Drew Sullivan

Drew Sullivan is a co-director and the publisher of OCCRP. He co-founded the organization in 2007 with Paul Radu and served as its editor in chief until 2023.

Under his leadership, OCCRP has become one of the world’s leading investigative journalism networks and has received numerous honors, including the Maria Ressa Prize for Courage in Investigative Journalism, the Missouri Honor Medal, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Award for Crime Reporting, the European Press Prize, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2025, OCCRP’s work with The Boston Globe on Steward Health Care was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in the public service category. OCCRP’s work on the Panama Papers with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists also won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism.

Drew also helped to create Reporters Shield, a membership program that helps defend investigative reporting from SLAPPs and other forms of legal harassment. In 2022, he helped build  Floodlight: Fiction in the Public Interest, which connects investigative reporting to the entertainment industry for adaptation into films and television series. In 2025, Drew helped launch Revenue Axis, a program that helps OCCRP media member centers strengthen their financial sustainability. He was co-executive producer for the 2022 award-winning documentary, The Killing of a Journalist, about the deaths of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnirová.

In 2004, Drew founded and edited the Center for Investigative Reporting, the leading investigative center in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Drew began his journalism career as an investigative reporter for The Tennessean newspaper and the Associated Press’s Special Assignment Team. He has served on the boards of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.

Before becoming a journalist, Drew was a structural dynamicist on the space shuttle project for Rockwell Space Systems and holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has also been a professional standup comedian, acted in four films, and played bodhran in the only authentic Irish/Celtic band in the Balkans.