Vanan Murugesan joins Sahan Journal as its new executive director.
Author Archives: Vanan Murugesan
Vanan is the Executive Director of Sahan Journal, Minnesota’s only nonprofit newsroom dedicated to immigrants and communities of color. He didn’t come up through newsrooms — he came up through community-based organizations, where he honed his approach to innovation: solve real problems, test bold ideas, and always center the people you’re trying to serve. At Sahan, he’s focused on building a new kind of newsroom: sustainable, community-powered, and unafraid to challenge legacy assumptions.
A self-described precedent thinker (before he even knew that was a thing), Vanan draws inspiration from other industries to spark new ideas in local journalism. His current obsession: cracking the code on a viable business model for mission-driven news — and he’s always looking for co-conspirators who are just as restless. His new favorite line? “We have to start looking in other boxes to stimulate more outside-the-box thinking.”
A trained mechanical engineer, Vanan also holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and a certificate in Design Thinking from Stanford’s d.school.
Outside of work, Vanan shares his love of cooking, music, and comics with his three children — who are finally old enough to watch his favorite movies with him. Add a dash of EDM and late-night film marathons, and you've got a leader who's dead serious about impact but refuses to take himself too seriously.
