As a writer for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Julia-Ambra Verlaine ’05 has had her finger on the pulse of the biggest news in the world of finance for nearly a decade. The market reaction to the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the consequential European Union tax rules on Amazon and Google, the impact of Covid-19 vaccine development on US government bond yields—she’s examined the minutiae, explained broad trends, and covered it all. Her sources and methods yield results. She was the reporter who got the exclusive scoop when Deutsche Bank informed its Manhattan-based employees—working remotely due to the pandemic–that they wouldn’t have to return to their offices until July 2021. In a major coup, she secured the first published interview with the investor who began the GameStop Reddit craze that up-ended the markets.
Julia’s dive into the world of finance began with a job at Barclays Bank covering macro hedge funds on the foreign exchange desk in New York City. After transferring to the firm’s London office, she left Barclays to work for Bloomberg News London, where she reported on the investment banking sector for several years.
In 2016, she moved to Brussels, Belgium, for three years and spent time working for both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal’s bureau covering financial services and regulation in the European Union. Julia, who has dual American-Belgian citizenship, developed a knowledge base about European politics, culture, and education systems, and her personal experiences made her realize how fortunate she is to be an American. For example, she’s grateful for her broad liberal arts education—she received her bachelor’ s degree from the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics Program at Georgetown University—whereas in a European country she would have been expected to narrowly study for a particular profession.
Julia also highly values her education at Dwight-Englewood. Raised by a single mother who showed her how to be an independent, hardworking, strong woman, Julia is forever grateful to have been a beneficiary of financial aid and the opportunities it has afforded her. She believes Dwight-Englewood changed the course of her life and helped to shape the person she is today. She credits D-E with teaching her such skills as note taking and how to process and filter information. D-E, she states, provided an intellectual environment in which no thought was off limits, students were treated like adults, and independent voices could be heard. A history and literature buff in general and an expert in her field, Julia says that thinking for herself is important to her personally and key to her successful professional life.
