David E. Kaplan has worked in investigative journalism for 45 years, reported from two dozen countries, and won or shared more than 25 awards. He has managed nonprofit newsrooms and investigative teams, and played a key role in pioneering cross-border investigative reporting. During the 1980s and early 1990s, at the original Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, he and his colleagues developed the model of a nonprofit investigative news enterprise. At its peak, CIR derived 40 percent of its income from commercial revenue, drawing from television news retainers, documentary production, publishing contracts, and syndication. In 2008, Kaplan became editorial director of the Center for Public Integrity. At CPI, he rebuilt the newsroom’s editorial structure and data journalism unit, and revitalized what was then its global team, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. During his three years as ICIJ director, he tripled its funding, expanded its reach into 20 languages, and drew international acclaim for cross-border investigations into the tobacco, asbestos, fishing, and energy industries.

Kaplan is a four-time winner of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, including three medals, IRE’s highest honor. His work has also been honored four times by the Overseas Press Club. Until 2007 he worked as chief investigative correspondent for US News & World Report, then a two-million circulation newsweekly. Kaplan’s US News stories included exposés of racketeering by North Korean diplomats, Saudi funding of terrorist groups, and the looting of Russia. A noted expert on organized crime, Kaplan has authored books on the Japanese mafia (YAKUZA), published in 12 languages and considered the standard reference on the topic; the murder of Chinese-American journalist Henry Liu (Fires of the Dragon); and the nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway (The Cult at the End of the World). He has worked in media development for 20 years and has trained more than a thousand reporters worldwide in his investigative journalism workshops.

Starting in 2012, Kaplan led the transformation of the Global Investigative Journalism Network from a loose network into a nonprofit that now serves as the international hub for investigative journalists worldwide. Today, GIJN distributes daily in 14 languages with over 420,000 followers on social media and a website viewed by readers in 140 countries per day. GIJN's membership has more than quadrupled to 244 nonprofits in 90 countries. In addition to its conferences, GIJN's staff -- based in 26 countries -- runs a widely used Help Desk and Resource Center, conducts workshops and webinars, publishes and translates guides and tip sheets, and works to strengthen and spread investigative and data journalism around the world. Kaplan, who has served as GIJN's executive director for 11 years, will retire at this year's Global Investigative Journalism Conference. He looks forward to returning to his first love, playing blues and jazz; learning to cook; and traveling without checking email every ten minutes.