CNN promotes Alex Marquardt to chief national security correspondent

By Matt Collins Article may include affiliate links

Alex Marquardt has been promoted to chief national security correspondent for CNN Worldwide, based in the Washington, D.C. bureau, the network announced in a statement.

Marquardt has helped lead domestic and international breaking news coverage on a wide range of stories, including the war in Ukraine, the January 6 insurrection, Black Lives Matter protests and ongoing foreign policy and national security issues.

Marquardt was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in February 2022 and has leveraged his expertise from almost 15 years of covering Russia, Ukraine and Washington to enhance CNN’s coverage of the war. In his many trips to the region, Marquardt has been on the frontlines as Ukraine fights to re-claim territory, in towns and cities under constant bombardment and secured news-making interviews with key officials. On his most recent trip over the summer, he reported on the progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and was in Odesa as it came under days of intense Russian strikes.

Marquardt is being elevated from being senior national security correspondent for CNN, having rejoined the network in May 2017. He spent much of his career as an award-winning foreign correspondent for ABC News based in Moscow, Jerusalem, Beirut and London.

During that time, Marquardt covered uprisings, revolutions and wars across the Middle East as well as reporting on the refugee and migrant crisis and the waves of terror attacks across Europe. He was among the first correspondents in Cairo as the January 25 protests there exploded, he made many trips into Syria to report on the war from both the regime and rebel sides and was ABC’s first correspondent into Libya as the revolution began. Marquardt was on the ground in Gaza in 2012 and 2014 during the wars with Israel and traveled across southern and eastern Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Before his international posts, Marquardt was an embed reporter with CNN during the 2008 presidential election. He traveled with and covered a number of candidates, including then-Senators Obama and Biden. He got his start after college as an NBC Page in New York and then started his reporting career as an anchor for Channel One News.Marquardt has won Emmy, Edward R. Murrow and Gracie awards. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service after growing up in Europe and the Middle East.