Reporter David Pierson to Business Desk from California

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Here’s the memo to staff from Sallie Hofmeister, Business Editor:

David Pierson has joined Business as regional economics reporter after seven years in the California section, mostly covering the Chinese community in the San Gabriel Valley.

A prolific and graceful writer, David has landed in Column One 16 times over the last three years. He pulled back the curtain on the decadent Xenii, an underground ‘mobile’ nightclub in Hollywood for young, rich movers and shakers. He brought readers to Wo Hing, a tiny hamlet in Southern China known as Los Angeles village because of the generations who migrated across the Pacific and sent money back home. In March, he painted a vivid portrait of Zhao Yan Feng, a Chinese teacher who struggled with a clash of cultures and ran up against teenage angst after coming to a high school in South Los Angeles.

Born in Hong Kong, David moved to New Jersey at the age of 16 when his father returned home to the U.S. to become a professor at St. John’s University in Queens. After graduating from the same college in 2000 with a degree in journalism, David covered prep and college sports for Newsday for a couple of years before joining The Times in 2001 as a Metpro.

A recreational softball player who roots for the Mets, David is learning Chinese and can suggest the best places to dine in the San Gabriel Valley. He was married in March to Tessa Niega, a therapist who works with autistic children.