Clarissa Ward has left CBS for CNN, the 24-hour news network’s president, Jeff Zucker, announced Monday.
Ward, who previously reported for CBS news programs including “60 Minutes” and “CBS Evening News,” joins CNN as a senior international correspondent.
Based in London, Ward will report for all of CNN’s platforms, including CNN, CNN International and the network’s digital platforms. Her territory is nothing new, as she has covered every major international news story of the last eight years, reporting most recently from Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In fact, her first-hand reporting of Syria’s civil war earned her a Peabody, DuPont, two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2015.
Before joining the CBS News team in 2011, the Yale graduate who speaks six different languages was an ABC News correspondent based in Beijing and Moscow and a correspondent for Fox News, where she reported from Beirut and Baghdad.
“CNN has the best team of international reporters of any news organization in the world. By far. And, today, we got even stronger,” Zucker said in a statement. “Clarissa Ward is an exceptional correspondent, a reporter and storyteller who has covered the world’s toughest assignments. She is unique in her field. I am absolutely thrilled that she will join our exceptional team to bring home the most important stories of our time.”
Ward had nothing but praise for her new network in return.
“CNN is, simply put, the most important name in news. No other organization has the same scope and depth and recognition across the world,” Ward said. “And no other organization devotes the same amount of resources and air time to the most important international stories of our time. I’m so excited to be joining such a fantastic team of journalists for this incredible opportunity.”