Theo Francis
Experienced journalist with an extensive investigative record covering complex financial, business, legal & public-policy issues and multiple industries. Strong online & data-journalism experience & interests.
Experience
BusinessWeek, correspondent
Covered business and financial regulation in Washington, D.C., including 2008 election and government response to the financial crisis and recession; wrote a mix of analytic online daily stories and more in-depth magazine pieces.
August 2008 – December 2009
The Wall Street Journal, staff writer
Covered health-care, pensions, employee benefits and executive pay issues. Wrote investigative, explanatory and personal-finance articles, spot news, industry trends and more; shot video and helped develop online graphics. Also covered life and property-casualty insurance, mutual funds and stocks.
September 2000 – August 2008
Bloomberg News, regulatory reporter
Covered housing and derivatives regulation. Joined with Bloomberg acquisition of BusinessWeek.
December 2009 – March 2010
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, business writer
Covered nursing homes, managed care, insurance, other health-care issues for the statewide newspaper, based in Little Rock. Also covered economic development, labor and agriculture. Wrote in-depth and spot-news stories under tight deadlines, within beat and beyond. Developed packages, assisted other reporters with research, packaged data for graphics.
October 1998 – September 2000
Daily Record, municipal reporter
Wrote regular spot-news, enterprise and in-depth stories; covered crime, schools, government, business, everything else; some courts and general assignment reporting.
June 1997 – October 1998
Morningstar Inc.’s footnoted.com, senior reporter
Dig through public-company disclosures for hidden details to publish on footnoted.com and in the footnotedPro subscription service for professional investors. Took the lead on a major business plan revision; designed & built online database tools for internal use, using PHP & MySQL.
March 2010 – present
2005
Publication Services Inc., technical production support assistant
Built and maintained databases, proofread, helped develop new-media products.
March 1996 – August 1996
Petersburg Pilot, reporter-photographer
Covered commercial fishing, logging, tourism, local business, city government, police, courts, everything else in Petersburg, Alaska, pop. 3,400. For six months, filled and edited each 16- to 24-page paper alone. Shot photographs and copy-edited.
January 1995 – January 1996
The Daily Illini, city-state editor, reporter, copy editor
Assigned and edited stories for 20 student reporters at independent daily of the University of Illinois; covered Champaign-Urbana municipal government for a year each; wrote spot news and features.
August 1990 – June 1994
Education
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Master of Science in Journalism, with honors
May 1997
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Communications
Bachelor of Science in Journalism, news-editorial
† With Ellen E. Schultz
May 1994
Awards
2009
Jack Newfield Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting, Friends & Relatives of the Institutionalized Aged, for article on nursing-home evictions
Clarion Award for Newspaper Investigative Series†, Association for Women in Communications, for articles on executive pensions and Social Security
George Polk Award, economics reporting†, for series about employers profiting from retiree health plans
William Brewster Styles Award for Business/Economics Reporting†, Scripps-Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards, for the same series
UCLA Anderson School of Business, Loeb Award for beat writing†, for “The Short Life of 'Lifetime' Health-Care Benefits” & deadline-writing finalist (team)
2004
UCLA Anderson School of Business, Loeb Award for deadline writing (team) for “The Day Grasso Quit as NYSE Chief,” and beat-reporting finalist†
New York Press Club award† for business reporting for “Hidden Roots of the Pension Crisis.”
2003
Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for coverage of corporate scandals (team)
George Polk Award in financial reporting†, for series on firms that benefit by buying life-insurance on workers
Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for “What’s Wrong” series on corporate scandals (team)
Skills
Good background with computer-assisted research and reporting, relational database design (including MySQL and Microsoft Access), and web development (using PHP, CSS and HTML). Experience with news photography and Hi-8 videography and editing, print design and layout. Some experience with web design, UNIX, and feature photography. Proficient in German, some knowledge of Brazilian Portuguese.