Vanan Murugesan

Executive Director, Sahan Journal

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.