From a CNN release:

CNN Taps Sam Feist as Network's Political Director

Feist Oversees Coordination of Daily Political, Election Coverage in Addition to Political Programming

Sam Feist, senior executive producer of political programming for CNN/U.S., also becomes the network's political director, it was announced today by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. As a senior executive producer since 2003, Feist has overseen the network's political programming, including The Situation Room. With his additional duties, Feist will coordinate all facets of CNN's daily political coverage.

"As we look to assert our primacy in political coverage throughout the upcoming midterm and presidential elections, we wanted to put in place the strongest political team off the air as we have on the air," Klein said. "The vision, intelligence and ability that Sam showed in launching The Situation Room will now be applied more broadly to make political news even more interesting to our viewers."

Since joining CNN in 1990, Feist has worked on numerous political programs. He formerly oversaw the production of Inside Politics and Crossfire. Prior to joining Crossfire, Feist was the founding executive producer of CNN's daily newscast Wolf Blitzer Reports. He also served as the executive producer of CNN's weekend programs Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, The Capital Gang and Evans & Novak.

Feist has produced live programs from nations around the world including: Russia, Israel, the United Kingdom and China. He has produced interviews with such world leaders as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Al Gore, Yitzhak Rabin and Margaret Thatcher.

Feist began his CNN career as a freelance producer at CNN's London bureau in 1990 and joined CNN full-time at its Atlanta headquarters in 1991. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he moved to the Washington bureau where he has held a number of positions including associate producer, producer, senior producer and assignment editor.

Sam Feist received his bachelor of arts in political science from Vanderbilt University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center, which included a semester studying international law at Cambridge University. Feist is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the bar of the District of Columbia.

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