Award Winning News Journalist
David J. Verdi is Executive Vice President, Global Newsgathering for NBC News. He oversees all domestic and international NBC News bureaus, assignment desks, News Affiliate Partnerships, Digital Newsgathering, Rights and Clearances, the Research Desk and the NBC News Channel. He is responsible for the safety and security of all NBC News teams in the field.
Starting as a student intern at The Nutley Sun, Verdi’s 43-year career began at ABC News, and the last 31 years at NBC News. He has covered every war from Iraq to Afghanistan, Ukraine and currently Israel. Verdi produced NBC’s interviews with Russia’s Putin, Syria’s Assad, Iran’s Raisi and Rohani, and has had access to the White House over all past administrations, the palaces of the middle east, and multiple other global locations where the activities impact the lives of Americans. Verdi covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, multiple hurricanes including Katrina and Sandy, and countless political conventions. The global newsgathering desk led the coverage of 9/11, clearly one of the most outstanding stories of his career.
Verdi grew up in Nutley with his parents Joe and Georgina and his brother Bob. He attended Washington Elementary School, Franklin Middle School, and graduated Nutley High School in 1974. One of his most impactful and lasting influences was his sixth-grade teacher, John H. Walker. A gentle, but demanding force, Mr. Walker imprinted a powerful ethic of hard work and responsibility which have been guiding principles throughout Verdi’s career. Days spent at the Mudhole, “hanging” on Franklin Avenue and those beautiful fall days at the Oval still shape the warm memories of growing up in a storybook town.
Verdi graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a B.A. in journalism and began his career at ABC News in 1979 as a freelance desk assistant on “America Held Hostage” with Ted Koppel, covering the Iranian student takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran. He went on to serve as associate producer, tape producer, field producer and broadcast producer on “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” and “This Week with David Brinkley.”
Joining NBC News in 1990 as a producer on “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” Verdi subsequently became Assistant News Director, Senior Producer of Specials, Executive News Director, and Senior Vice President, Worldwide Newsgathering.
When MSNBC launched in 1996, Verdi led the team that reimagined NBC’s global newsgathering system to provide content for both network and cable platforms—a first in the industry. NBC Global Newsgathering has continued its expansion to provide editorial, production and logistical support to NBC News, MSNBC, NBC News NOW, CNBC, NBC’s owned and operated stations, affiliated stations, Telemundo, Sky News, and NBCNews.com.
Verdi’s journalism has been recognized with five Emmy Awards, more than twenty Emmy nominations, four Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, an award from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and the New York Press Club. Verdi serves as co-executive sponsor of NBC’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group, APA@NBC News. He is also an advisory committee member of the Rory Peck Trust for freelance journalists.
The assignment desk is responsible for all coverage, domestic and foreign. However, the experiences Verdi values most are those where people have welcomed his crew and him into their lives, meeting them at their homes, workplaces, schools and places of worship, on their farms and at the edges of the battlefields. At the times when they were most in need, they were interviewed so their stories could be told, giving voice to those otherwise not heard.
Verdi married his high school sweetheart, Bernadette Rubino. They have four adult children and one grandchild. Believing that a bedrock of democracy is a free press holding power to account, Verdi and his family also believe that a journalist’s fundamental duty is to provide the truthful information people need to make informed decisions in their lives.