Acuris, parent of Mergermarket, makes five new hires, opens LA bureau

Acuris, which owns Mergermarket and Dealreporter, has made five reporting hires over the past month as it expands its growing Chicago bureau and provide more in-depth coverage from New York and Washington DC.

In Chicago, Shia Kapos will be covering shareholder activism for new publication Activistmonitor, with a good portion of the content running on Dealreporter.

Previously, she covered business news at the Chicago Sun Times and, prior to that, as a columnist for Crain’s Chicago Business, People magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Kapos won SABEW’s 2010 Best in Business Blog award and is three-time Peter Lisagor Award finalist.

Also in Chicago, Nidhi Madhavan will be reporting on Midwest companies in the retail/consumer, business services and transportation sectors. Madhavan joins from Path to Purchase Institute, part of EnsembleIQ, where she covered shopper market initiatives and business strategies as an associate editor. She began her reporting career as an intern at Crain’s Chicago Business and Workforce magazine.

Kasia Patel will be reporting from the Chicago bureau on Midwestern companies in key sectors including agriculture, industrials and business services. She previously served as deputy editor for Industrial Minerals, part of Euromoney, where she covered the mining sector, focusing particularly on pigment minerals and the oil and gas. Patel has reported from Chicago, Pittsburgh and London.

Kevin McCaffrey joins the New York team as a pharma and health care reporter. McCaffrey previously was a senior reporter at Medical Marketing & Media, a publication of Haymarket Media. He reported on oncology, chronic disease and rare diseases, along with health care marketing, advertising and technology.

And Rebecca Shore joins as a U.S. competition policy reporter in the Washington bureau. Shore will be covering antitrust situations for Dealreporter and PaRR.

She previously has worked for the Distrct Attorney’s Office in Houston and the U.S. Department of Transportation. She received her JD from the University of Houston Law Center.

Lastly, Dayna Fields moved to the West Coast to help open its first Los Angeles bureau.

Fields joined Mergermarket in Chicago in July as a reporter covering consumer companies. She previously served as managing editor of Chef Magazine and reported and edited for Chicago Tribune Media Group, Northbrook Tower and GateHouse Media.