News

2023 Board of Governors Election

Voting Runs April 14 – April 21

Voting for the SABEW Board of Governors opens Friday, April 14 and closes at 5 p.m. ET on Friday, April 21. Voting members will receive your ballot information direct from the online voting service provider Opavote.org. If you are the voting member for your newsroom and also have an individual membership, you will receive two separate emails. If your newsroom voting representation has changed, please contact Tess McLaughlin.


Ballots will be cast for six open seats with three-year terms ending in ending in 2026 and one ending in 2024.


*Incumbents running for reelection. 

Rebecca Baker
Editor-at-Large, Tax Insights and Commentary, Bloomberg Industry Group

I would be honored to serve on SABEW’s Board of Governors. As a journalist for more than 25 years, and as an editor at large with the Bloomberg Industry Group, I know the importance of delivering urgent, relevant, and thorough news about the business world — a world that touches every aspect of society.

Serving on the board would allow me to bring my track record of success as a professional organization leader to SABEW. For nearly 20 years, I was a board member and officer with the Society of Professional Journalists, the largest and most broad-based journalism advocacy group in the U.S. After serving as president of its largest chapter, The Deadline Club of New York, I moved up the ranks to become SPJ’s national president from 2017 to 2018. The programs that I initiated during my presidency — Press for Education, the Whistleblower Project, resources to combat sexual harassment in the newsroom, and the #FreePressFriday social media campaign — continue to this day. I now serve on the National Press Club’s membership committee, which recognized my contributions with a Vivian Award in December.

If elected, I would work diligently to promote SABEW throughout the business journalism community, to strengthen connections among its members, and to help ensure that it continues to serve the highest ideals of business journalism. Thank you for considering my candidacy.


*Robert Barba
News Editor, U.S. News, The Wall Street Journal

I’m seeking a third term on the SABEW board so that I may continue the important work of promoting business journalism. Much of my work on the board has been rooted in building community and connections with students, people of color and others with the hope of making sure business journalism has a rich pipeline of people joining its ranks.

This work includes planning mixers, talking with students and connecting with other affinity groups. In the fall, I also co-chaired SABEW’s first Skill Up, a workshop held at The Wall Street Journal. My main role was to organize a coaching session where every attendee had a chance to meet one on one with a prominent business editor. To me, that is SABEW at its best.

I was fortunate to become part of this magnificent organization early in my career. It gave me connections that I otherwise would have never made. And at this point in my career, it is a blessing to help up-and-coming journalists connect with some of the best folks in the business. I would appreciate your vote so I may continue this work.


Kelli Grant, CFP®
Deputy Personal Finance Editor, CNBC

I got my start in personal finance journalism just out of college, as a reporting assistant for what was then CBS MarketWatch. I had never written about money before, but quickly grew to love that readers could come away from my stories better equipped to navigate a big life event or make smarter financial decisions. Almost two decades later, that opportunity to impact readers still motivates me as I write and edit at CNBC. It also spurred me to become one of the few working journalists to earn the Certified Financial Planner™ designation.

I would be honored to serve on SABEW’s board. I was part of SABEW’s first cohort for the Xana Fellowship and have mentored and cheered on colleagues selected for other training and fellowships. I hope to find ways to continue building mentorship and career development opportunities for SABEW journalists.


Jennifer Liberto
Economics Editor, The Washington Post

I would be honored to serve on SABEW’s Board of Governors. This organization helped me a lot when I was a younger business journalist, as I sought to strengthen my skillset and navigate my career. More recently, it has also supported me as an editor, as I have worked with my team to explain the major economic forces that the pandemic unleashed.

At The Washington Post, I’ve worked as the deputy and now the lead economics editor, guiding coverage of the covid economy and its aftermath. These stories are powerful and important but can prove tricky to present to readers, especially as younger generations devour social media platforms and bypass traditional news sites. We have worked hard to make our work more visual and engaging.

I want to help business journalists better navigate these challenges and deliver stories that demand attention. I also really want to give back to a community that helped inspire me over the years, especially in moments when I questioned whether business journalism was the best fit for me.

A little more about me, I’ve worked as a radio editor (NPR), a producer (CNN Washington bureau), a digital writer (CNN Business, Politico); although the largest chunk of my career has been in print. I’ve spent most of 25 years covering business and financial news, except for a short-lived fact checking gig at Us Weekly in New York City.

As a mom to two school-aged daughters of color, who are learning to be news consumers, I also have a keen personal interest in encouraging more diverse voices in journalism. I want to do everything I can to ensure the media is covering stories that resonate with all audiences.


*Dean Murphy
Associate Managing Editor of Investigations, The New York Times

I first joined the SABEW board in 2015 as business editor at The New York Times, and have remained committed to its mission through two subsequent assignments at The Times, including my current editing job on the Investigations desk.

The skills associated with business journalism are relevant to so many newsroom roles and help elevate all of our work. I’m grateful for all that I have learned through my SABEW participation, and I’m eager to continue my work on the board to help further the professional development of business journalists everywhere.

I’ve been involved in various committees and initiatives, currently serving as committee chair of the #SABEW23 spring conference. SABEW is all about coming together to promote the values and skills that make for outstanding business journalism — and having lots of fun while doing so. I hope to see many of you in St. Petersburg, where I’d be honored to receive your vote and earn the privilege to serve another term.


Brian Sozzi
Executive Editor, Yahoo Finance

I began my career out of college in business and finance as a stock analyst. But at my core, I was always a storyteller and writer that appreciated using a real pen and putting it to real paper. I remember writing stock market commentary in my early-20s for Forbes.com in my spare time, which marked my initial foray into business journalism on the internet. What a thrill to have those pieces published and shared over this new “thing” called social media!

I knew I needed to make a career change after publishing several of these pieces – taking my love of storytelling, writing and finding truth and marrying it with the financial knowledge gained from being an analyst. The field of choice: business journalism. Now close to 15 years into my business journalism career, I have zero regrets for that major life pivot.

I started out as a cub reporter in those early journalism days at TheStreet, which at that time was the proving ground that launched the esteemed business journalism careers such as Jim Cramer and Herb Greenberg. A few years in, I found myself leading a team as a consumer stocks editor.

Not long after that, I was appointed Executive Editor of TheStreet – working alongside friends, mentors and business journalism heavyweights David Callaway and Larry Kramer to rebuild TheStreet’s newsroom and culture. I was also our lead on-air interviewer, getting to sit down with the CEOs of Walmart, Boeing and countless others. It was an immensely proud moment when one of my journalists won a 2018 SABEW for ‘Best in Business’ coverage of the banks. For the past four plus years, I have been at Yahoo Finance after being tapped by another mentor and titan in business journalism Andy Serwer. I joined as an editor-at-large and anchor, leading our CEO/executive coverage while also reporting on the markets and other topics. In February of this year, I was elevated to Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor.

It would be an honor to join as a governor on SABEW’s board. I have tremendous respect for SABEW as an institution and its efforts to grow the field of business journalism. Indeed, it would be a great pleasure to share my wealth of experience with the organization to do my small part to further lift up what is an amazingly dynamic, fast-changing awesome industry.


Stacey Vanek Smith
Global Economics Correspondent, NPR

Just a few years into my journalism career, the housing crash and financial crisis happened. I can still remember the feeling of walking into the office in the middle of the night (I was working on the Marketplace morning show) and poring over the latest news, trying as hard as I could to understand the terrifying word salad showing up in the headlines: quantitative easing, credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities, the discount window, commercial paper. I had no idea what any of it was, but I knew it was shaking the foundations of the entire global economy. I remember how scared I was of what was going on around me and how scared everybody was. I felt like helping people understand these financial instruments and monetary policies was one small thing I could do to help.

That moment shaped me. (For one thing, I have never purchased a home!) But, more importantly, I came to believe deeply in the importance of making business, finance and the economy understandable (and interesting) to a general audience. I have devoted my career to exploring and explaining monetary and economic policy in ways that bring people in and open this world to everyone. I believe when people can understand the economic and financial systems around them, it can empower them to have more control over their own lives, futures and even the policies that get put in place by their elected officials.

I would be so thrilled to serve on SABEW’s board and help to honor and collaborate with people whose work I believe is so important–work that readers, listeners and viewers count on so much at moments like now to make the decisions that will shape their lives and futures.

Best in Business Book Awards

Official Media Partner

BIB Book Awards Sponsors

Exclusive Sponsor
Investing & Personal Finance category

Exclusive Sponsor
Business & Reporting category

Official Content Distributor