Gerard Ryle is the director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (www.icij.org) in Washington, an organization that brings investigative reporters from around the world to work on big cross-border projects. From 2012 to 2015, ICIJ brought together more than 150 journalists from more than 50 countries to work on stories that made headlines and led to resignations, changes in law, and other government actions on four continents. The stories became known as "Offshore Leaks", "China Leaks", "Lux Leaks" and "Swiss Leaks". ICIJ's work has been described as perhaps the biggest cross-border collaboration in journalism history. Before joining as the ICIJ's first non-American director in September 2011, he spent 26 years working as an investigative reporter, author and editor in Australia and in his native Ireland. He won Australia's top journalism prize five times and he has awards from the U.S., Ireland, Belgium and India, including honors from the George Polk Awards, the SPJ, SABEW, Overseas Press Club of America, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Harvard and the University of Liege. In May 2014, Reporters Without Borders described his work with ICIJ as "the future of investigative journalism worldwide."