Vicky Ward

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Victoria Penelope Jane Ward

Born July 3, 1969 (1969-07-03) (age 40)
Chelmsford, England
Occupation investigative journalist, columnist, newspaper and magazine editor, and television commentator.

Victoria Penelope Jane ("Vicky") Ward (born July 3, 1969) is a British-born investigative journalist, columnist, and television commentator. She is a former magazine deputy editor and newspaper editor. She has lived in New York City since 1997.

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[edit] Early life

Vicky Ward was born in England to Jillian and Simon Ward, a financier; she is the eldest of three sisters.

She was educated at single-sex boarding schools from the age of nine: first until the age of thirteen at Godstowe Preparatory School in Buckinghamshire, England, where she won the coveted role of school pianist, and then from 1982 to 1987 at the famous Benenden Girl's School in Kent, England, where she was an academic scholar. At Benenden, Ward met and befriended Academy Award-winning actor Rachel Weisz, with whom she would later study at Cambridge. During her intermediary year, Ward spent time in Italy, where she studied both the Italian language and art history, and Germany, where she became fluent in German. She received both her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in English literature from Trinity Hall College at Cambridge University.

Ward lives in New York City and is active in local literary philanthropy. She sits on boards of the New York Public Library (she is co-chairman of the Cubs program there) and the Late Night Committee of the Public Theater.

[edit] Journalism career

Ward began her journalism career in the chairman’s office of British Condé Nast. After only three months, Ward moved on to become the sub-editor of “The Insider,” the gossip column in the now-defunct British newspaper, Today, followed by a position at the Daily Telegraph, writing features and penning the weekly "Financial Diary". At 23, while continuing to write features, Ward became the editor of The Independent's daily gossip column, in charge of a staff of four – the youngest person in Britain to hold a position of that responsibility. Despite the Independent’s refusal to publish Ward’s story on the suicide of British aristocrat Lady Caithness, citing an assumed lack of public interest, she submitted the article to the judges of the Catherine Pakenham award, Britain’s annual award for women journalists under 25, and was honored with the runner-up prize.

Before moving to the United States in 1997, Ward wrote for a number of prominent British publications, including the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times magazine and the Daily Mail, for which she became the features correspondent in the US, where she was assigned stories in the Arctic, Hollywood, and in most US States.

In 1998, at age 28, she began an 18 month-long managerial position as the news features editor at the New York Post, before becoming the executive editor of Tina Brown's Talk magazine, departing shortly before it was folded by Miramax in 2001. Since then, she has held the position of contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and blogs for VanityFair.com and the Huffington Post. Her website, vickyward.com, indexes all her current work.

From 2007 until May 11, 2009, she wrote a weekly column on the opinion pages of the London Evening Standard. In January 2008, she added being an on-air contributor for CNBC to her career in print.

[edit] Recent work

At Vanity Fair, Ward specializes in investigative reporting. She has profiled Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina, counter-terrorist expert Richard Clarke, Vivendi former chief Jean-Marie Messier, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and, most notably, exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame, in a 2004 article[1]. Her scathing 2005 profile of Morgan Stanley CEO Philip Purcell was widely considered to be a factor in his eventual ousting from the company.

She is currently at work writing her first non-fiction book, The Great Mistake: The Fall of Lehman and the Weekend That Changed the World, forthcoming from John F. Wiley & Sons, Inc in April 2010.

Ward has also written extensively about the worlds of art and society: she has chronicled disputes at the Getty Museum, and at New York's Guggenheim; she profiled art collector and luxury magnate Francois Pinault as well as art publisher Louise MacBain; she has also profiled society figures Leila Hadley Luce and the late Brooke Astor.

On CNBC, she has appeared on various programs to discuss topics including the glass ceiling, the battle for the Tribune Newspaper Group, and war profiteering, in an interview with “War, Inc.” actor John Cusack.

She has also discussed the "booming call-girl industry"[2][3], having profiled Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D. C. Madam” (with whom she was in close communication up until Palfrey’s recent suicide)[4], as well as making various appearances discussing former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer in the days following his prostitution scandal.[5]

She now appears most weeks with a dry social commentary on the New Wall St. and New Economy. Recently she noted how some people refused to stop partying, despite the dire reality. She also said on air she was prepared to knock out ousted Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld for his testimony before Congress, which she called “shameless.”[6] She and anchor Erin Burnett discussed skirt lengths, noting that they were still high – and therefore not in tune with the economy.

Ward has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, E!, Access Hollywood, and Extra. She has been profiled in the New York Observer[7], the London Evening Standard, and on Style.com.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vanity Fair, “Double Exposure”
  2. ^ Style.com, “Style File: Chattering Class”, "The blond Brit...has sounded off on everything from the declining newspaper business to the booming call-girl industry—the latter is becoming a bit of a journalistic obsession for the writer, who has profiled Jeffrey Epstein and the D.C. Madam."
  3. ^ CNBC, Escort Services Disrobed
  4. ^ Vanity Fair, “No Way to Treat a Lady”
  5. ^ CNBC, Socked By Scandal: Eliot Spitzer's Future
  6. ^ CNBC.com, “Spotlight on Dick Fuld”
  7. ^ New York Observer, “At the Post, Vicky Ward’s Coattails are Off-Limits”

[edit] Related articles

[edit] External links

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