James Politi

James Politi is the Nico Colchester prize winner for the year 2000. He spent his fellowship at the Financial Times’ London headquarters and is currently the FT’s US mergers and acquisitions correspondent, based in New York

James was born on November 24, 1977 in Monza, Italy of an American mother and an Italian father. He grew up in northern Italy until he moved to New York at the age of 15.

He pursued an undergraduate degree in international politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington DC. He moved to London in 1999 in order to specialise in international relations with a Masters degree at the London School of Economics.

During the time of his Nico Colchester fellowship, James was involved in editing, commissioning and writing articles for the four-part special FT series ‘Europe reinvented’, published on consecutive Fridays beginning on January 19, 2001.

He also went to Milan and Rome for three weeks in November 2000, where he reported on Italian finance, industry and the run-up to the EU Nice Summit.

After the fellowship, James entered the FT’s graduate trainee programme. He worked on the capital markets and UK companies desks in London, then spent six months in the Washington DC bureau, before moving to New York in September 2003. Since then, James has covered a number of big stories, including the IPO of Lazard, the takeover battles for Unocal, Maytag and Guidant, and other developments in investment banking such as the return of corporate raiders.

Previous experiences in journalism include a summer internship at the Paris-based weekly Courrier international in 1998. James also loves football and cinema and is always up for travelling!