ABC News announced several overseas correspondent changes today.
Stephanie Sy (pictured), who has been reporting from ABC’s Beijing bureau since 2007, relocates to New York. Clarissa Ward, who had been the network’s Moscow correspondent, becomes the Beijing reporter.
Alexander Marquardt becomes ABC News’ digital reporter in Moscow. He comes to the network from CNN, where he most recently was “embedded” with various candidates during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Click continued to see ABC’s release…
ABC News President David Westin today announced the following new assignments: Stephanie Sy has relocated from ABC’s Beijing bureau to be a correspondent based in New York; Clarissa Ward is moving from Moscow to Beijing and will be the news division’s Asia Correspondent; and Alexander Marquardt is joining ABC News as a digital reporter based in Moscow. They will report for all ABC News’ broadcasts and platforms, including “World News with Charles Gibson,” “Nightline,” and “Good Morning America,” as well as ABC News Radio, ABC News NOW, and ABCNEWS.com.
“Stephanie, Clarissa and now Alexander are part of a distinguished corps of ABC News journalists reporting on our broadcasts and other platforms around the world. Each brings individual strengths and strong storytelling skills that will continue to set ABC News apart in the years ahead,” said Mr. Westin.
Before her current assignment in New York, Stephanie Sy was ABC News’ Asia Correspondent based in Beijing. She covered several major breaking stories in China and throughout Asia, including the devastating Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, for which she won an Overseas Press Club Award. She also covered the Tibetan protests, the 2008 Summer Olympics and in June of last year, she reported from inside North Korea as the only American network correspondent to observe the destruction of the cooling tower at the Yongbyon Nuclear reactor. In 2008, Sy’s reporting on the global food crisis, part of a series of reports on “World News,†received an Emmy Award for Business & Financial Reporting.
Additionally overseas, Sy has covered the political turmoil in Pakistan and was the sole American television reporter to witness President Pervez Musharraf as he resigned his post as military chief. She covered the 2005 London bombings, the Athens and Turin Olympics, and the U.S. military’s push into insurgent-held Fallujah. Sy joined ABC NewsOne in 2003. In 2006, she was named a New York-based correspondent for the network before moving to Beijing in 2007.
Prior to joining ABC News, Sy was the military reporter and substitute anchor at WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Virginia from 2001-2003. There she covered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the ensuing war. Sy has a BA in International Relations and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Before her current post in Beijing, Clarissa Ward was based in Moscow. Since joining ABC News in October 2007, she has reported from more than 10 countries, and has covered several major stories in Russia and across the region. She covered the Russian presidential elections in March 2007 and, most notably, reported from Georgia throughout the war there with Russia in the summer of 2008. Most recently, she reported from South Korea and Japan on North Korea’s controversial rocket launch.
Before joining ABC News, Ward was based between Beirut and Baghdad as a correspondent for FOX News Channel. She covered major events in the region, most notably the execution of Saddam Hussein, and conducted interviews with prominent figures such as General David Petraeus and former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. She also spent time embedded with the US military across Iraq. Prior to reporting, Ward worked as a field producer for FOX News Channel. In that role she produced coverage of events throughout the Middle East, including the Israeli-Lebanese war, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and subsequent military action into Gaza, and the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Ward began her career in journalism in Russia as an intern for CNN Moscow. She graduated with distinction from Yale University, where she studied comparative literature. A native of London and New York, she is fluent in French and Italian and has a command of Arabic, Russian and Spanish.
Alexander Marquardt joins a corps of seven other digital reporters stationed around the globe, international posts ABC News established in October 2007. Marquardt comes to ABC News from CNN, where he covered the 2008 presidential election. He was “embedded” with several different candidates as an off-air reporter, including then-Senator Barack Obama and then-Senator Joseph Biden. Before the primaries began, he was based in Las Vegas as CNN’s point person for the Nevada caucus.
Before joining CNN, Marquardt was an anchor and correspondent at Channel One News, the in-school television network watched daily by six million students nationwide. He anchored the channel’s news program and covered stories from across the country as well as from Cuba.
Marquardt started his career in television news as an NBC page after graduating from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs. He speaks fluent French and has a command of Italian and Spanish.