Writer Diana Henriques to discuss ‘Trust, Lies, and Bernie Madoff’

Diana B. Henriques, an author and former senior writer at The New York Times, will speak at Yale on Saturday, March 3, as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.

Henriques will speak at TEDxYale. Her talk, “Trust, Lies, and Bernie Madoff: Lessons from a Con Man,” will take place at 9 a.m. in the Mary S. Harkness Auditorium in the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St.

Henriques is the author of five books about business and finance, and in September she published “A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History.” It tells a cautionary tale of how the U.S. financial system nearly collapsed in 1987.

Her most well-known book is “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.” Published in 2011 and based off of interviews conducted with Madoff in prison, it has since been adapted into an HBO film starring Robert De Niro. In the film, Henriques plays herself, as the journalist visiting Madoff in prison.

Henriques worked at The New York Times as a full-time reporter from 1989 to 2012, during which time her reporting earned many awards. She was a Pulitzer finalist for her 2003 work covering the aftermath of the Enron scandals.

Before joining the Times, Henriques worked at Barron’s magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other local and regional daily newspapers. She graduated from George Washington University, and she was introduced to journalism through a Junior Achievement program at her public high school in Virginia.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus journalists from a wide variety of outlets who have made significant contributions to their field. Among recent Poynter fellows are Ali Velshi, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Jack Ewing.