On Monday, Almin Karamehmedovic was named president of ABC News, a remarkable capstone to an even more remarkable personal story. Some 30 years ago, Almin left his home in war-torn Sarajevo with just $700 and moved to London, where he eventually got a job as a freelance video editor logging overnight and weekend feeds in the ABC News London bureau. He later became a field producer for the network, filing from the front lines of various red hot conflict zones: Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan. 

In 2008, he moved to New York to join Nightline, where he became executive producer, and then World News Tonight, where he has served as David Muir’s E.P. for ten very successful years. “I have had every job you can think of here,” Almin, as he is universally known on West 66th Street, told me by text. “It’s an honor and a privilege.” With colleagues, he has referred to his rise at ABC, from lowly stringer to president of the news division, as “the American dream.”