Quartz announces a new India editor and Asia reporter, as well as additions to its email and breaking news teams

Quartz editor in chief Katherine Bell has announced four new additions to the newsroom this September and October: Harish Menon, Quartz India’s new editor; Aurora Almendral, a new senior reporter in Asia; Courtney Vinopal, a breaking business news reporter; and Morgan Haefner, a new deputy email editor.

Harish Menon, Quartz India editor
This is Menon’s second time working with QZ; he first joined in January 2016 as a desk editor in India, before being promoted to senior editor and then co-editor of the edition. Most recently, Menon has been a consulting writer with NDTV, and has previously worked for a range of newspapers and agencies that include the Times of India and Press Trust of India.

As editor of Quartz India, he’ll oversee the team’s coverage and contributions to membership, as well as the eventual launch of a Quartz India weekly email. He will start in October and is currently based in Mumbai.

Aurora Almendral, senior Asia reporter
As a freelancer, Almendral has just been reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border for an upcoming story. Her recent work has included a NYT magazine piece about an emissions-reducing experiment to retrofit cargo ships with updated sails, a deep dive for Nikkei on why global shipping is such a mess right now, and the forgotten essential workers at sea. She also has covered breaking news for NBC out of Asia, speaks Spanish and Filipino, and has some Arabic. In a previous life, she researched the shadow banking systems of Senegalese and Moroccan migrants in Madrid. Almendral began in September, and is based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Courtney Vinopal, breaking business news reporter
Vinopal comes to Quartz from PBS NewsHour, where she has been a general assignment reporter focused on stories at the intersection of economics, policy and culture. She has also worked as a producer at the Washington bureau of France 2 Television, and as a fellow at Washingtonian Magazine. She has a bachelor’s degree in English literature and French from Denison University, and a master's in journalism from Columbia. Vinopal  also began in September, and is based in Washington D.C.

Morgan Haefner, deputy email editor
Haefner comes to Quartz from Becker’s Hospital Review, where she wrote and edited stories and email newsletters, leading the efforts as managing editor. She has written on the rise of COVID-19 consultants, diversity in hospital C-suites, and how COVID affected mental health in children. Haefner has studied Arabic, and spent time in Cambodia learning about religion and news writing in Asia. She will work with Liz Weber and Susan Howson on curating, editing and writing Quartz’s flagship email, the Daily Brief as well as the Weekly Obsession, managing the homepage, and crafting Essentials, and will ultimately be the Sunday email editor. She starts in October, and will be based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.