Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, gave the UNC journalism school’s Nelson Benton Lecture in collaboration with the Carolina Seminar on Business Journalism and Public Policy on Nov. 17 in Carroll Hall on the UNC campus.
The event was co-sponsored by the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and UNC Public Policy.
Before the lecture, Baker joined Dean Susan King in the Carolina News Studio for a quick talk. Watch their conversation.
Before becoming editor-in-chief Jan. 1, 2013, Baker served as deputy editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.
Prior the Journal, Baker was the U.S. editor and an assistant editor of The Times in London, where he wrote news and commentary for Britain’s longest continuously published newspaper and oversaw U.S. coverage for the paper and online editions.
From 1994 to 2004, Baker worked for the Financial Times, first as Tokyo correspondent, where he wrote about the country’s financial crisis, and then, from 1998 to 2002, as Washington bureau chief, where he led a team of 10 correspondents and provided extensive reporting and analysis of the Federal Reserve. From 2002 to 2004, he was chief U.S. commentator and an associate editor of the Financial Times.
Baker also worked for the BBC from 1988 to 1994, as a producer, then as U.S. producer, and finally as economics correspondent for TV and radio.
Baker’s work has appeared in many other publications, and he has been a frequent television and radio contributor in the U.K., the U.S. and around the world.
Baker started his career in the financial sector, first as an analyst at the Bank of England, then as an economist at Lloyds Bank in London.
He graduated from Corpus Christi College Oxford in 1983 with a First Class Honours Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.