Veteran broadcast journalist Sydnie Kohara brings years of experience to her position as News Anchor at CBS 5, where she was honored with a regional Emmy award. Kohara also contributes stories to CBS 5 documentaries and specials and has been sent to the frontlines of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the devastating wildfires in Southern California.
Kohara has lived all over the world she covers. She served as CNBC’s international correspondent based out of NBC's London bureau, reporting on overseas financial markets. From Tokyo and Hong Kong to Frankfurt, Paris and London, Kohara provided the latest market news and information on Asian and European corporations for CNBC’s “Today’s Business”, “Squawk Box” and “Market Watch”. She also filed daily reports for NBC’s “Early Today” and appeared on MSNBC, as well as WNBC in New York City and other NBC affiliates nationwide.
Kohara also anchored CNBC-Asia’s flagship news show, “Asia Nightly News”, based in Singapore and serving more than 20 million viewers in the Asia-Pacific region. During her time there, she covered the region’s financial markets as well as many of the stories making international headlines at the time, including the Asian economic crisis, nuclear testing in India and Pakistan, and rioting and unrest in political hotspots Indonesia and Cambodia. In addition, she was the original host of “dot.com”, a weekly show about online business and commerce. Kohara also mixed a little fun with business, hosting CNBC-Asia’s “Corporate Raiders”, a business game show pitting Asian executives against each other in a friendly war of words, knowledge and team skills.
Before returning to local television, Kohara was a host of CNBC’s “CNET News.com”, giving viewers of the global business network a firsthand look at technology trends that affect the financial markets. From in-depth interviews with technology legends like Michael Dell and Jim Clark, to a dugout conversation with San Francisco Giants home run king Barry Bonds on his tech gear, Kohara explored the people and personalities driving this technology revolution.
Kohara has been nationally recognized for her work as a journalist. During the tragic San Francisco earthquake in 1989, she provided live global coverage to Japan, Europe and Australia for the ABC network, as a worldwide television audience got its first glimpse of the earthquake devastation around the San Francisco Bay Area. For their efforts, Kohara and her colleagues at KGO-TV in San Francisco were awarded the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Reporting, two of the highest honors bestowed in U.S. broadcast journalism. She has also received several national reporting awards from the Asian American Journalists Association. Kohara has also served as guest host on “Pacific Time”, heard on public radio stations nationwide and in Hong Kong. She has also worked at television stations in Sacramento, California and Montgomery, Alabama, where she was the first woman co-host of the University of Alabama’s syndicated football shows.
But mainly, Kohara helps people tell stories. In addition to her broadcast and online work, she is in great demand as an emcee, moderator and speaker. Her newsmaker interviews include conversations with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Senator Dianne Feinstein & EBay CEO Meg Whitman. She currently hosts webinars for the Anita Borg Institute, interviewing top women tech executives on their best practices and leadership techniques. Kohara is also featured on CNET’s business management website BNET, hosting a video series called “Dodging Landmines”.
Kohara is no stranger to public service and community outreach. She was appointed by Governor George Deukmejian as Chief of Communications for the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. She has also served as the Quarterly Chair for the Commonwealth Club of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. Kohara also helped found Camp CEO, a Girl Scout-sponsored retreat for at-risk teenage girls.
A native of Louisiana, Sydnie Kohara graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, a technology executive and enjoys fishing, cycling, and really bad golf. Her current Wii-Fit age is 34.
