Laya named Andean bureau chief at Bloomberg

Bloomberg News executive editor Crayton Harrison sent out the following:

Dear colleagues in Latam and beyond:

We have a lot of excellent journalists across the region, and we need to look for ways to get the most out of their talent. To that end, we’re going to combine our Bogota and Caracas bureaus into a single Andean bureau. This will allow our reporters across both locations to expand their coverage across borders where it makes sense, on beats like markets or energy.

Patricia Laya will become our first Andean bureau chief, and it will be her job to sort out how we can create more specialized beats for our teams in both locations while still maintaining the all-hands-on-deck mentality that makes both places special. Patty is a natural for this role: her experience at Bloomberg ranges across company coverage in Mexico, US economics and the harrowing early years of the Maduro government in Caracas. She wrapped up a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard last year and has been editing and reporting from Bogota, where she will remain in this new role.

Andrea Jaramillo, who has served ably was Bogota bureau chief for more than three years and before that helped lead the creation of our Spanish-language team, will return to a reporting role while still handling some editing duties. She’ll work with Patty to define her beat, and we’ll have more to say on that soon. I’m excited to see one of our most experienced journalists in the region unleashed on some of its most compelling stories.

Ezra Fieser, who has guided our Caracas bureau from Bogota, will relocate to New York this summer to join the new emerging markets team as an editor. While we are sad to lose Ezra from the region, it’s great to know he’ll still be working closely with so many of us in this capacity. Ezra’s work in both countries as a reporter and editor has been stellar, and he’s been a real mentor and advocate for our Caracas colleagues.

Since Patty is already in Bogota, we’ll be making these changes effective in the coming days. Congratulations to all three on these new assignments.

–Crayton