Reuters announced Thursday a new global team of managing editors to lead the operations of the new organization.
Global managing editor Betty Wong named five new managing editors for the United States and Canada; Latin America; Asia; Europe; and the Middle East and Africa. Previously, Reuters had editors for EMEA, the Americas and Asia, all of whom were promoted to different jobs within the company.
“The new team structure reflects the growth of our news organization, and the increasing demand we’re seeing from our customers for news and information from emerging markets,” said Wong in a statement.
In the past year, Reuters has added a stable of new columnists with its acquisition of Breakingviews, has invested in enterprise journalism, and has launched Reuters Insider, a new video service for financial professionals. A key task of the managing editors will be to ensure Reuters makes the best use of these new investments and technologies while supporting collaboration across the various platforms. The newly appointed editors will report directly into Wong.
The new managing editors include:
- Jack Reerink, currently global company news editor, will become managing editor, United States and Canada in September and will remain based in New York. As global company news editor, Reerink set priorities and strategies for coverage of the global financial industry and 25,000 listed companies during the financial crisis. Previously, Reerink led coverage of company news and stock markets in the Asia Pacific region from 2002 to 2007 with a short stint as Asia treasury editor. Reerink joined Reuters in 1997 to report on Wall Street’s investment banks and later oversaw Reuters expanded coverage of the U.S. stock market, deals, funds and the financial industry.
- Saul Hudson, currently Latin America editor, will become managing editor, Latin America in mid-July and remain based in Sao Paulo. Hudson has overseen editorial operations in Latin America since April 2009 through a swine flu epidemic in Mexico, a coup in Honduras, a massive earthquake in Chile and the recovery of the region’s economies, particularly Brazil. Hudson previously worked with Reuters for 13 years in The Americas. He covered guerrilla wars in Peru, oil nationalizations in Venezuela and, from his base in Washington, traveled the globe with U.S. secretaries of state for several years as a foreign policy correspondent. Hudson speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
- Caroline Drees, currently Middle East editor, will become managing editor, Middle East and Africa in mid-July and remain based in Dubai. Drees has been Middle East editor since late 2008, and has run editorial operations in the region throughout the economic downturn, the Gaza conflict in late 2008/early 2009, and the aftermath of Iran’s elections last year. Drees joined Reuters in 1994, and has worked for the company throughout the Middle East, Europe and in the United States. On secondment to the Reuters Foundation in 2006/7, she ran a project to help set up Iraq’s first independent news agency, Aswat al-Iraq. Drees speaks Arabic, French and German.
- Sarah Edmonds, currently Continental Europe editor and deputy EMEA managing editor, will become managing editor, Europe in mid-July and will be based in Frankfurt. Edmonds was appointed editor, Continental Europe in 2008 and shepherded the region through the fallout from the subprime meltdown and the ensuing Greek debt crisis still sending shockwaves through Southern Europe. Prior to this, Edmonds served as the Stockholm-based bureau chief of the Nordics and Baltics, home of the Nordic Model, Nokia and the Nobel Prizes, and led U.S. economics and Federal Reserve coverage in Washington from the bursting of the dot-com bubble through Alan Greenspan’s final days at the helm of the world’s mightiest central bank. Edmonds began her Reuters career 18 years ago in her native Toronto as a financial markets and telecommunications reporter and later oversaw the country’s financial file as deputy bureau chief, Canada.
- Brian Rhoads, currently Americas managing editor based in New York, will move to Hong Kong in July to become managing editor, Asia. Rhoads was appointed Americas managing editor in September 2008 and has overseen editorial operations in the wake of Lehman’s collapse, through the financial crisis and response, and President Obama’s election and his ambitious regulatory agenda. Previously, Rhoads worked for Reuters in Asia for 12 years, eight of them in China where he covered the rise of President Hu Jintao and capped his career in Beijing with the 2008 Olympic Games. Rhoads is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
