Matt Nippert is a Business Investigations Reporter for New Zealand's Herald, specialising in breaking stories about fraud and corruption.

I’m Matt Nippert - investigations reporter for the New Zealand Herald and I specialise in breaking stories about fraud and corruption. I started in journalism largely by accident, having failed to become a diplomat, but I now can’t imagine having a job where I’m not actively trying to figure out and make public how the world really works. I’ve got a background in feature-writing and business news-writing, but my focus in recent years has been on investigating the intersection of business and politics. I relish tackling stories that others may consider too difficult or risky. Over the past decade I’ve broken stories about horrific abuse in state care facilities, widespread tax avoidance in New Zealand by some of the worlds’ biggest companies, secret citizenship grants to offshore billionaires, and black PR campaigns designed to derail criminal investigations. I’ve won more than a dozen prizes for my stories, including a Fulbright prize to earn a Masters degree at Columbia University in New York and a press fellowship at the University of Cambridge, but I get the most satisfaction from opening the paper in the morning and seeing I’ve made the front page. I believe good journalism can change the world for the better and my reporting - particularly in corporate tax policy and the exposing of white collar fraud - has directly led to law changes and criminal prosecutions.