Board member announcement
The Signals Network is excited to announce two new members on our board of Directors: Duc Luu and Maryam Banikarim.
“I’m thrilled to have Duc and Maryam join us at this exciting stage of growth at The Signals Network,” said Executive Director Delphine Halgand-Mishra. “Duc’s and Maryam’s expertise, tenacity and passion for press freedom — will be a gift for our board as we expand our operations to reach more journalists and protect more whistleblowers in the coming years.”
Luu is the director of sustainability initiatives of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Journalism Program. He is a business development and operational leader with more than a decade of experience across media and research organizations. Before joining Knight, he was publisher and chief revenue officer for Washington City Paper, a local news leader for the Washington, D.C. area. He has also served in business development and new product innovation roles at The Economist and Foreign Policy magazine.
“I’m proud to join and to support an organization that has proven to be a critical part of the journalism ecosystem, and I want to thank my new colleagues for this appointment,” said Luu. “Demand for The Signals Network’s services is accelerating and I’m confident that 2023 will be an inflection point towards the organization’s long-term sustainability. My goal is to ensure that the world will always have access to the high-quality reporting made possible by the work of The Signals Network.”
Banikarim is a known industry leader bringing nearly three decades of experience across various industries including media, social media, tech and hospitality. She helped reposition Nextdoor as a modern purpose-driven digital neighborhood network, reimagined Hyatt as a purpose-driven hospitality brand, and led Gannett’s marketing and digital transformation, among other achievements. She is also the co-founder of NYCNext, a volunteer organization created to help recover and rebuild New York City in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously served as the Chair of Reporters Without Borders USA.
“The Signals Network, which is at the intersection of press freedom and whistleblower protection, is critical to ensuring that we have a healthy democracy,” said Banikarim. “I’m thrilled to join the board at this juncture to work alongside Delphine and the team to ensure that we help independent and investigative journalists have the support they need to help us hold powerful institutions accountable.”
Learn more about our board members here.
Story by Sarah Gamard, December 15, 2022
