Lex biographies

Stuart Kirk, Head of Lex

Stuart Kirk joined Lex in 2006 and is now the Head of Lex based in London. For two years before joining the FT, he was a management consultant at Mercer Oliver Wyman.

This followed eight years at Deutsche Asset Management as a senior portfolio manager. Stuart graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Economics and was President of the Union.

Robert Armstrong, US Lex editor

Robert Armstrong joined Lex in 2011 and is based in New York. Prior to joining the FT, he was a senior columnist at Dow Jones Investment Banker and an equity analyst at Seminole Capital Partners. He earned his PhD in philosophy at Columbia University and a BA in philosophy at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also a CFA charter-holder. He covers US technology, healthcare, and consumer goods companies.

Vincent Boland

Vincent Boland joined Lex in 2010, based in London. He has been a foreign correspondent for the FT in Prague, Ankara and Milan, and covered international capital markets between 1997 and 2003 in London and New York, most recently as capital markets editor.

He graduated with a degree in French and History from University College Dublin and worked for Bank of Ireland in the 1980s, including five years in private client investment management. He joined the FT in 1994 after a period at The Irish Times.

Julia Grindell

Julia Grindell joined Lex in 2012 and is based in London. She joined the Financial Times in 2008 to help launch China Confidential, a grassroots research service on China investment themes. Prior to joining the FT, Julia spent three years working in China in both Chongqing and Beijing. There she worked at the British Chamber of Commerce and China Daily and also taught English. She speaks Mandarin.

Julia graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Experimental Psychology.

Jennifer Hughes

Jennifer Hughes joined Lex in 2011 and is based in Hong Kong, having previously reported for the Financial Times in London and New York.

Among her roles, she has reported extensively on currencies, credit markets, derivatives, financial regulation and accounting. Immediately before joining Lex, she was based in London as the FT’s senior markets correspondent, covering cross-asset class issues and capital markets, including bank capital and funding.

Jennifer has a BA in history from the University of Exeter, and an MSc in Business and Journalism from Columbia.

Oliver Ralph

Oliver Ralph joined Lex in June 2012. Prior to that, he spent three years as the FT’s UK companies editor. Before joining the FT in 2009, he spent ten years at Investors Chronicle where his positions included companies writer, news editor and editor. He started his career with Euromoney Publications working on specialist legal titles.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in European Union Studies and French.

Richard Stovin-Bradford

Richard Stovin-Bradford joined Lex in 2008, based in London. Before the FT, he was banking editor of Business Times for eight years and of Business Report for three, both in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This followed 17 years in investment and commercial banking with UAL Merchant Bank, Hambros, SG Warburg, Sanwa, and Lloyds Bank International based in South Africa, the UK and Spain. Richard graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in modern languages (French and Spanish).

Nikki Tait

Nikki Tait joined the London Lex desk in 2011, after 25 years with the Financial Times. During that time, she has been a foreign correspondent for the paper in New York, Sydney, Chicago and, most recently, Brussels. She also covered M&A activity when she first joined the FT in the late-1980s, and legal issues from 2002 to 2007.

She holds an economics degree from the London School of Economics and, while at Investors’ Chronicle before joining the FT, edited a beginner’s guide to the stock market, which won a Wincott Foundation commendation.