WSJ names new economics coverage leaders

Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Paul Beckett sent out the following announcement:

All: I am delighted to announce a new leadership lineup in our Global Economics team, which will ensure that we extend our lead as the premier global publication for major breaking news and insightful analysis on all economic matters, from the White House and Washington policy circles to the furthest reaches of our coverage footprint globally. This is one of our core strengths at the WSJ and an area where we are blessed with an abundance of rare talent, in Washington and around the world, whose work our readers appreciate every day.

Jon Hilsenrath is Global Economics Editor, a role in which he will be responsible for leading our economics coverage across all our platforms.

Jon has been at the WSJ since 1997. Working in Hong Kong, New York and Washington D.C., he has spent a career at the cross-sections of economics, finance and central banking. He just completed an eight-year stint covering the Federal Reserve, including during the worst parts of the financial crisis and its aftermath. Before that, he was in New York as markets editor where he worked with a team of reporters examining the building credit market bubble and subsequent meltdown. In New York and Hong Kong as a reporter he’s written Heard on the Street columns, covered Asia’s late 1990s financial crisis, tracked academic economics, economic data, and more. He graduated from Duke University in 1989 and was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow and MBA graduate from Columbia Business School in 1996.

Becky Bowers is Deputy Global Economics Editor. In her new role, Becky will be responsible for editing our economics coverage from Washington and elsewhere and driving home even more our digital imperative, building on her very successful run at the helm of the Real Time Economics vertical.

Becky joined the newsroom as editor of Real Time Economics in September 2014. She had worked for the Tampa Bay Times since 2002 on the wire, business and politics desks, most recently as a reporter, deputy business editor, deputy government and politics editor, and digital operations manager for PolitiFact.com. She studied journalism at her hometown California State University, Chico. Becky will report to Jon.

Nick Timiraos is Chief Economic Correspondent, responsible for spearheading our economic policy coverage across both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department.

Nick joined the Economics team in 2014 in Washington, where he has covered the economy, fiscal policy and Treasury. Before taking that assignment, he reported from New York on the U.S. housing and mortgage markets, including the federal government’s response to the foreclosure crisis and the finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2008, he contributed to the Journal’s coverage of the presidential election. Nick joined the Journal in 2006 and is a graduate of Georgetown University. Nick will report to Jon.

Please join me in wishing Jon, Becky and Nick the best of luck in their new and vital roles.

Thanks and best,
Paul