Ali Velshi

At 55 years old, Ali Velshi has this physical status:

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.

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. He has been in turn accused of downplaying the role that mainstream Islamic jurisprudence, scholarship, and interpretation play in the development and application of Islamic extremism and branding negative statements about Islam as biased.

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.

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 moved to weekend mornings with his own show called simply Velshi, a 2-hour solo act. He continues to substitute for other hosts in the weekday evening lineups.

Velshi is represented by the New York literary agency N.S. Bienstock and by speaking agency Greater Talent Network. His first book, Gimme My Money Back: Your Guide to Beating the Financial Crisis, was published on January 2, 2009. His second book, How to Speak Money: The Language & Knowledge You Need Now, co-authored by longtime friend and co-anchor Christine Romans, was released by John Wiley & Sons in November 2011. Velshi has written monthly columns for both Money and Delta Sky magazine.

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