John Lippman

John Lippman is an American television executive and the acting director of Voice of America. He was formerly senior vice president for news and operations at Univision Television, as well as acting director of the United States Agency for Global Media’s Office of Performance Review. Earlier in his career he was a television news executive at KING-TV, KSTW Channel 11, KIRO-TV, and KCBS-TV.

Biography Early life Lippman is the son of a metal fabricating company owner. He was born in Chicago, and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, Illinois, where he was a member of the Glencoe Boy Scouts.

Lippman graduated from Dartmouth College ('71), majoring in History and Urban Studies. In his senior year, he ran the school's news department, and created and hosted a daily call-in talk show. He was then a television station news executive.

At age 29 in 1979, he joined CBS affiliate KIRO-TV in Seattle as news director, and he worked there until 1992. During that time, KIRO staff grew increased from 45 to 100, and KIRO-TV was at or near the top of the ratings in the Seattle market for most of the decade. He was then hired as news director at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles in 1992; it was a position he held until 1993, when he was fired amid reports of being "disliked by almost everyone who works in the newsroom"

For 14 years, from 1996 to 2009, Lippman was Senior Vice President for News and Operations at Univision Television. It won a Gold World Medal in the International Affairs Documentary category, a Silver World Medal in the Best News Documentary/Special News Program category, and a United Nations Department of Public Information special Bronze Award at the 2019 New York Festivals International TV and Film Awards ceremony at the National Association of Broadcasters show. He also co-wrote and worked as executive producer of the VOA documentary One Day in the Life of Refugees, released in 2020.

As of February 2024, he is the acting director of VOA, a position to which he was appointed on October 1, 2023.