Washington Post names Cho its business editor

Washington Post editor Marty Baron sent out the following:

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of David Cho as our next Business editor. His enthusiasm and strategic thinking will be powerful assets in building on the successes of the Business staff.

In his six years as an editor, most recently as deputy Business editor, David has pushed colleagues to do some of their best work. He helped lead coverage of the robo-signing scandal during the mortgage crisis, managed Peter Whoriskey’s project on compromised medical research, and edited parts of our work on the Snowden documents. He oversaw Craig Timberg’s excellent series on Internet insecurity.

He has been a leader in embracing the power of digital journalism, and has had a direct hand in strengthening the Wonkblog team and establishing a stable of writers on technology.

David’s first ambitions involved a different kind of keyboard. But after studying piano at Juilliard, he grew concerned about the viability of a career in classical music and wisely turned to newspaper journalism. Equipped with a BA from Yale, he interned at the New York Times and worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Star-Ledger before joining The Post’s Metro desk in 2001. One of his first big stories for the paper was getting past the military police to report from the grounds of the Pentagon crash site after 9/11.

He went on leave to get his MBA from Columbia University and started on the business staff in 2007, just as the credit crisis was starting. He broke huge stories — revealing the government’s rescue of Lehman Brothers and the payment of bonuses to managers of AIG while the company was being bailed out. This coverage was honored by the Columbia Journalism School during its centennial celebration.

Born in the Boston suburbs, David lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two sons.

Please join us in congratulating him on his promotion, which will take effect Aug. 1.