Susan Li

Susan Li is a Canadian journalist who works for American television channel CNBC.

Early Life and education

Li was born in China and grew up in Toronto, Canada. Her mentor was her hard-working single mother who worked hard and raised a family on her own in Canada after immigrating from China. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in economics.^[1] Natively fluent in English, she also speaks Cantonese and Mandarin.

Career

CBC

She began her career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where she contributed in various roles including associate producer and freelance reporter for both radio and television.

CCTV

From 2003 until 2006, Li was an anchor at China Central Television’s CCTV International, the network’s English language channel. Broadcasting from Beijing, Li led the primetime world news broadcasts, hosted Biz China, the business news recap, and also was a news editor. While at CCTV she interviewed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, and professional basketball player Yao Ming. She herself was interviewed about what it was like to be a "repatriated" Chinese person living in Beijing after growing up in Canada.^[2]

Bloomberg Television

Li joined Bloomberg Television in 2006 as host of the channel's first primetime evening newscast in the Asia-Pacific region, Asia Business Tonight. She started hosting Bloomberg Edge and Morning Call in 2010. She hosted the First Up morning business show, where she focused on market openings across Asia, interviewed business leaders, and reported on top news stories from across the globe.^[3] Li also hosted Asia Stars, which had the distinction of largely being filmed onboard Hong Kong's famous Star Ferry as it crossed Victoria Harbour.^[4] She was also a co-host of Asia Edge, which featured more extensive interviews and news coverage.^[5]

As part of Bloomberg International’s global programming, Li was seen around the world. During her time at the channel, she interviewed a wide range of business and government leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, US Ambassador to China Gary Locke, Citigroup's CEO Vikram Pandit,^[6] Baidu CEO Robin Li, author Malcolm Gladwell, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Finkand,^[7] and American casino developer Steve Wynn. She reported on and covered events such as the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Shanghai World Expo, the Chinese stock market bubble, and the Global Financial Crisis. In 2008 she was nominated for the Best News Anchor award at the Asian Television Awards.^[8] In 2012 at the 17th Asian Television Awards, First Up won the Best News Programme Award, for which she as host was “Highly Commended.”^[9]

CNBC Asia

In 2014, Li joined CNBC Asia as co-anchor of Asia Squawk Box (ASB). She co-anchored ASB with Martin Soong in Singapore before that program moved to Hong Kong on 31 March 2014. Li and Bernard Lo (himself a former Bloomberg anchor) co-anchored ASB from 31 March 2014 to 14 August 2015, ASB was solely based in Hong Kong during this time.

CNBC Europe

On 10 September 2015, Li left CNBC Asia to join its London-based sister network CNBC Europe. She was a co-anchor of Worldwide Exchange along with Wilfred Frost (son of the late David Frost) and Carolin Roth through 31 December 2015. She last co-hosted the show from London and also on location throughout Asia and Europe.^[10] In May 2014, she interviewed Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Kazakhstan.^[11]

CNBC

Li joined CNBC in January 2016 as a correspondent and a relief presenter. Since joining the channel, Li has interviewed Robert de Niro, Nobu Matsuhisa, Jet Li and others, extending beyond her core business reporting.^[12]

Awards

• Best Anchor, 17th Asian Television Awards (for "First Up with Susan Li.") ^[13]

References