Prof. Dr. Kai Gniffke

Kai Gniffke was born in Frankfurt am Main on 20 November 1960. He completed his studies in political science, sociology and public law with a doctorate in 1992. He worked as a reporter and later final editor for the SWF television news programme in Mainz and from 1995 as a state political correspondent. In 1999, he took over as head of the ARD-aktuell editorial team at SWR in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 2003 to 2005, he was second editor-in-chief of ARD-aktuell. From 2006 to 2019, as First Editor-in-Chief of ARD-aktuell, he was responsible for Tagesschau, Tagesthemen and tagesschau.de, among others. In 2019, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences appointed Kai Gniffke as an honorary professor for ‘Journalism in the Digital Transformation’. He has been Director General of Südwestrundfunk since September 2019 and Chairman of ARD since January 2023.