SABEW names interim executive director, explores relocation

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers named a former organization president as its interim executive director and said it is exploring moving its headquarters from its current location at the University of Missouri.

Dave Beal, retired business editor and columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a past president, succeeds Carrie Paden, who left the organization for health reasons.

Beal will work under contract to the SABEW board to oversee all aspects of day-to-day operations. He will serve until the appointment of a permanent executive director, which is being deferred while the board evaluates the potential for relocating the society’s headquarters. A task force headed by SABEW past president Dave Kansas, of FiLife.com, is in the process of soliciting proposals from interested university partners.

As SABEW’s president in 1983-84, Beal organized and led the drive to anchor the society’s headquarters at Missouri, where it continues to be based.

Beal retired in 2006 after 25 years with the Pioneer Press. He still writes a business column occasionally for the paper, does the “Capitol Beat” column for Twin Cities Business monthly magazine and contributes to the MinnPost.com online newspaper site.