartMoney.com, running all of the editorial operations of the National Magazine Award-winning website, which focuses on real-time market news, investing and personal finance.

From 1997-99, Vamos was senior editor of Newsweek, where he directed the magazine’s coverage of business and personal finance and supervised an award-winning staff that included Alan Sloan, Jane Bryant Quinn and Robert Samuelson.

Prior to joining Newsweek, Vamos spent 13 years at Business Week, where he held various positions in editing, reporting and writing. He served as senior editor from 1990-1997, managing core corporate coverage, directing the Business Week/Harris Poll and overseeing coverage of the first Gulf War.

Vamos earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1976 and an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1983, where he was a Robert E. Sherwood Scholar.

O’Neil is the founder of Investor’s Business Daily and an SMU alumnus.