Mark Whitaker was Executive Vice President and managing editor for CNN Worldwide, until he resigned on January 29, 2013. He was previously Senior Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, succeeding Tim Russert after his fatal heart attack in June 2008. He oversees all Washington-based reporting and production for NBC and MSNBC, has executive responsibility for "Meet the Press" and supervises the network's election and political coverage, in addition to appearing as an on-air analyst. Before moving to Washington, he served as chief deputy to NBC News President Steve Capus in New York.

Before joining NBC in 2007, Whitaker was the Editor of Newsweek, the first African-American to lead a national news magazine. While he ran the magazine, from 1998 until 2006, it won four National Magazine Awards—for coverage of 9/11, the Iraq War, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the 2004 elections. From 2004 to 2006, Whitaker served as President of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

In October 2006, Whitaker was appointed Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of New Ventures of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the digital division of the Washington Post Company.

Whitaker graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard College in 1979, where he served on the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson. He then studied International Relations at Oxford University's Balliol College from 1979 until 1981 where he was a Marshall Scholar.

Whitaker was named one of Essence magazine's 25 most influential African-Americans for 2008.

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