Meet Atenas Contreras, The Narwhal’s director of operations and finance
A nerd about numbers, organizing things and playing board games — have we been blessed by the perfect human to lead our day-to-day goings-on and someone to keep our finances intact? We’ll let you be the judge
Atenas Contreras is The Narwhal’s new director of operations and finance.
Photo: Isabella Falsetti / The Narwhal
This article is more than 6 months old
Atenas Contreras hasn’t worked at a library in more than eight years. Her home tells a different story, however: her books are all organized by the Dewey Decimal System. It’s that kind of attention to detail we’ve been blessed with at The Narwhal, with Atenas joining the pod as our director of operations and finance!
Hailing from Mexico City, Atenas moved to the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations seven years ago. Her organizational prowess didn’t just better the libraries she worked at, but also spanned the film sector — she comes to The Narwhal after having crunched all the numbers at DOXA, a Vancouver-based non-profit that runs an annual documentary film festival.
I chatted with Atenas to see how many cool and nerdy things I could find out about her — and learned about the celebrity memoir that just wasn’t shady enough for her. Read on to see what Atenas had to say!
The Narwhal has been blessed with the nerdiness of Atenas Contreras, who organizes her books at home using the Dewey Decimal System. Photo: Isabella Falsetti / The Narwhal
What brought you to the journalism industry after working at DOXA?
I wouldn’t say it was journalism — more so The Narwhal. I knew of this outlet because I had been reading it for a few years, and when I saw the job posting, I was like, ‘Oh, I love The Narwhal and it would be pretty cool to work there!’
Answer this honestly: did you ever mistake us for The Walrus?
No I didn’t — they are different animals!
What are you most excited about in this role?
A lot of the job is, yes, numbers and finances. But there’s also operations and human resources. I’m really excited about making sure that this is the best place to work. I was told in the interview: ‘We just want to make The Narwhal the best newsroom for people to work at.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s like, big ego,’ you know. But then it was like, no, that’s actually achievable. I want to make sure that everyone here at the organization is compensated fairly and treated well. And we are definitely on track to achieve that. I want to be part of that. I want to ensure this is a place people want to work at. And yes, the numbers — I’m gonna always make sure they’re in the black, never in the red.
What’s your relationship with the natural world like?
It was very funny, when I was having my one-on-one with Fatima [Syed], she said, ‘I think there’s two kinds of people that work at The Narwhal: there are the ones that love nature and just want to make you love nature, and then the ones who are like me, who admire it from afar. So which one are you?’ And, I mean, I love nature, but I have environmental allergies all year long. So, I enjoy nature from afar. I like going on hikes — maybe once every six months. Camping … is definitely not my thing.
‘I enjoy nature from afar. Camping … is definitely not my thing.’ Photo: Isabella Falsetti / The Narwhal
I’ve heard you’re a board game nerd. Which one was the gateway game — and what are you playing now?
I almost feel ashamed to say the gateway game was Catan — like Settlers of Catan. It’s frowned upon by many people, but it’s also a classic and makes you feel smart — I think it should be respected! I just played Vinhos, a game by Vital Lacerda. He’s a famous game designer. He designs a lot of Euro-style board games. It’s about wineries in Portugal. You build your winery, hire experts and sell your wines — it’s really nice!
What’s a guilty pleasure you indulge in?
The Crown. I love The Crown — definitely a guilty pleasure. I also love celebrity memoirs. Although I haven’t read any amazing memoirs recently. Out of the ones I’ve read in the last couple of years, my favourite has been I’m Glad My Mom Died. One of my biggest book disappointments from 2023 was Britney Spears’ memoir. I was expecting way more shade than what I got.
Another year of keeping a close watch
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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