Tennesseean news director Maria De Varenne sent out the following announcement:
Please join me in welcoming Ben Goad to our team. His first day at The Tennessean will be Feb. 1.
Ben will be a content strategist working with our business reporting team. He also will oversee the music team starting in the second quarter.
Ben comes to us from The Hill in Washington DC where he is the business and lobbying editor. He leads coverage of how Wall Street intersects with those working on K Street, the White House and Capitol Hill. His team of reporters emphasized three key policy areas – healthcare, technology and energy.
Prior to his editing role, Ben was an award-winning reporter. He carved a new beat at The Hill covering regulations, creating a RegWatch blog and a website vertical. And he made numerous radio and television appearances to discuss his work.
Before joining The Hill, Ben was the Washington DC reporter for The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. He covered congressional delegations, federal agencies and the White House. Before taking on that role, Ben began his work in Riverside as a crime reporting then rising through the ranks to become a senior general assignment reporter focused on investigative work.
Ben led national, award-winning investigations examining dangerous, toxic train shipments and derailments, violence against children and the growing wildfire threat in Southern California. He began his career in 1997 at The City News Bureau of Chicago.