Pamela Ofori-Boateng is one of SABEW’s newest members.
She’s a reporter with Business World Ghana, a leading business magazine in her country. Pamela is also the founder of Disability News Africa, a website dedicated to stories on people living with disabilities in Ghana.
Pamela was drawn to the news business early. She remembers listening to the radio in junior high school, not because of the music, but because of the BBC News updates. Her grandfather also happens to be a veteran journalist.
Pamela joined SABEW in September. Like many of us, she joined because she wants to engage with other journalists, learn from peers in the industry, and advance her career.
“It’s a great feeling … to join a prestigious community of senior journalists and editors from top business news agencies around the world,” Pamela wrote me in an email. “Also, with representation from different countries, I’m keen on learning from different cultural perspectives and how journalism is practiced elsewhere.”
Pamela is one of a growing number of international members our organization has welcomed in recent years.
With the help of Andrew Leckey, a Fulbright Scholar and founder of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, 67 journalists from news organizations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka became members in April. Andrew chairs SABEW’s international committee.
Our organization also has members working in Hong Kong, Singapore, India, London, and elsewhere around the globe. Some are employed in bureaus operated by American media companies. Others work as freelancers or, like Pamela, for independent regional news outlets.
SABEW has another contingent of members just north of the U.S. border. Our Canadian chapter, launched six years ago by SABEW Past President Bryan Borzykowski, holds several events a year, organizes its own Best in Business journalism awards program, and, until coronavirus altered plans, had been scheduled to host the Toronto conference back in May.
While the majority of SABEW members are based in the United States, our international ranks are slowly growing, and for good reason. As headlines around the world are dominated by an international health and economic crisis, it’s clear that a strong, global business media is important.
Kim Quillen
2020 SABEW President
Chicago Tribune
kquillen@chicagotribune.com
