Karkaria departing Atlanta Biz Chronicle for Automotive News

Urvaksh Karkaria, a reporter at the Atlanta Business Chronicle for the past 10 years, is leaving the paper on April 25.

Karkaria has been hired by Automotive News to document the tech transformation of the auto industry — how vehicles are powered, driven, sold and owned. As Atlanta bureau chief, he’ll also chart how the Southeast has become an industry powerhouse.

Karkaria starts at Automotive News on May 1.

“It’s been a great ride at the Chronicle,” said Karkaria. “Looking forward to the next adventure.”

He had been at the Business Chronicle since November 2007,  covering the tech scene in Atlanta and reporting on mergers and acquisitions and corporate relocation/expansion deals across technology industries. He also covered metro Atlanta’s venture capital industry.

He has broken the news of Mercedes’ headquarters relocation to Atlanta; NCR’s headquarters relocation from Dayton, Ohio, to Atlanta, and Facebook’s 416-acre data center campus in metro Atlanta.

Before that, Karkaria was a business reporter for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Florida, where he covered health care and insurance. He also worked at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette as a business reporter.

He has a bachelor’s degree from St. Xavier’s College in India and a master’s degree from Indiana University in journalism.

Karkaria is one of the few journalists who has someone imitating him on Twitter. His imitator is at @Therealurvaksh.