Germany
Pharma Correspondent for Germany's leading business daily Handelsblatt. Contributor to The New York Times. Track record of sourcing, scoops and breaking news. Moderator for business events, regularly speaker at Handelsblatt Today podcast and occasionally on TV. Previously: Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Investigator at United Nations. I speak five languages fluently. When I'm not on the job, you probably find me in nature, at basketball games or on the dance floor ;) Signal: HelenaSmolak.01
• Covered breaking news stories, features, quick-turn analyses for the EMEA business desk • Broke scoops and exclusive interviews that moved the stock and were picked up by competitors • Interviewed high-level executives on M&A, earnings, tariffs, AI, impact of geopolitical events on markets • Co-produced and aired on WSJ’s What's New and WSJ's Minute Briefing Podcast • In charge of the health sector and pharma business coverage; regularly deployed for Germany’s political, enterprise news coverage, e.g. chancellor elections; Deutsche Bank • Developed a wide network of sources from governments, ministers, EU regulators, executives, PRs, analysts, bankers • Flashed and turned alertable headlines into contextualised news under high time pressure
• Planned and led high-priority UN investigations into alleged fraud, corruption, sexual harassment and abuse • Conducted victim, witness and subject interviews in various languages; presented investigative results • Established a network of high-level UN stakeholders to enable continuous exchange of information • Conducted searches in seized mailboxes and phones to identify, organize, tag and secure evidence • Verified and mapped linkages between perpetrators through open-source search in social networks • Reviewed closed-circuit television (CCTV), documentations and complex datasets • Conducted risk assessments of victims and served as their first contact point in the investigative process
• Wrote daily briefs for the Executive Director on how political developments affected WFP operations • Edited high-level information management products for WFP’s global emergency response to the pandemic • Analysed the political and humanitarian landscape in the Middle East region and its impact on WFP operations through information gathering from WFP Country Offices and media monitoring • Created monthly dashboard infographics, utilised by the Executive Board, donors and Country Offices
• Produced economic and business news and features packages for radio and TV e.g. the insolvency of Thomas Cook • Wrote scripts, recorded voice-overs, created, edited and placed graphics and videos over a record or for broadcast • Booked senior experts and secured access to interviews and locations; coordinated with presenters, camera crews • Field produced, conducted interviews and reported live on camera on sustainability during Rio de Janeiro’s carnival
• Led the multimedia content for a TEDx event at IE business school; broadcast live; coordinated logistics • Produced videos that reached over 1000 views and led to the highest engagement numbers in 4 years