Nam hired as senior business editor at NPR

In a note to newsroom staff, NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi announced the following:

I’m delighted to announce that NPR has hired a new senior business editor, a much-needed addition to the small and mighty Business Desk, especially at a time of immense upheaval in the global and American economy and business.

Rafael Nam comes to NPR from The Hill, where he was the campaign editor, leading its digital-first coverage of the 2020 races.

For most of his career, Rafael has been a business and finance journalist, including nearly 15 years for Reuters in Asia. He started his financial reporting career by covering stock markets and IPOs in South Korea, and debt markets and investment banking deals in Hong Kong, where he also helped kickstart Reuters’ online financial video service in the region.

In his last assignment for Reuters, he led the central bank and markets team in India. His one-year investigative report on insider trading information being passed around on WhatsApp by traders and company executives sparked one of the biggest regulatory raids in the country at the time.

Rafael was born in Spain and grew up there, and is fluent in both Spanish and Korean.

A lifelong soccer fan, he has supported Athletic Bilbao since his childhood, as well as his hometown team in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. He’s been to four World Cups and plans to go to as many as he can. Weekends will find him watching multiple soccer games at the same time — five is the current record. He’s also a committed Red Sox fan, still struggling to get over the departure of Mookie Betts (so please don’t mention that to him).

Rafael is a graduate from Cornell University.

Rafael replaces Jennifer Liberto, who left a few months ago. He will be based at HQ, even though he starts remote for now. Rafael starts with us August 31.