Ali Velshi

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Ali Velshi is a television journalist best known for his work on CNN.

Born in Kenya and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Murad Velshi, a business owner first in Africa and then in Canada, and the first Indo-Canadian elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Ali Velshi earned a degree in religion from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. During his time at Queen's he made news organizing protests against Preston Manning and the Reform Party of Canada. He previously attended Toronto's Northern Secondary School, which has produced a number of internationally successful people in the television industry.

In Toronto, Velshi worked as a reporter for CFTO-TV and as a reporter and anchor for CablePulse 24 and its sister station Citytv Toronto. In 1999, he joined Report on Business Television, Canada's business news specialty channel; he hosted ROB-TV's prime time business news hour The Business News.

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 Hamilton, then a Democratic Representative from Indiana.

Velshi returned to the U.S. in September 2001, joining business news channel CNNfn in New York City. He anchored Your Money and The Money Gang before the network closed down in December 2004. Reassigned to the main United States CNN network, he remained a business anchor and reporter. Velshi hosted The Turnaround, a reality television show in which mentors consulted small and medium-sized businesses seeking to grow or facing challenges. He now contributes regular business segments to daily CNN/U.S. programming such as The Situation Room. He also hosts a regular podcast for CNN.com.

Velshi is represented by the literary agency Metropol Literary. His first book, It's Never Too Late To Start: Practical Lessons for Creating Wealth from Middle Age Onward, is expected to be published in summer 2006.