ProPublica announced today that Cezary Podkul of Reuters will be joining its staff on May 19 as a reporter focusing on finance.

Podkul has been at Reuters since 2011, most recently covering biofuel markets and before that investigating markets ranging from credit default swaps to electricity trading. He teamed up with Carrick Mollenkamp last year for a story on Pimco, the world's largest bond fund manager, as part of Reuters' "Uneasy Money" series. He also helped the energy desk cover breaking news, from Hurricane Sandy to the lobbying fight over federal ethanol mandates to crude-by-rail safety.

"The stories I've enjoyed working on the most have always been the ones that make a positive impact in people's lives, so I'm incredibly excited to join a news organization entirely devoted to this purpose," Podkul said. "Add ProPublica's embrace of empirical reporting techniques and news apps, and this is a dream come true."

A native of Franklin Park, Ill., Podkul studied business and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and began his career in investment banking before leaving for journalism in 2008. He's a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and a 2011 alumnus of Columbia's Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, where his master's thesis, on unused or lost earmarks for highways, prompted President Obama to direct $473 million in unspent funds to states to be used for future projects.

"We've long seen reporting on the financial world as one of our main missions," said ProPublica's managing editor, Robin Fields. "Cezary will help us build on our strength in this area. His work is data-driven, creative and bound to make impact."