40 Facts About Richard Lui

Richard Lui is an American author, journalist, and filmmaker.

Richard Lui is a columnist, contributing to publications including USA Today, Politico, The Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Richard Lui's public speaking spans six continents and some 200 events in the last several years.

Richard Lui's enterprise reporting has focused on humanitarian issues including gender equality, human trafficking, and affordable housing.

Richard Lui is ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation and sits on the president's council for America's largest food source to the poor, Food Bank for New York City.

Richard Lui has received civil rights awards from organizations including AAJA, WWAAC, and OCA.

Richard Lui is patent holder and co-founder of the first bank-centric payment system, which was seed-funded and incubated by Citibank.

Richard Lui has directed two Academy Award qualified films, Sky Blossom in 2020, and Unconditional in 2023, which was screened at the White House by First Lady Jill Biden.

Richard Lui started in business in 1985, working in manufacturing, strategy consulting, food and beverage, environmental, oil, and technology industries.

Richard Lui has held chief roles from operations to marketing.

At the start of his career, Richard Lui skipped college and spent four years at startup Mrs Fields Cookies.

At the age of 18, Richard Lui became the youngest in the company's history to run a regional training center.

Until 2008, Richard Lui worked for Citibank as Director, COO, and CMO of a business unit focused on payments and commerce.

Richard Lui's patented payment infrastructure bypassed MasterCard and Visa, enabling consumers to pay for goods and services by connecting directly to their bank.

Richard Lui helped launch a joint venture with IBM in the retail vertical.

Richard Lui started community work in high school as a YMCA counselor in the 1980s.

Richard Lui taught addicted mothers computer skills at the American Indian Family Healing Center and served as campaign manager for a citywide position that managed City College of San Francisco.

Richard Lui has collaborated with Polaris Project, a global anti-human trafficking organization.

Richard Lui has reported and consulted on human trafficking stories for a decade, and spoken on domestic and global trends at high schools, universities, and conferences globally.

Richard Lui has worked with the Aspen Institute for several years, speaking at its annual, C-SPAN broadcast symposium on the "State of Race in America".

Richard Lui led Aspen Institute conversations at the State Department on foreign affairs in US journalism.

Richard Lui is a UN Foundation Fellow and hosted programs alongside former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the United Nations Association of New York.

Richard Lui has given commencement speeches at UC Berkeley and City College of San Francisco, and spoken at events for Harvard University, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Richard Lui served on the board of directors for Crossroads Homeless Services and PRI affordable housing development company.

Richard Lui conducted Asian Pacific American Institute on Congressional Studies training sessions for elected and appointed officials.

Richard Lui contributes political opinion pieces to publications, including The Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, and Huffington Post.

Later, in the 2000s, Richard Lui moved to Asia to capture a heated moment in regional politics.

Richard Lui was at Channel NewsAsia, an English language network reaching 24 territories.

Richard Lui covered the South Asian tsunami, and the 2003 SARS and bird flu outbreaks.

Richard Lui anchored live breaking stories such as the 2009 Gaza-Israel War, Virginia Tech Massacre, 2006 Hezbollah-Israel War, Mumbai train terrorist bombings, and 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Richard Lui's field reporting explored political and civil rights controversies in the Asian-American community, including the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which led to a system of illegal immigrants called paper sons.

Richard Lui received Peabody and Emmy awards for his team reporting at CNN during Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill.

Richard Lui anchored Early Today for NBC News for several years.

Richard Lui is currently a breaking news anchor at MSNBC.

Richard Lui is based at NBC News's offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Richard Lui served as news anchor for The Weather Channel's program with Al Roker, Wake Up With Al when NBC co-owned the weather-focused network.

Richard Lui's field reporting has included covering the Ferguson unrest, Hurricane Sandy, and the 2012 US Presidential election.

Richard Lui is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and was elected 2013 Member of the Year.

Richard Lui said in an op-ed he grew up on welfare and almost flunked out of high school.

Richard Lui is an automobile enthusiast, and is an aerodynamics and airplane industry hobbyist.