Richard Lui

25 Years of Nonpartisan Reporting

Richard Lui’s career in news, business, media, technology, and community spans over 25 years, including news anchor for MSNBC, NBC News, and CNN Worldwide. In 2007 he became the first Asian American male to anchor a daily national news broadcast in America. He anchored Emmy and Peabody award-winning live coverage at CNN, and received the Champion in Media Award at the Multicultural Media Correspondents Dinner at the National Press Club.

His on-the-ground reporting on Civil Rights spans Rodney King, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and George Floyd. He is one of the only national journalists to report on the Asian American community without pause for the last 20 years, including on his own father’s assault during a recent wave of Anti-Asian hate. Lui was awarded Civil Rights awards, including the National Education Association’s Human and Civil Rights Award, the Asian American Journalists Association’s Civil Rights Award, and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Courage Award.

An Enduring Inclusion Authority with 500+ Speeches over 15 Years

Lui’s speaking includes Fortune 500 DEI departments, leadership groups representing every major community of color, military and veterans communities, women’s associations, faith-based groups, and more globally. He is one of the few, enduring Asian American national figures in the last two decades that has spoken so prolifically and reached so many.

In 2023 at Davos, Switzerland, along with AAPI Data and Momentive, Lui will launch Diversity@Work, a groundbreaking series of annual reports profiling Black, Indigenous, AAPI, Latino, and White Workers – discovering key data points on what’s unsaid about race at work. Lui can present these findings, along with actionable and practical steps for organizations, helping create new tools, conversations, and actions for business leaders and board rooms.

His nonpartisan messages have been heard across the country at business, cultural, and community events, small and large, from commencement speeches of 30,000, to middle school auditoriums filled with students. Driven by his family’s poverty-tested values, Lui brings a warm, practical embrace to the hopeful opportunities we have ahead.

Businessperson who Launched Six Tech Brands over 3 Business Cycles

Business Insider named Lui one of 21 careers to watch alongside Warren Buffett and Sheryl Sandberg. Over the course of 30 years, Lui has launched six technology brands over three business cycles, most recently with a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence startup. After earning his MBA at Michigan Ross School of Business, he joined Citibank where he co-created a fintech payment model he holds a patent for, and was a strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman for an IBM joint venture. Lui sits on several NGO boards and is a National Association of Corporate Directors Fellow.

Political Practitioner

For 15 years Lui’s reporting has focused on politics, covering every U.S. national election since 2004. He has interviewed hundreds of politicians, from Detroit’s Mayor to U.S. Presidents. He has been a contributing columnist for USA Today, Politico, Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press, Huffington Post, and others. Lui is Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a think tank focusing on transatlantic relationships including ~100 countries, where he explores the cross of public policy and media.

Lui’s passion for politics started in the 70s, debating California’s Proposition 13 on bus rides to school. Later in the 2000s, Lui found himself reporting from Asia during seismic political changes in Southeast Asia’s Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Lui is a Global Ambassador for Plan International, one of 200 active US State Department Traveling Speakers, and a spokesperson for NGOs focusing on gender equality and human trafficking including the UN’s HeForShe campaign.

Filmmaker, Author, and Media Expert

Lui’s first book, Enough About Me, published by HarperCollins Zondervan, focuses on the unexpected power of selflessness. In it, he addresses the “selfish pandemic” of our time and accessible ways to personally and institutionally counter the problem.

His first feature film, SKY BLOSSOM, was the most widely distributed documentary of 2021. The Oscars and Grammy-qualified film premiered at the Kennedy Center, and was named a Top 25 Awards Season contender by Variety. It was supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. Five years in the making, this movie focused on caregiver kids in military families. The film was inspired by Lui’s eight years of long-distance caregiving for his father, traveling 20 hours roundtrip three times a month from New York to California. His next film, releasing in 2023, Hidden Wounds, focuses on mental health, caregiving, and the military community.

Richard serves as a caregiving ambassador for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Hidden Heroes campaign, AARP, and the Alzheimer’s Association. Lui’s second film, debuts in May 2023, focusing on mental health, including his own journey.

Featured Videos

Richard Lui

Richard Lui On His Father’s Alzheimers Diagnosis – The Power Of Selflessness

Richard Lui

Richard Lui Speaking Reel

Richard Lui

Getting to Know Richard Lui

Richard Lui

Richard Lui at the Aspen Institute Keynote State of Race Symposium

Richard Lui

Richard Lui at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum

Richard Lui

Richard Lui at the United Nations: State of the World’s Fathers

Richard Lui

Richard Lui Commencement Speech at the Illinois College of Optometry

Richard Lui

Richard Lui Commencement Speech at the Illinois College of Optometry

Richard Lui On His Father’s Alzheimers Diagnosis – The Power Of Selflessness

Richard Lui Speaking Reel

Getting to Know Richard Lui

Richard Lui at the Aspen Institute Keynote State of Race Symposium

Richard Lui at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum

Richard Lui at the United Nations: State of the World’s Fathers

Richard Lui Commencement Speech at the Illinois College of Optometry