Andrea Koppel

Andrea Koppel is an award winning, internationally renowned journalist with more than two decades experience covering many of the biggest stories and most important newsmakers in the U.S. and around the world.

For the last 14 years Koppel worked for CNN as a foreign correspondent in posts like Japan and China and traveled the globe with 3 secretaries of state and two presidents as the network’s Diplomatic Correspondent.

In December 2003 Koppel – then eight months pregnant – was the first to secure a coveted, exclusive interview with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in which he publicly announced his country would shut down its program to develop weapons of mass destruction. Koppel spent 10 days in Libya -- much of that time as the only US journalist allowed in -- reporting on Qaddafi’s surprising decision and educating viewers about Libya.

During her career Koppel secured numerous other exclusive interviews with world leaders such as China’s former President Jiang Zemin before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and President Lee Teng-hui, after he became Taiwan’s first democratically elected president.

Over the years Koppel also reported extensively on Arab-Israeli peace talks between 1998-2006 including the Wye River, Shepherdstown and Camp David II negotiations.

In October 2000 Koppel was among a small group of journalists invited to accompany then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on her historic visit to North Korea -- the highest ranking US official to visit the North since the end of the Korean War.

Following the 9/11 attacks Koppel joined then Secretary of State Colin Powell during his high stakes diplomatic mission to Pakistan and Afghanistan just weeks before the US bombing campaign of Afghanistan.

Koppel joined CNN in 1993 as the network’s Tokyo correspondent and was quickly promoted in 1995 to become CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief. As a mandarin-Chinese speaking journalist Koppel provided rare insight into this complex country and its culture. Over several years she reported from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and more than half of China’s provinces and autonomous regions and covered a wide variety of economic, social and political stories including the demise of the country’s cradle to grave social safety net. In 1996 Koppel won a prestigious Gracie Allen award for her documentary “Daughters of the Revolution” on Chinese women in the wake of the communist revolution.

In 1993 -- in order to raise awareness about Ethiopia’s impending drought and its estimated 1 million AIDS orphans -- Koppel paid her own way to travel to West Africa to film those stories herself. She later wrote and produced news pieces about these issues for CNN and non-profit organizations.

Most recently Koppel also demonstrated her knowledge of American politics and domestic issues during her 18-month tenure as the network’s Capitol Hill correspondent.

Before joining CNN, Koppel worked at WPLG-TV in Miami where she won an Emmy award for her news series Haiti: After the Coup about the plight of Haitians following the coup of then President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Over the years Koppel has consistently set herself apart from her peers with in-depth reporting and enlightening interviews with world leaders, politicians, dissidents and social activists.