The International Fund yesterday announced the launch of its first operational phase, including its strategic funding priorities and the list of countries in which it will be supporting public interest media.

To guide its work in two of its focus regions (Asia & the Pacific and Latin America & the Caribbean) the International Fund also announces the appointments of Irene Jay Liu, Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific, and Vanina Berghella, Regional Director for Latin America & the Caribbean. Irene and Vanina bring to the International Fund deep expertise in the opportunities and challenges facing media markets in their respective regions; more information is below.

Irene and Vanina will ultimately be joined by a Regional Director for Africa & Middle East; a search for this position is underway.

Irene Jay Liu
Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific

Irene works at the intersection of journalism and tech, based in Singapore.

Before joining the International Fund, Irene led the Google News Lab in the Asia-Pacific region, where she developed partnerships and programs to promote newsroom innovation, counter mis/disinformation and support greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the news industry.

She was previously a Hong Kong-based investigative reporter and data editor at Thomson Reuters, where she was a 2017 Pulitzer finalist in the national reporting category. Earlier, she worked at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and as a political reporter with the Times Union in Albany, New York. She taught data-driven investigative journalism at the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Vanina Berghella
Regional Director for Latin America & the Caribbean

Vanina started her career in journalism more than 25 years ago and gained extensive experience working in print, radio, and digital media. She has worked as a project management consultant for companies, media outlets, advertising agencies, and other organizations such as ICFJ, Deutsche Welle, BID, WAN-IFRA, Meta, IFEX, etc.

Vanina also served as director for Velocidad, the media accelerator of SembraMedia and the International Center for Journalism (ICFJ), which supported a group of ten media in Latin America to strengthen their sustainability.

She was the executive director of the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), an organization dedicated to the professionalization of journalists and freedom of expression in the country and a member of the IFEX-ALC Board prior to this.

Vanina is also a speaker at conferences, seminars, universities, and international events.

Her main interests are media sustainability and innovation, professional and independent journalism, freedom of expression, and researching the issues that undermine quality journalism.