Business Insider UK Makes Its First Editorial Hires

Michael Bird / BIMichael Bird.

Business Insider has hired its first three writers to join Business Insider U.K., a new site for European business news readers that will launch later this year.

Michael Bird will be Business Insider U.K.'s markets and finance reporter. He joins us from City A.M., where he has been an economics reporter since May 2013. Bird is known for his take on real estate development and planning, and the effect that a lack of new building has on property prices. Bird graduated from the University of Exeter with a B.A. in history and politics.

James Cook / BIJames Cook.

James Cook will become our tech reporter. He joins us from The Daily Dot and, before that, The Kernel. His work has also been published by Forbes and The Huffington Post. He was once the subject of a tweet by J.K. Rowling.

Tomas Hirst will be our politics reporter, covering policy, macroeconomic issues, and current affairs from a business perspective. Hirst comes from the World Economic Forum (which hosts the Davos conference) where he was a commissioning editor. Previously he was the editorial director of Pieria, the site where academics and industry executives debate economics and public policy. Hirst graduated from Oxford with a B.A. in English language and literature.

Tomas Hirst / BITomas Hirst.

The trio will work under founding editor Jim Edwards and London editor Dina Spector. They will be supported by a small number of yet-to-be named candidates in Business Insider U.K.'s new digital journalism fellowship. (Yes, that's the fancy way we're rebranding "paid internship.")

Like its American parent, Business Insider U.K. will keep BI's traditional mixture of smart, accurate, fast, fair, fearless, and fun coverage of business and the world. But over time we expect the new site to develop its own unique coverage and voice focused on the English-speaking European market.

Stay tuned!