Fortune hires AME, tech editors, photographers and writers

Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer sent out the following staff announcement on Thursday afternoon:

CLIFF LEAF, Assistant Managing Editor

Cliff of course is returning to Fortune. A winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the NIHCM’s Health Care Journalism Award, and a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, Cliff was until recently a guest editor for The New York Times op-ed page and Sunday Review. Previously, he was executive editor at The Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney magazine and, prior to that, executive editor at Fortune, where he also wrote a number of prominent feature articles. It was after one such writing assignment, a 2004 Fortune cover story on the war on cancer, that Cliff began working to change the way the global cancer fight is funded and pursued, pushing for ways to speed up progress against the disease—an effort that led (9 years later) to a well-received book, The Truth in Small Doses: Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer—and How to Win It, published by Simon & Schuster this summer. A keynote or featured speaker at some 30 scientific conferences around the world, Cliff has presented testimony to the President’s Cancer Panel three times and delivered “Grand Rounds” at the National Cancer Institute, the only journalist ever to be given that honor. He also served for three years on the national board of directors for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest breast cancer charity. Here at Time Inc., Cliff won a Luce Award for public service and the Andrew Heiskell Award for community service. A graduate of Williams College, Cliff later received a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Sarah Lawrence College. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Alicia Slimmer, who is currently shooting her first feature film, and their wonderful daughter Sofia.

MEGAN McCARTHY, Senior Editor, Fortune.com

Megan McCarthy will join us November 4 and help oversee tech coverage along with incoming tech editor Andrew Nusca. She’ll also help manage the staff and the day-to-day news flow on Fortune.com. With her extensive background in digital content and publishing, Megan will play a big role in helping to shape the new digital platforms for Fortune. She joins us from Reuters, where she was on the Reuters Digital team and did everything from editing tech stories to managing the homepage of Reuters.com. Previously she was a news editor at the New York Observer, the founding editor of Mediagazer, the first human editor at Techmeme, and a writer at Wired.com and Valleywag. You can follow her on Twitter at @Megan. 

ANDREW NUSCA, Senior Editor

Andrew will join Fortune on November 11 and will be responsible for daily technology coverage on Fortune.com and the technology section in each magazine. Andrew joins us from CBS Interactive, where he spent the last five years as a writer-editor for ZDNet and the editor of SmartPlanet, a site about innovation. Before CBSi, Andrew interned at Money, Men’s Vogue, Popular Mechanics and the New York Daily News. He, his wife and their Boston Terrier, Nemo currently live in Philadelphia, but they’ll be making their way back to New York City in a few weeks.

CLAIRE ZILLMAN, Writer, Fortune.com

Claire Zillman joined several weeks ago as a writer on the management and leadership beat. Previously she had been a staff reporter at American Lawyer magazine, where she wrote daily stories online and contributed regularly to the monthly print magazine (including 6 cover stories!). She got her BA in newspaper journalism and history from Syracuse, where she graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors. Claire, a native of the Chicago area, is an active runner, a novice skier, and an experienced camper. She lives in Williamsburg. 

JEN WIECZNER, Writer-Reporter

Jen, last name pronounced (vee-ETCH-ner), returns to magazines after covering health care for MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal, reporting on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (recently biking between insurance signup centers across New York City to observe health exchange enrollment firsthand), as well as less conventional health topics including e-cigarettes, medical marijuana and the drawbacks of “treadmill desks.” Previously, Jen reported for SmartMoney magazine on luxury spending (yes, you can be buried in a solid gold coffin) and oddball investing ideas, from oyster farming to horse-racing, until SmartMoney published its final issue last summer. Manning the Bloomberg terminal and writing for the magazine during the day, at night, Jen covered more than 100 New York high society fundraisers and parties for The Wall Street Journal, interviewing Bill Ackman, Cory Booker, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, JetBlue CEO Dave Barger, Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Lin, among others. Lately, Jen has also interviewed Russell Simmons and billionaire T. Boone Pickens for WSJ.Money, the newspaper’s new quarterly magazine. Raised in Boston, Jen studied journalism at Northwestern, interning at New York magazine, Fast Company, Boston Magazine and Marie Claire. She lives in Brooklyn and enjoys biking, yoga and playing soccer.

JACLYN LARASO, Photo Editor, Fortune.com 

Jaclyn spent the last year as the photo editor at Parenting.com and prior to that she worked as an assistant photo editor at XO Group, which publishes The Knot, The Nest, and The Bump brands. She had earlier experience in the photo departments at Elle magazine and Men’s Vogue. Please send all dot-com photo requests to her. She grew up in Levittown, Long Island and is a diehard Yankees fan.

NEIL HARRIS, Associate Photo Editor

Neil Harris joined Fortune on September 23rd as an associate photo editor.  He comes to us from Time, where he had been since 2010.  Prior, Neil was the photo editor at CNNMoney.com, and a photography adjunct at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism program.  He has a BA in Linguistics from Columbia University, and is a graduate of the International Center of Photography and Photojournalism program.  He lives in Beacon, NY wife his wife, Kelly and his cat, Pearl.

Please join me in welcoming these folks, along with Nemo and Pearl.