Denver biz reporter moving to Minneapolis

Kristen Painter, currently the airlines and aerospace reporter at The Denver Post, will be joining the Minneapolis Star Tribune business team to cover growth and development.

Painter, who is originally from Minnesota, will start in mid-September.

Here is the announcement from Post business editor Dana Coffield:

I write — with exceptional sadness — to let you all know that our colleague Kristen Leigh Painter will depart the building on Thursday, Aug. 28 to take a job on the business desk at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, in her beloved homeland of Minnesota, doncha know.

I would advise you all to keep the parka and hotdish jokes to a minimum over the next two weeks, as she has a plum assignment covering growth and development, including the construction around the new Vikings Stadium and downtown redevelopment related to Super Bowl 2018.

Kristen was a two-term intern starting in the fall of 2011 while she completed her MA at the University of Colorado and quickly caught fire. After a truly insane trip to South Sudan in spring of 2012, she joined the business desk and has done a terrific job covering aerospace and all things related, but also stepping up to pitch in on the big-deal news events of the past few years, including the Aurora Theater Shooting and the September floods, was a mainstay in DPTV and has contributed to the op/ed page. I’ve also appreciated her ability to cultivate sources, including those that led to her important story about the clemency petition and release of Billy Ray Wheelock — the story won News Story of the Year from ACBJ on Friday night.

We’ll figure out festivities later, but for now, join me in congratulating Kristen as she heads to the frozen north.

Painter joined The Post in 2011. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in ethnic and racial studies from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.

While in graduate school, Painter worked for the Boulder Daily Camera as an intern. She was also a teaching assistant in the journalism department.