Brian Williams
Anchor and Managing Editor, "NBC Nightly News"

Brian Williams became the seventh Anchor and Managing Editor in the distinguished history of the broadcast "NBC Nightly News" on December 2, 2004. Now, more than one year at the helm of "Nightly News," Mr. Williams is the nation's most-watched news anchor on a broadcast that represents the largest single daily source of news in America.

Mr. Williams was the first and only network evening news anchor to report from the region before Hurricane Katrina hit and was the only network news anchor to report from the Superdome during the storm. He remained in New Orleans to report on the aftermath and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, and continues to travel back and forth to the region to cover the recovery and rebuilding efforts.

On November 7, 2005 — under Mr. Williams' leadership — "Nightly News" became the first and only network evening newscast offered on the Internet — free of charge, in its entirety, and on demand. The "NBC Nightly News Netcast with Brian Williams" (www.nightly.msnbc.com) is available on the web at 10 pm, ET/7 pm PT. In addition, Mr. Williams is also the first and only network evening news anchor to write a daily blog. On May 31, 2005, Mr. Williams began "The Daily Nightly" (www.dailynightly.msnbc.com) and, as he wrote in his first post, it aims to "create a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process" at "NBC Nightly News."

From 1996 to January 2004, Mr. Williams was anchor and managing editor of "The News with Brian Williams," a live, hour-long nightly newscast on MSNBC and then on CNBC. Williams was the anchor and managing editor of the Saturday edition of "NBC Nightly News" for six years before becoming anchor of the weekday edition.

In 1994, Williams was named NBC News Chief White House correspondent. Accompanying President Clinton aboard Air Force One, Williams circled the world several times, covering virtually every foreign and domestic trip by the President until 1996. On perhaps one of the most historic trips of the Clinton presidency, Williams was the only television news correspondent to accompany three U.S. presidents — Clinton, Bush and Carter — to Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in Israel.

While covering the 2003 war in Iraq, Williams became the first NBC News correspondent to reach Baghdad after the U.S. military invasion of the city. Just days into the war, Williams was traveling on a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter mission when the lead helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Williams spent three days and two nights in the Iraqi desert south of Najaf, with a mechanized armored tank platoon of the Army's Third Infantry Division providing protection. During the war, Williams traveled to seven nations throughout the Mideast during his seven-week overseas deployment.

In 2003, Williams moderated the Democratic Presidential Candidates debate in New York. In 2000, he moderated the Republican Presidential Candidates debate in South Carolina.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, Williams was on the air for days of continuous coverage. USA Today named him Best Anchor of the marathon 2000 Presidential election night coverage. In 1997, his continuous coverage of the death of Princess Diana was watched by millions worldwide on the networks of NBC News, as were his many hours of live coverage following the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Before joining NBC News, Williams spent seven years at CBS's owned-and-operated stations division as anchor and correspondent for WCBS-TV in New York, where he covered the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He began his service at CBS as a correspondent for the NBC-owned WCAU-TV in Philadelphia and was a correspondent at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C. He started his broadcasting career at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Williams is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and has lectured at Columbia University School of Journalism and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. He attended George Washington University and the Catholic University of America, both in Washington, and is the recipient of six honorary Doctorates. He and his wife, Jane Stoddard Williams, have two children.