WSJ beefs up its Europe finance team

Duncan Mavin, the Europe finance editor for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, sent out the following staff announcement on Wednesday:

We are excited to announce several key appointments to the Journal/Newswires Banking and Insurance team in London. The appointments reflect ongoing efforts to add considerable strength and depth to our existing top-notch coverage of finance and markets in Europe.

David Enrich becomes Europe Banking and Insurance Editor for the Journal and Newswires. David has been with Dow Jones since 2003 as a reporter and editor in New York and London. His coverage of financial services on both sides of the Atlantic has led to numerous accolades, including, in 2012, an Overseas Press Club award for coverage of the European financial crisis and a George Polk Award for coverage of insider trading. He was also part of teams of Journal reporters who were finalists for Pulitzer Prizes in 2009 and 2011. David was most recently the Journal’s Banking Editor for Europe. He is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Calif., a native of Lexington, Mass., and a fan of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Joe Ortiz is appointed Deputy News Editor, Banking and Insurance, Europe. Joe joined Newswires four years ago as a columnist for Dow Jones Investment Banker–which later became Dow Jones Banking Intelligence–writing most frequently about Europe’s financial services industry. Prior to that, he spent 28 years with Reuters, most recently as a Madrid-based correspondent covering financials, energy and general news. He was also Reuters’s chief sub editor in London, European banking correspondent, U.K. banking correspondent and senior correspondent covering fixed income and debt restructuring. Joe is fluent in Spanish and a graduate of King’s College, London.

Geoff Smith becomes Financial Regulation Reporter, Europe. He will work closely with reporters and editors around the region to break news on the regulatory issues reshaping the landscape for Europe’s banks and insurance companies. Geoff joined Dow Jones in Frankfurt in 1993 as a capital markets reporter, before stints as Assistant News Editor for energy and Newswires bureau chief in Vienna and Moscow. After a brief foray into investment banking, he returned to Dow Jones in Frankfurt in 2009 to cover the ECB and was latterly London-based Assistant Managing Editor for FX Trader in Europe. Geoff graduated as a linguist from Keble College, Oxford, and is hopeful of quickly adding Regulatory Gobbledygook to the French, German and Russian already on his resume.

Joe, Geoff and Jenny will report to David. David will report to me. Please join me in congratulating all of them on their appointments and wishing them much success in their new roles.