Researching Michael Holmes

He attended Wesley College, Perth High School from 1973 to 1977. Holmes began his career at the Daily News newspaper in Perth at the age of 17. Prior to his work at CNN, he was a reporter for more than a decade for Australia's Nine Network in Perth, Sydney, London and Melbourne. He spent four years based in London, covering Northern Ireland, the first Intifada, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War and other major stories. After returning to Australia he was later deployed to cover the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

He was the first Australian anchor hired by CNN International (commencing in 1996), and has reported extensively around the world, including nearly 20 deployments to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict including multiple assignments in Gaza and the West Bank and the 2011 uprising in Libya.

In 2004 he was in a CNN convoy ambushed by insurgents in Iraq which cost the lives of two staff members. One deployment to Iraq during the deadliest time of the war resulted in the CNN Documentary "Month of Mayhem", which won the 2007 CINE "Golden Eagle" and won a second Golden Eagle for his work on the documentary 72 Hours Under Fire. He has won numerous other awards including two Peabody Awards for coverage of the Iraq War and the battle for Mosul in 2017, and an Edward R Murrow Award for coverage of Hurricane Maria.

Holmes has more than 40 years' experience in journalism and has visited or worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 80 countries. He currently resides in Atlanta.

Holmes' degrees are from Bowling Green State University (B.M.E.) and the University of Illinois (M.M. and D.M.A.). His main teachers included John Sampen and Debra Richtmeyer, and has had additional studies with Jean-Marie Londeix, Claude Delangle, Griffin Campbell, Daniel Kientzy, and Eugene Rousseau. Michael is Artist-Teacher of Saxophone as-well-as Head of Woodwinds at Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts. He was formerly on faculty at the University of Illinois, the College of Wooster, and University of Notre Dame. Holmes also held positions as Director of Product Marketing for Saxophones at Conn-Selmer and Artistic Advisor and Product Specialist for Vandoren.

Holmes has received international acclaim as an orchestral saxophonist, and has performed as principal saxophonist with numerous orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, the Toledo Repertoire Theatre, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony.

Holmes's national service began in the U.S. Army and the National Guard in 1985, and is a military intelligence officer with training in information operations. He attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida (1978–1980), before graduating from Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, in 1983. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Army in 1987. He earned a Master of Arts in Diplomacy with a concentration in International Terrorism in 2008. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Information Operations Qualification Course (2008), the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (2007), the Military Intelligence Officer Transition Course (2002) and the Armor Officers Advanced Course (1994). He has served on active duty in Fort Drum, New York, and as a mobilized reservist in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo.