Ali Velshi

Ali Velshi (born October 29, 1968, or 1969) is a Canadian television journalist, a senior economic and business correspondent for NBC News, and an anchor for MSNBC. He is also a substitute anchor for The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC on Friday night. Velshi is based in New York City. Known for his work on CNN, he was CNN's Chief Business Correspondent, anchor of CNN's Your Money and a co-host of CNN International's weekday business show World Business Today. In 2013, he joined Al Jazeera America, a channel that launched in August of that year. He hosted Ali Velshi on Target until Al Jazeera America ceased operations on April 12, 2016. He has worked for MSNBC since October 2016.

Velshi's family comes from India, but in 1961 they moved to Kenya. Velshi was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and raised in Toronto, Ontario, after moving there in 1971. He is an Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati Indian descent. He is the son of Murad Velshi, the first Canadian of Indian origin elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the son of Mila, also Indian, who grew up in South Africa. Velshi's parents operated a bakery in South Africa, but moved to Kenya in 1960, when Apartheid became oppressive. In Toronto, Velshi's parents operate a chain of travel agencies.

Velshi attended Toronto's Northern Secondary School, where he was elected school president. He then earned a degree in religious studies from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1994. During his time at Queen's he made news by organizing protests against Preston Manning and Canada's Reform Party. In 2010, he was awarded the Queen's University Alumni Achievement Award. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws by his alma mater.

Velshi was married briefly in his twenties. In 2009, he married his second wife, New York–born hedge fund manager Lori Wachs, the president of Philadelphia-based Cross Ledge Investments, whom he met when she was a guest on his show. The couple have one child together, a daughter. Velshi divides his time between an apartment in New York City and his home in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

In 1996, Velshi was awarded a fellowship to the United States Congress from the American Political Science Association. In this capacity he worked with Lee H. Hamilton, then a Democratic Representative from Indiana.

In Toronto, Velshi began his professional reporting career as a General Assignment reporter for CFTO. He later became a business reporter and anchor for CablePulse 24 and its then sister station CityTV. In 1999, he joined Report on Business Television, (now BNN Bloomberg - Business News Network) Canada's first all-business news specialty channel. Velshi hosted The Business News, Canada's first prime-time business news hour.

Velshi moved to the U.S. in September 2001, joining business news channel CNNfn in New York City. He anchored several shows, including Insights, Business Unusual, Street Sweep, and Your Money, and co-hosted The Money Gang with Pat Kiernan before the network closed down in December 2004. Reassigned to the main CNN network, he remained a business anchor and reporter posted initially to CNN's early-morning program Daybreak. In 2005, Velshi hosted 13 hour-long episodes of The Turnaround, a reality television show, during which he traveled across America introducing small business owners who were facing challenges or seeking to grow their businesses to high-profile mentors who helped the small business owners develop a plan for success. After The Turnaround, Velshi was assigned to the newly launched The Situation Room from 2005 to 2006. Velshi joined American Morning as business correspondent in late 2006 and then again as co-anchor in 2011. In 2008, Velshi undertook a cross-country road trip aboard the CNN Election Express, during which he travelled from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Los Angeles, California, stopping along the way to discuss money issues with Americans. Velshi also spent 10 days riding the CNN Election Express through rural Texas before that state's March 4, 2008, primaries.^{[citation needed]}

Velshi regularly was a substitute anchor for CNN/U.S. programs such as American Morning. On Saturday and Sunday he co-hosted a business program called Your Money. Velshi also hosted CNN's Energy Hunt, which took him to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to the Oil Sands of Canada in 2008. Tragic events during 2008 brought Velshi more airtime, including reporting from the now-destroyed Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, after the killing of Benazir Bhutto. During coverage of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Velshi appeared on air, on location from hurricane-stricken areas, as the storms hit.^{[citation needed]}