Deborah Rayner is Senior Vice President of International Newsgathering for TV and Digital at CNN International. In this role she oversees CNN’s international newsgathering worldwide including the International Desk, all international correspondents, bureaus and news teams in addition to gathering international digital editorial content for CNN Digital. She is based in London.

Under Rayner’s leadership, CNN has been recognized with many prestigious awards for its international coverage including multiple News and Documentary Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, three Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, one George Polk Award, six Gracie Awards, three Golden Nymph Awards from the Monte Carlo TV Festival and several RTS (Royal Television Society) Awards including their first Best Breaking News Coverage award for the Paris terror attacks in 2016 and for CNN’s coverage of Robert Mugabe’s resignation.

Appointed to this role in 2014, she has led CNN’s coverage of major stories including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan, the rise and fall of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, multiple terrorist attacks and the kidnapped schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria. She has also commissioned impactful enterprise reporting including exposing modern-day slavery in Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia’s growing use of mercenaries in Africa as well as in-depth environmental reporting on climate change in the Antarctic and plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean.

She has also restructured newsgathering within CNN and made some high-profile hires including International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh and Chief International Investigative Correspondent Nima Elbagir among others.

Rayner previously served as CNN’s Vice President and Managing Editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In that role she was responsible for the network’s operation sand staff across the region including programming, features, business, digital and sport as well as newsgathering. During her tenure in London, CNN International was twice named the RTS News Channel of the Year in 2013 and 2014.

Rayner joined CNN in 2008 as Director of CNN International Productions and quickly established the award-winning documentary series World’s Untold Stories. She was soon promoted to Managing Editor and London Bureau Chief, launching a raft of new programs including Connect the World and Quest Means Business. She spearheaded the network’s coverage of the 2011 Royal Wedding, the 2012 London Olympics and played a central editorial and coordinating role in CNN’s reporting of the Arab Spring, the crisis in Ukraine and the passing of Nelson Mandela.

Rayner joined CNN from the UK’s Channel Four, where she last served as senior foreign editor at Channel Four News, overseeing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Israel-Hezbollah war and a run of first live programs from inside Iran with news presenter Jon Snow. She had previously set up the network’s highly successful Independent’s Fund, commissioning and executive producing factual independent filmmaking from across the world with the experience of filmmaking and running an independent production company behind her.

For three decades Rayner has set an international standard for innovative news coverage and independent filmmaking. As well as fulfilling her current role as Senior Vice President at CNN, she serves a number of journalism and television organizations including BAFTA, Royal Society of Arts, International News Safety Institute, the Rory Peck Trust and the Creative Diversity Network in the UK.