Randy Essex, the deputy managing editor of business and civic affairs at the Detroit Free Press, sent out the following staff hire announcement:
Aaron Kessler, a reporter with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, will become our Washington Bureau reporter focused on the auto industry. Aaron moves from covering Florida’s biggest business story, real estate, to covering Detroit’s biggest business story.
He was honored by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and UCLA’s Gerald Loeb business awards last year for his extensive investigation of tainted Chinese drywall, tracking its shipment into the United States and its spread across the country. (This stuff contains gases that cause it to rot and cause equipment like air-conditioners in brand-new homes to fail.)
He has a master’s from the University of Missouri and bachelor’s from Washington University in St. Louis. He’s been a trainer and speaker at national IRE conferences, and was deputy director of the Virginia Public Access Project, managing a campaign finance database and developing stories for a consortium of news outlets.
Aaron and his wife are in the process of moving to Washington, but he will start his Free Press career in Detroit on April 4, and be here for a few weeks to get to know us and a bit about his audience.
