Ali Velshi Popular Books

Ali Velshi Biography & Facts

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. Personal life 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 WW2 Canadian of Indian origin elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the son of Murad's wife, 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. Career 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. Television 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. CNN 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. 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. Velshi's hurricane reporting started in 2005 during Katrina, about which he reported live during the evacuation of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and then from damaged oil facilities in Eastern Texas and Southern Louisiana. During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Velshi again appeared on television frequently throughout the day on shows like American Morning and Anderson Cooper 360° and took viewers' live calls during special editions of Your Money and during his weekly call-in radio show. Until leaving CNN, Velshi co-hosted the market opening edition of World Business Today on CNN International. Being Muslim, Velshi regularly acknowledges his background and perspective when discussions involve Islam. Velshi has strongly defended the Muslim community's right to build a mosque and Islamic center (Park51) near Ground Zero in New York City. Velshi has also been critical of Peter King's hearings on Islamic radicalization in the United States as a form of Islamophobia, branding King as "naive". Velshi supports the separation of mosque and state and rejects "Political Islam", which requires the implementation of Sharia law. Al Jazeera America On April 4, 2013, it was announced that Velshi would be leaving CNN to join Al Jazeera America to host a weekly 30-minute magazine-style prime-time program called Real Money with Ali Velshi. He was the first on-air personality to be hired for the new channel. The channel stated that it hoped that Velshi's show would initially start off as a weekly show and become a daily show by the end of the year. Real Money with Ali Velshi launched on August 20, 2013, as a daily weekday show. On May 12, 2015, the show relaunched as Ali Velshi on Target. This show ended in April 2016 when Al Jazeera America shut down. MSNBC and NBC Velshi joined MSNBC in October 2016, with additional duties at MSNBC's parent news division, NBC News, for which he serves as Business Correspondent. Velshi initially co-anchored the 1:00 pm ET MSNBC news program Velshi & Ruhle with Stephanie Ruhle, as well as having his own 3:00 PM ET news program MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi. Velshi was also appointed as the fill-in host of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on Friday edition. However, in December 2019, Velshi was m.... Discover the Ali Velshi popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ali Velshi books.