Thomas Bollen

Thomas Bollen is an investigative journalist at Follow the Money, where he writes about money, power and the systems that determine who benefits from our financial system — from banking to the housing market. His interest in the invisible architecture of the economy was sparked by the 2008 financial crisis, and that fascination has stayed with him ever since.

He studied chemistry and economics at Utrecht University and went on to obtain an MSc in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MSc in Sustainable Energy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham. After a five-year career in the international corporate world as a business consultant, and a brief detour into raising finance for startups, he moved into journalism. Since 2016, he has primarily written for Follow the Money, while also publishing in NRC, De Correspondent and de Volkskrant.

In recent years, he has led multiple major investigative projects. He has published on tax avoidance, BlackRock, conflicts of interest among professors at universities, interest-rate derivatives, the housing market, monetary policy — and on the architecture of the monetary system. His work focuses on how the current architecture of that system shapes inequality, power relations and social outcomes — and why this design does not work equally well for everyone.

Together with artist Carlijn Kingma and others, he works on large-scale projects in which art and storytelling come together in a distinctive narrative form. For The Waterworks of Our Money, they won multiple art and journalism awards, and the project has been exhibited internationally. In 2025, his book Plenty of Money, but Not for You was published.

As a speaker and moderator, he makes the story of our money system understandable for a wide range of audiences, from lecture halls to bank boardrooms.