Kenneth A. Brown

Ken Brown is the financial enterprise editor for The Wall Street Journal. In that role he oversees investigations and special projects on topics of deep interest to Journal readers. Ken has years of experience in financial investigations, including launching the Journal’s award-winning coverage of the $4 billion financial fraud involving Malaysia’s government-investment fund 1MDB, one of the biggest thefts in history.

Before his current role, Ken was the editor of Heard on the Street, the Journal’s home for commentary and analysis on business, markets and the economy. Ken revamped the Heard’s coverage to focus on global issues, improved mobile presentation and boosted traffic. He introduced multi-part series on urgent topics and long-form Heards, leveraging the expertise of his global staff, which is based in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and London.

Ken returned to New York in 2016 after nearly five years in Asia where he ran the Journal’s Hong Kong bureau and its regional finance and markets coverage. In Asia, Ken oversaw coverage of China’s financial system and in 2013, led the Journal’s series China’s Rising Risks. The series highlighted the potential problems caused by China’s rapidly rising debt and distorted economy well before these became global financial concerns. Ken also ran coverage of the 2014 Hong Kong protests and the hiring of Chinese princelings by western investment banks. >

Before moving to Asia, Ken ran the Journal’s finance and markets coverage during and after the financial crisis. Over that period, the Journal won numerous awards for its coverage of Wall Street and markets.

Ken first joined the Journal as a reporter in 2000. He has overseen the Journal's real estate coverage and reported on tech and markets. As a Heard on the Street columnist from 2001 to 2004, he wrote about the collapse of Arthur Andersen and scandals involving Nortel, Enron and others.

In a detour from journalism, Ken worked as a principal at Pzena Investment Management, a value-oriented investment firm. He has also worked at The New York Times, Smart Money magazine and The Washington Post. He graduated from SUNY Binghamton and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.