Unless you try, you’ll never really understand how challenging it is to build an international newsroom.
I certainly didn’t have a clue when I first joined The Ken three years ago, as part of its brand-new Southeast Asia team. The ambition was to have at least one business journalist write for us from every major ASEAN economy.
Over time, we realised that it was much more important for us to hire the right people. Location came second.
The right people, for The Ken, means people who are driven by an insatiable curiosity and passion for stories. Writers who want to make a dent in the world of journalism here in Asia. When we come across them, location is secondary, and we think we found a few!
Let us introduce you to the latest members of the ever-growing Ken family, in Southeast Asia and India:
Katrina Bianca Cuaresma
Katrina joins us as Staff Writer for The Ken’s Southeast Asia edition. She’s based in the Philippines, in a laid back province outside of Metro Manila.
Katrina is about 9 years into her journalism career, and she’s built a track record of covering banking, finance, and economics. Most recently she was senior banking reporter at the daily business newspaper Business Mirror. Talk about perseverence: she’s been there since 2013.
Outside of work, she loves playing a game called Moving Out on her Switch. She has an adorable little dog called Kimmi.
We’re stoked to have Katrina as part of our team, as she adds experience and expertise in an area that’s only going to grow in relevance in the coming decade. We hope to help Katrina define her voice as a longform business journalist and write game-changing stories about the future of banking and fintech in Southeast Asia.
You can reach her at [email protected]
Rahul Sachitanand
Rahul joins us as Staff Writer for The Ken’s Southeast Asia edition.
He is a Bengaluru native but based in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Prior to that, he was living in Hong Kong. Rahul comes with 20+ years of experience in journalism across Asia. He’s worked for publications such as The Economic Times, Business Today, and Campaign Asia-Pacific.
In his free time, Rahul loves to travel with his wife Bhavna, drink single malt whiskey, and play with his dog Audi.
It’s exciting to have someone with a long career in journalism join our young SEA team. Rahul’s gift for storytelling, his versatility and varied interests will be a major asset for our story mix. He’s interested in understanding the latest retail trends just as much as the complexities of ad-tech.
You can reach him at [email protected]
Sashwata Saha
Sashwata joins us Staff Writer Fintech for the India edition and he will be based in Bengaluru.
Sashwata cut his teeth with reporting by working as an independent journalist doing investigative and analytical features over the past two years, covering technology, labour and health, across publications like MediaNama, Newslaundry among others.
He is fascinated with the growth of the fintech sector and how it has integrated itself in various forms throughout our daily lives. With him joining the team, The Ken’s fintech and financial service coverage just got a leg-up.
Sashwata is from Kolkata, and when he is home, he haunts College Street every Saturday, hunting for a Rs 100 per kilo book deal.
You can reach him at [email protected]
Lead image credit: Marvin Meyer / Unsplash
