Nikhil Swaminathan is the chief executive officer of Grist. He was appointed CEO in September 2022 after leading Grist's newsroom for more than four years and establishing Grist as a leader in solutions-based climate reporting while positioning climate as a social justice issue.
Swaminathan began his tenure at Grist as a senior editor, founding its Environmental Justice Desk. He became executive editor in early 2018 and transformed Grist into an authoritative digital magazine, garnering an unprecedented number of awards. Since his arrival, Grist was honored with two Edward R. Murrow Awards, its first-ever General Excellence nomination at The National Magazine Awards, and three 2021 Online Journalism Awards.
Prior to joining Grist, Swaminathan held editorial positions at Scientific American, Al Jazeera America, GOOD, and Archaeology, among other publications. He was also in the inaugural class of Ida B. Wells fellows at Type Investigations (formerly The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute).
Swaminathan serves on the board of the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. He holds a bachelor's in chemical engineering from Cornell University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. Swaminathan lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, journalist Kiera Butler, and their two children.