Vicky Ward

Vicky Ward
Born Victoria Penelope Jane Ward
Occupation Primarily an author, investigative journalist, columnist, newspaper and magazine editor, and television commentator.

Victoria Penelope Jane ("Vicky") Ward is a British-born author, 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.

Early life

Her portrait, taken by photographer Jason Bell, is hung in the British National Portrait Gallery as part of Bell's series "An Englishman in New York." [1]

Journalism career

Ward began her journalism career writing a gossip column at Condé Nast, followed by a position at the Daily Telegraph, writing features and the weekly "Financial Diary". Later Ward became the editor of The Independent's daily gossip column. She was a runner up for Britain’s annual award for women journalists under 25.

Before moving to the United States in 1997, Ward wrote for a number of 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 several US States.

In 1998, Ward began working at the New York Post, before becoming the executive editor of Talk magazine. Since then, she has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and blogs for VanityFair.com and the Huffington Post.

Recent work

At Vanity Fair, Ward works as an investigative reporter. She has profiled Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina, counter-terrorist expert Richard Clarke, Vivendi former chief Jean-Marie Messier, and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. She wrote about CIA agent Valerie Plame in a 2004 article.[2] Ward has also written 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 François 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",[3][4] having profiled Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D. C. Madam” (with whom she was in close communication up until Palfrey’s recent suicide),[5] as well as making various appearances discussing former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer in the days following his prostitution scandal.[6]

Her first non-fiction book, The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers, released by John F. Wiley & Sons, Inc in April 2010, became a New York Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Spear's Financial Book of the Year Award.[7][8] Writing for The Washington Post, Stanley Bing wrote, "Ward carefully and skillfully tracks the last 25 or so years of the great, doomed enterprise, and her portrait of a business entity is often engaging, spicy and amusing. I particularly enjoyed the horror stories about those few, strategically challenged souls who had the temerity not to learn golf."[9] The Financial Times also praised the book, saying, "Ward hones [sic] in on Lehman's central problems better than even she could have known. [The Devil's Casino is] the closest thing to a bodice-ripper that the 2008 meltdown is likely to produce,"[10] although James Pressley, writing for the AP, took issue with the book's use of anonymous sources.[11]

In recognition for her journalistic work, Ward received Women: Inspiration and Enterprise's first media award in September 2010.

References

  1. ↑ "An Englishman in New York". The Guardian (The Observer). 14 August 2010.
  2. ↑ Ward, Vicky (January 2004). "Double Exposure". Vanity Fair.
  3. ↑ "Style File: Chattering Class". Style.com. 9 May 2008. 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.
  4. ↑ Escort Services Disrobed. CNBC.
  5. ↑ Ward, Vicky (7 May 2008). "No Way to Treat a Lady". Vanity Fair.
  6. ↑ Socked By Scandal: Eliot Spitzer's Future. CNBC.
  7. ↑ "Hardcover Business Best Sellers". The New York Times. 29 April 2010.
  8. ↑ "Spear's Book Awards 2010: Winners". Spear's. 17 May 2010.
  9. ↑ Bing, Stanley (18 April 2010). "Book review: 'The Devil's Casino' by Vicky Ward". The Washington Post.
  10. ↑ Masters, Brooke (8 April 2010). "The high-stakes games, backstabbing and greed behind Lehman's demise". Financial Times (fr.com).
  11. ↑ Pressley, James (25 March 2010). "Lehman's Gregory Is ‘Brutus,’ Sows Seed of Ruin in Spicy Saga". Bloomberg L.P.

External links