Sam Feist is CNN’s Washington bureau chief and senior vice president. Named to this role in May 2011, he oversees operations of the DC bureau which includes CNN’s largest newsgathering operation, the production of CNN’s Washington-based programming, and major political events including election nights, conventions, inaugurations, town halls, and debates. Feist also oversees CNN’s internal fact-checking team, CNN Special Events, and CNN en Español. On Election Night, Sam Feist is responsible for projecting the winners.

Previously, Feist was CNN’s political director and vice president of Washington programming. In that role, he coordinated all facets of CNN’s daily political coverage and oversaw CNN’s production of all CNN election nights since 2006.

Feist was the founding Executive Producer of The Situation Room, CNN’s daily newscast now in its 18th year. He formerly produced and oversaw the production of other CNN political programs including: Crossfire, Inside Politics, The Capital Gang, Evans & Novak, Late Edition, and Wolf Blitzer Reports. He has produced interviews with such world leaders as Barack Obama, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Yitzhak Rabin.

Feist is the recipient of three Emmy Awards: as executive producer of CNN’s 2012 Election Night coverage; as executive producer of CNN’s coverage of the 2006 midterm elections; and as an executive producer of breaking news coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring. In the 2008 election cycle, Feist coordinated and produced the campaign coverage that earned CNN a Peabody Award.

Sam Feist began his CNN career in 1990 as a freelance producer in CNN’s London Bureau. He then joined CNN’s Atlanta headquarters and moved to the Washington Bureau during the 1992 presidential campaign.

Feist received his bachelor of arts in political science from Vanderbilt University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree with honors from Georgetown University, which included a semester studying international law at Cambridge University. Feist is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Washington Economic Club, and the Bar of the District of Columbia. He serves on the boards of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, and the Georgetown University Institute of Politics & Public Service.