Jeffrey Fager

Executive Producer, 60 Minutes and Chairman of CBS News, Effective Feb. 22, 2011

(CBS) Jeff Fager, the Executive Producer of "60 Minutes," has been promoted to the newly created position of Chairman of CBS News, effective Feb. 22, 2011.

In his new role as Chairman of CBS News, Fager will guide the overall editorial direction, content and quality of all CBS News broadcasts, both on-air and online. Fager will maintain his position as Executive Producer of "60 Minutes."

Since taking over the broadcast in June 2004, Jeff Fager has continued to build the reputation of "60 Minutes," upholding its quality and increasing its relevance in a new and challenging era of electronic journalism. He has overseen the program's conversion to high definition, grown its Internet presence and shaped its content to keep "60 Minutes" on top as the number-one news broadcast on television. His efforts have resulted in an unprecedented amount of awards and an average audience more than double that of its nearest newsmagazine competition. For his work, the Producers Guild of America voted him best producer in non-fiction television four times and TV Week named him to its top 10 list of most powerful television news executives.

Before assuming control of "60 Minutes," Fager is credited with guiding "60 Minutes II" to overwhelming critical acclaim and a slew of major awards over a short period of time as its executive producer for its first five seasons. The awards continued to flow when he took over "60 Minutes." To date, "60 Minutes" and "60 Minutes II" broadcasts executive produced by Fager have garnered 29 Emmys, eight Peabodys, eight RTDNA/Edward R. Murrow Awards, three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University batons, three Sigma Delta Chi Awards and three Investigative Reporting and Editing Awards.

As the executive producer of the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" from 1996 to 1998, Fager led the broadcast's highly praised rededication to hard news, enterprise reporting and increased foreign coverage. By the time he left to start "60 Minutes II," the "CBS Evening News" had gained more than one million viewers over the previous year, a gain unmatched by competitors.

Fager was also the senior broadcast producer for the "CBS Evening News" (1994-96) and covered many major international stories, including the war in Bosnia and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He had been a producer for "60 Minutes" from 1989 to 1994, primarily working with correspondents Morley Safer and Steve Kroft, and covered several major world events, including the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. He was part of the original team that developed and launched "48 Hours," the primetime "CBS News" magazine.

He served as a producer on the "CBS Evening News," based in London (1985-88) and New York (1984-85), covering numerous international stories. He produced segments on Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; the bombing of Libya in 1986; the Reagan Gorbachev summits in Geneva and Iceland; Gorbachev's first foreign visit, to Paris in 1986; and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Fager was a producer for other CBS News programs between 1982 and 1984, including the weekend editions of the" CBS Evening News," and was a broadcast producer for "Nightwatch," CBS's original overnight news broadcast. He joined CBS News from KPIX TV San Francisco, where he was a broadcast producer (1979-82).

He began his career as a production assistant in Boston in 1977 at the CBS station WBZ-TV, then quickly rose through a succession of television and radio news positions, including news writer and assignment editor.

Fager was born in Wellesley, Mass. He was graduated from Colgate University in 1977 with a B.A. degree in English.