His last day is this Friday, April 1. He has decided to return to the United States after spending 9 years in Chile.
“It was time to come home and focus more on family,” he tells Media Moves. “One of my daughters is getting married this year and another is graduating from college and I want to spend time with them.”
He’ll be returning to Atlanta, where he still owns a home.
“For the next year, I’ll be dedicated to doing speaking engagements, consulting and coaching, until I find the right job,” he says. If that doesn’t happen within a year, Santos plans to move to San Antonio.
While he looks forward to the next phase in his professional journey, he says leaving his news team in Chile will be hard.
“I’ve been blessed with a 40-year career in the United States, working in English and Spanish-language, in front and behind the camera and internationally. Some of the most satisfying times in my career occurred in Chile, because I was able to change the news culture in the country and train the next generation of journalists that is now in charge of the news product.”
Before moving to Santiago, Santos was SVP for Affiliate Relations for CNN International, EVP and General Manager of HLN, and President of CNN en Español and CNN en Español Radio.
He joined CNN in 1993, starting out as Executive Producer and later News Director for CNN en Español, a division that produced international news in Spanish, before the launch of the 24-hour cable news network in 1997.
He has also held roles as News Director of KVEA Telemundo 52 and Assistant News Director at KTTV-FOX 11 News in Los Angeles, as well as jobs as news anchor, reporter, and producer at KPIX-TV in San Francisco, KSL-TV in Salt Lake City and KMOL-TV in San Antonio.
News Director Alejandro Repenning will lead CNN Chile upon Santos’ departure from the news channel.