Ann Davis (journalist)

Ann Davis (Reporter) is an award winning Houston-based senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal. [http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x17833.xml] She currently covers the energy and commodities markets for the Money & Investing group, under editor Nikhil Deogun. Prior to moving to Houston in early 2006, she covered the “Wall Street” securities industry beat for several years.

Born in Asheville, N.C., Ms. Davis received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and received a master’s degree, with honors, in print journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Ms. Davis currently resides in Houston with her husband, Richard Vaughan.

Ms. Davis joined the Journal in 1996 as a staff reporter in its legal affairs group and covered the tobacco industry legal wars and white-collar crime. From 2000 to 2001, she held an investigative/special projects post examining financial and health-care companies' pursuit of the elder-consumer market, revealing abuses in the long-term care insurance field and fraud in the use of Medicaid annuities. After 9/11, she took on a terrorism and civil liberties beat, describing flaws in FBI and federal aviation terrorist watch lists. In 2003, she was named a senior special writer and began the "Wall Street" beat. For much of 2005, she covered the ongoing story of executive-suite upheaval at Morgan Stanley.

Prior to joining the Journal, Ms. Davis was a staff reporter for The Miami Herald from 1992 to 1994, where she covered metro news, education and local business and real-estate development. From 1994 to 1996, she was a staff writer for The National Law Journal, where she covered the legal profession and professional ethics.

Awards

In June 2005, Ms. Davis and a group of fellow Journal reporters won the Business Award from the New York Press Club for the paper’s “Open Secrets” series, exposing questionable activities in a broad range of financial areas. Ms. Davis contributed two parts to the series, on how Wall Street firms misuse client trading data on their own trading desks, and about conflicts of interest in fairness opinions issued by investment banks.

In March 2005, Ms. Davis won a “Business Journalist of the Year Award” in the “Best Story on a Merger, Acquisition or Flotation” category for her story about how a UBS investment banker carved out a rich niche by raising money for health-care companies even as investors fared poorly: “Best Story on a Merger, Acquisition or Flotation” — Ann Davis for her story, "“Amid Tumult in Health Care, a Banker Carves a Rich Niche,”" published 26 July 2004. [http://www.dj.com/Pressroom/PressReleases/Other/Europe/2005/0310_Europe_DowJones_4683.htm] .

In 2002, she was among the Journal staffers who attended the Pulitzer award ceremony when Journal staff won the breaking-news award for coverage on Sept. 11, 2001, based on their reporting in the Sept. 12 edition on Cantor Fitzgerald.

In 1997, Ms. Davis was the recipient of the American Society of Business Publication Editors Award “1st Place, News Series, Under 100,000 Circulation” for her three-part series in 1996 in The National Law Journal on the ease with which some disbarred lawyers gain readmission to practice law.

In 1996, she received a National Headliner Award from the Press Club of Atlantic City in the “Consistently Outstanding Feature Writing by an Individual on a Variety of Subjects” category for articles in 1995 in The National Law Journal.