The board of the Center for Investigative Reporting has named Kaizar Campwala CEO of the organization. CIR also announced Friday that Sumi Aggarwal will serve as editor in chief.
Campwala joins CIR from the Walt Disney Co., where he held the role of VP of business operations since 2019. The position included oversight of ABC News’ digital and streaming news businesses, including ABC News Live.
Campwala also co-founded and served as president of CALmatters, a statehouse reporting venture in Sacramento, Calif., and led Stitcher’s business development team. He was also entrepreneur-in-residence at Al Jazeera, where he launched the company’s podcasting arm.
At CIR, Campwala succeeds Christina Scharfenberg, who transitioned to a senior advisor role in May. He starts in his CIR role Monday. Annie Chabel, who was serving as CIR’s interim CEO since May, resumes her position as COO.
Aggarwal has been serving as CIR’s interim editor in chief since March, after Matt Thompson left to join the New York Times. She joined CIR in May 2019 to lead collaborations and local work. Before joining CIR, she was a producer for 60 Minutes, launched the broadcast journalism program at the City College of New York and led executive communications for the Search and Maps teams at Google.
Reveal, CIR’s weekly public radio show produced with PRX, airs on more than 450 stations.