Seni Tienabeso
Seni Tienabeso is vice president of ABC News Live and specialized units, leading management and editorial direction. Prior to this role, he was ABC News Live’s first-ever executive director and was responsible for all day-to-day editorial, content and programming on America’s No. 1 streaming news channel. Before that position, Tienabeso was the channel’s primetime executive producer, where he created the most award-winning streaming newscast, ABC News Live’s “Prime with Linsey Davis,” and oversaw all programming between 7 p.m. ET and midnight. He has led dozens of ABC News Live/Hulu half-hour or one-hour specials and several ABC primetime specials.
Before his work in streaming, Tienabeso was a senior producer for “World News Tonight with David Muir,” often overseeing the program’s foreign and social justice stories and anchor-producing the show when it would go on the road. During his tenure, he and the team won an Emmy® and an Edward R. Murrow Award for their breaking news coverage of Hurricane Michael.
Before “World News Tonight,” Tienabeso was based in Miami as a multiple award-winning producer for ABC News. In this role, he produced from six continents and 45 states. He covered virtually every major breaking news story during this time, ranging from the 2016 presidential election to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and the 2013 Boston Marathon attack. He also led the network’s social justice coverage.
Tienabeso joined ABC News in 2007 as a producer at the ABC NewsOne affiliate service. There, he covered big news events, including the 2008 presidential election, the 2010 Haitian earthquake and the 2010 Chilean miner rescue, and developed original content for ABC News affiliates. Before ABC News, he worked as a special projects producer for WJZ in Baltimore.
Tienabeso has received dozens of honors during his career, including multiple duPont-Columbia, Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Awards. He has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) multiple times, including for his investigative work on Trayvon Martin’s death. His work also helped ABC News win a Peabody Award for Hurricane Sandy coverage. ABC News Live’s “Prime” won a Gracie for Best News Program and was the first streaming newscast to ever receive an Emmy nomination, among other accolades under his leadership.
Tienabeso currently resides in New Jersey and holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and political science from Emory University.
