Richard Lui

Richard Lui has been a news anchor for MSNBC since 2010, and before that, news anchor at CNN Worldwide since 2005. In 2007 Lui became the first Asian American male to anchor a daily, national news broadcast in the U.S. For 15 years his reporting has focused on politics, covering U.S. national elections since 2004. Since 2015 as breaking news anchor based at 30 Rock, Lui has led rolling coverage of dozens of breaking political stories. Most recently, the passing of Senator John McCain. He has been a contributing columnist for USA Today, Politico, Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press and others.

Lui’s passion for politics started in the 70s, when he debated California’s Proposition 13 on bus rides to school. His interest turned into a job at the age of 19: campaign manager for a San Francisco citywide race. In the 1990s as a radio news reporter, he covered Dianne Feinstein’s first successful U.S. Senate campaign and the Rodney King verdict and riots. Later in the 2000s, his international reporting included multiple presidential and prime ministerial campaigns in Asia, including the two largest Muslim countries during a heated regional political climate. Most recently he moderated a gubernatorial debate for California’s 2018 election and recent mayoral debates in New York City and San Francisco. Lui is an Emmy and Peabody team award recipient.

In addition to his work in media, Lui is a technologist, launching six tech brands over three technology cycles, most recently a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence firm. He sits on six private and not-for-profit boards as advisor and board member and is a 2016 Governance Fellow at the National Association of Corporate Directors. While working at Citibank, he patented a Visa-like fintech payments backbone, and at Mercer Strategy he worked on an IBM JV. Business Insider named Lui one of 21 careers to watch alongside Warren Buffett and Sheryl Sandberg. Lui holds an MBA from University of Michigan Ross School of Business.