Reuters names staffers to new roles

Reuters has appointed a series of key global editorial roles across bureaus in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Kate Kelland has been appointed global consumer health correspondent, dedicated to health news for the media and consumer market. Kelland has been with Reuters for more than 25 years, and has covered global health, medicine, and science from London for 10 years. This includes keeping Reuters readers updated on multiple disease outbreaks — Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Zika, MERS, bird flu and H1N1. She has recently worked coronavirus coverage, in particular a graphic story about the proliferation of unreviewed coronavirus studies and the resulting spread of misinformation.

Maria Sheahan, currently Gdansk bureau chief, and Sabine Wollrab, company news editor for Germany, have been appointed to co-run the region of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Balkans. Sheahan, who will be moving to Berlin, was chief speed editor before taking over management of the Gdansk strategic centre at a time of rapid growth there. Wollrab, who will remain in Frankfurt, started out as a reporter delivering market-moving scoops before she took on a succession of leadership roles, from Munich bureau chief to her current role overseeing the German companies file.

Jack Kim has been appointed Korea bureau chief. Kim joined Reuters in 2003 after working at a South Korean newspaper. He was Singapore bureau chief before returning to Seoul last year. He stepped in as interim bureau chief last year with Soyoung Kim’s move to Washington and has steered an enterprising team through a series of major stories, including Korea’s response to the coronavirus highlighted in the Special Report published last week. In his career at Reuters, Kim has interviewed three South Korean presidents, including incumbent President Moon Jae-in and two now-jailed predecessors.

Ana Nicolaci da Costa, a business reporter with the BBC in Singapore and former Reuters correspondent, is joining Reuters in Singapore. Da Costa spent much of her career working for Reuters as economics correspondent in the UK and Brazil and as chief correspondent in New Zealand. She covered stories including Britain’s decision to leave the EU, the election of Brazil’s first female president and the nomination of New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in over a century. With the BBC in Singapore, Ana has written extensively about trade disputes and technology rivalries between the United States and China.

Hyunjoo Jin has been appointed to cover the auto tech sector in San Francisco, the centerpiece of which is Tesla and Elon Musk, whose bets on batteries and autonomous tech have divided investors, thrilled fans, and galvanized traditional auto makers. Jin, who joined Reuters in 2010, has covered South Korea’s industrial powerhouses, including Hyundai and Samsung. She was nominated as one of the finalists for company coverage in the 2018 Reuters Journalists of the Year awards for a series of stories on Hyundai’s struggles from autos to shipbuilding and its misguided bets on a ride-hailing start-up and the economic development of North Korea.