Veteran journalist and longtime Pelham resident Greg Farrell has been named executive director of The Hudson Valley Local News Lab Inc., the nonprofit that owns and operates the Pelham Examiner. The community newspaper’s board voted on the appointment Thursday, and it is effective immediately. Farrell was also elected to the board of directors.

As executive director, Farrell serves as mentor and teacher to the paper’s editors and reporters—most of whom are under the age of 18—and oversees the publishing operations of the paper.

Farrell began his journalism career at the weekly Swampscott Reporter, which served a Boston commuter town of 15,000 people. He covered the zoning board of appeals and school committee, profiled interesting residents and wrote features on a controversial land-development project.

Most recently, Farrell worked at Bloomberg News from 2011-2024, reporting on criminal investigations and regulatory probes of global banks and Wall Street brokerages. He wrote in-depth features on the prosecution of individuals accused of securities fraud and insider trading. He also reported on violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and attempts by Russian nationals to interfere in U.S. elections. 

Before that, he worked as a bureau chief for Adweek, staff reporter at USA Today and Wall Street correspondent at the Financial Times. At the Financial Times, his scoop about Merrill Lynch paying out $3.6 billion in bonuses after losing more than $27 billion in 2008 sparked an investigation by New York’s attorney general. That work led to his book on the financial crisis, “Crash of the Titans.”

Serving as USA Today’s white collar crime reporter, he reported on the failures of Enron, WorldCom and HealthSouth and covered the criminal trials of the Arthur Andersen auditing firm, Martha Stewart, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling.

Farrell has lived in Pelham for 25 years, where he and his wife Cathy Taylor (also a journalist) raised two kids who attended Pelham schools. Over the years, the couple has been active in the community, volunteering for rec soccer, helping out with lunchtime enrichment at Colonial Elementary School and contributing to other programs. Farrell taught high school early in his career and currently teaches CCD to middle schoolers at St. Catharine’s. He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in German and English Literature and received an MBA from Columbia Business School via two fellowships established to help reporters understand finance, accounting and statistics.

During the Lab’s board meeting on Thursday, Sarah Gallagher Trombley was elected to the board and as its chairwoman. Gallagher Trombley, a Pelham resident, is a small business owner and digital parenting expert who previously worked at Snap Inc. and Time magazine. Ciara Lynch, assistant managing editor of the Pelham Examiner, was approved to take the seat reserved for an under-18 director.

Board members reelected to second two-year terms were Francesca Di Cristofano, Ella Stern, Charlotte Howard, Ben Glickman, George Freeman and JoEllen Scully.

Farrell takes over as executive director from Rich Zahradnik, who served as mentor to the staff from the paper’s founding in May 2018.

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