January 13, 2015updated 14 Jan 2015 3:14pm

Sunday Times’s Heidi Blake appointed investigations editor of Buzzfeed UK

Sunday Times assistant editor and Insight Team journalist Heidi Blake is joining Buzzfeed as UK investigations editor.

She will be working under Buzzfeed's investigations and projects editor Mark Schoofs, who is based in New York. She will also be working closely with Buzzfeed UK editor-in-chief Luke Lewis.

Blake, alongside Insight Team colleague Jonathan Calvert, won three prizes at last month's British Journalism Awards.

Insight won investigation of the year and sports journalist of the year for their work on FIFA, and business journalist of the year.

Schoofs, who has been running the investigations unit for less than a year and have 11 reporters, said: “She is one of the best investigative journalists anywhere, and a natural leader. She will build the UK arm of our investigations unit into a powerhouse.”

Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said: “Mark Schoofs has already shown that we’re building one of the most ambitious investigative teams in the world, and which is why we’re doubling down on their work — in the US and now, for the first time, overseas.

"Heidi has broken some of the biggest stories in Britain and in the world (which are sometimes the same thing), and I’m excited to see what she and her team does in BuzzFeed."

Blake said: “I couldn’t be more excited to be joining BuzzFeed News to lead a brand new investigations team in London after three wonderful years at The Sunday Times.

"It’s a chance to combine the fearless and forensic reporting that makes Fleet Street great with the vibrancy and technological brilliance that marks BuzzFeed out as a defining news organisation of the 21st Century.

"BuzzFeed News has assembled a world-class investigations team in the US whose outstanding reporting is already blazing a new trail for journalism in the digital age.

"The London-based team will join them in rooting out corruption, holding power to account and breaking seismic stories for a ballooning global audience.

"It’s a watershed moment for investigative journalism in Britain and I’m thrilled to be part of it."