PERSON: Laura Wells

Laura Wells has lived in Istanbul since February of 2009, after having visited Turkey 30 times since 1999. Most recently, she’s the founder and Editor-in-Chief of NeoOttomanNews, a Middle Eastern news site. Previously, she headed up the English News Division of an Istanbul-based, multi-lingual network, 6 News (Haber 6), as well anchored the nightly world news program. She has contributed to various media outlets on regional stories such as Foreign Policy Magazine, the Daily Mail, Fox News’ On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren, Canada’s CTV, and RTE, BBC Ulster, Fox & CBS radio stations.

Before moving to Turkey, Laura was based in New York, where she worked at CNBC, CNBC World, and Reuters TV as well as with various production companies as a host, including the Emmy-award winning Matter & Beyond.

Laura has covered geo-political, technology, entertainment, and business news, the latter owing to her work at Merrill Lynch and one of the oldest hedge funds in the U.S., SMC Capital. She has interviewed a number of leaders in diverse fields including: