Leonard Novy is a journalist and serves as director of the Institute for Media and Communications Policy (IfM).

He serves as curator and member of the board of the international media conference M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, co-Founder of the European Leadership and Debate Academy (elda), lecturer at Hertie School of Governance and editor of the Grimme Award and LEAD Award-winning multi-author blog CARTA. As executive producer, he was responsible for the development and implementation of the "ProSieben Bundestagswahlshow" in 2021, a prime time political format consisting of three editions on the Bundestag elections. He is also active at journalism schools such as the Forum Journalismus und Medien Wien FJUM and is involved in promoting journalistic innovation (including as jury member of the Vienna Media Initiative)..

He studied history and political science at Humboldt University, Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Cambridge (MPhil, PhD). From 2004-05 he was a Fellow at the Department of Government at Harvard University and Visiting Scholar at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin.

After receiving his doctorate in international politics from the University of Cambridge (supported by scholarships of the Isaac Newton Trust, the German National Merit Foundation as well as the Stiftung der Süddeutschen Zeitung), he held various positions in journalism and civil society, including as head of two projects on strategy and governance in international politics at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, as a fellow of the stiftung neue verantwortung (2011-2013), as head of talk formats at a large television production company, and as a freelance writer for WDR, Deutschlandfunk and various print media. stiftung neue verantwortung and as Head of Talk Formats at AVE Gesellschaft für Fernsehproduktion mbh (Holzbrinck Publishing Group). As a freelance author for WDR, Deutschlandfunk and various print media, he has published on topics related to international politics, political communication, media and journalism.

Between 2012 and 2014, he was "International Tandem Partner" of an international innovation and research project on the future of public broadcasting at the Center for Digital Cultures (CDC) of Leuphana University Lüneburg. In 2013, he was director of the anniversary edition of the NRW Media Forum in Cologne.

His book publications include the monograph “Imagining the Future of Europe. National Identity, Mass Media and the Public Sphere in the European Union” (Palgrave Macmillan) as well as the co-edited volumes “Journalismus in der digitalen Moderne”, “Zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht – Facetten erfolgreicher Politik” and “Transparency and Funding of Public Service Media – Die deutsche Debatte im internationalen Kontext” (VS Verlag).