Christopher Ruddy founded Newsmax Inc. in 1998 and serves as its CEO. 

Newsmax today is one of the nation’s leading broadcasting and digital media companies. The Company includes the Newsmax network, the 4th highest- rated cable news channel in the U.S., according to Nielsen. In 2024 a Reuters Institute study found Newsmax was one of the top 12 U.S. news brands.

Rudy is a long-time friend of President Donald Trump. President Trump has called Newsmax “terrific” and urged his supporters to tune in saying “I Iike Newsmax, you should too.”

Ruddy began his career as a journalist at the New York Post and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Multichannel News named him to its “News Titans” list of the top 10 people to know in television news. Newsweek ranked him one of America’s top 20 most influential news media personalities. 

He holds a B.A. summa cum laude from St. John’s University in New York and a M.Sc. of Economics from the London School of Economics. He also studied Mid-East politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. John’s University, Ruddy has been a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and served as a member on the Knight Foundation’s Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy.