Dow Jones auto reporter elected union VP

The nominations period for the 2013 IAPE Special Election has closed, and the Union Election Committee has declared business journalist Jeff Bennett the new vice president for Local 1096.

Bennett, currently an IAPE location director in Detroit, was the only nominee. There were no nominations received for the other vacant positions on the IAPE Board of Directors — Location Director in Boston and Chicago.

With fewer than 18 months remaining in the current term of office, those positions may now be filled on an interim basis by appointment from the IAPE Board. The location director position held by Bennett in Detroit is now considered vacant and may also be filled by the Board.

Bennett has been with the Dow Jones & Co. for almost six years and works in the Detroit bureau covering General Motors Co. He has spent more than 25 years in the news business starting when he covered sports for a weekly newspaper while in high school.

He is a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisc., and currently resides in Ferndale, Mich., with his wife, Kim, who is a reporter at the Detroit News. He has worked at Bloomberg News, the Detroit Free Press, The Greenville News in S.C., The Jackson Sun in Tennessee, and The Freeport Journal-Standard and City News in Illinois.

Bennett had been serving his second term as an IAPE location director, and is a member of the Executive Council for Local 1096. He fills the position last held by Bob Kozma, who assumed the IAPE presidency on June 1, 2013 after Steve Yount resigned for health reasons.