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\nJackie Simmons came to Bloomberg almost two decades ago with her sights on working in our Paris bureau. Matt Winkler, Bloomberg editor in chief at the time, was building Bloomberg\u2019s news division and thought that was a pretty good idea. Off to Paris she went.<\/p>\n
Over the course of her career in Bloomberg News, Jackie has held several roles in the European bureau, covering everything from luxury goods to investment banking. Recently she moved to London to take on the role of executive editor for Global Business. <\/p>\n
In this edition of ‘Ten Minutes With’, Jackie discusses how she has successfully navigated her career at Bloomberg, her most challenging moments, and the future of Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n
How did you arrive at Bloomberg?<\/strong> I was beaming when Matt Winkler asked, \u201cWhen can you Why Paris?<\/strong> Tell us about your Bloomberg career<\/strong> How did you last so long in France?<\/strong> It helps being on a beat where you\u2019re breaking news about What is your new role?<\/strong> Running it from London is a bonus: I work across three time What’s the key to your success as a journalist at Bloomberg?<\/strong> Tell us about a memorable experience during your time with Bloomberg<\/strong> I\u2019m not big on public speaking. I get nervous and this was So, why is this so memorable? Because it was challenging on
\nI was living in New York in the early 1990s, working on the
\nspot news desk of the Wall Street Journal. I was intrigued by
\nBloomberg TV — all that movement — the rolling ticker tape,
\nnews headlines, weather…it caught my attention. So when I
\napplied for jobs in Paris, where I wanted to anchor myself, I
\nheard Bloomberg was hiring and applied.<\/p>\n
\nstart?\u201d right at the end of my job interview in the New York
\noffice. He walked me through the newsroom, introduced me to
\nfolks, handed me a stack of books (Bloomberg Way and several
\nstyle books, among other literature). And that was that. I spent
\ntwo weeks in New York before my transfer to Paris. That was
\n1996. There were only a handful of people in that office and
\nBloomberg was expanding pretty significantly in the region.<\/p>\n
\nI had always had an interest in coming to France because I
\nlearned the language. I went to business school for part of my
\nlast year at university and I spent a lot of time in European
\ncountries. I lived in Belgium over a period of summers doing odd
\njobs before becoming an intern at the Wall Street Journal in
\nEurope.<\/p>\n
\nI was hired in Paris to cover consumer goods, notably
\nluxury goods companies and consumer retail companies. Then it
\nwas M&A, then investment banking, and then more M&A. I ran the
\nDeals team with a colleague in Europe. Eventually I became
\nmanaging editor for Companies and now I\u2019ve got this job,
\nexecutive editor for Global Business. That\u2019s a lot of different
\nroles over 19 years, which is a long time!<\/p>\n
\n(LAUGH) Thank God for the Eurostar! France isn\u2019t as active
\nand noisy and bustling as London for the things I\u2019ve covered,
\nbut it is still a very prominent country with a lot of important
\nglobal companies, a lot of investment bankers, and a lot of M&A
\nactivity.<\/p>\n
\nsome of the biggest global companies, a lot of which are based
\non the continent or in France. But I was also able to have the
\nflexibility to go to London and stay connected to the banking
\ncommunity and source the community in that market.<\/p>\n
\nRunning Global Business (formerly Companies) from London.
\nThe name \u201cGlobal Business\u201d captures a lot of what the group\u2019s
\ngoal is: 1) it\u2019s more specific and 2) conveys a sense of mission
\nto think broadly, as part of industries that are collectively
\nreacting to similar issues: geopolitical change, economic and
\nmacro shifts, regional politics, etc., as well as their own
\nissues. It\u2019s just a broader way to capture the coverage.<\/p>\n
\nzones (Asia, Europe, Americas), allowing better coordination and
\na wider optics on what makes industries tick.<\/p>\n
\nRemembering that none of us work alone and communication is
\nthe most important thing we can do. This is especially true
\ngiven the breadth of resources at our disposal. We produce
\nscoops and the smartest stories through good communication. That
\nwas the case with our GE-Alstom coverage last year, a story we
\nowned from start to finish for nearly a year, and which involved
\nDeals, several bureaus, Company teams, TV, Graphics, etc.<\/p>\n
\nIt was two weeks after I was named managing editor for
\nCompanies in Europe. I went to monitor a panel on corporate CEOs
\non the topic of \u201cleaning in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\na room full of, I don\u2019t know, maybe a thousand or so people. It
\nwas telecast and webcast I could see my face in three different
\nscreens (LAUGH). I mean, I think anybody, even people who are
\ncomfortable, might have felt uncomfortable in those
\ncircumstances. But I was really uncomfortable; I just haven\u2019t
\ndone any of that. I\u2019ve done small roundtables or speaking to
\ngroups and the team internally. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\nso many levels! I was trying to get over my stage fright and it
\nwas coming on the back of a promotion.<\/p>\n