Richard Quest
Encyclopedia
Richard Austin Quest (born 9 March 1962) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
journalist and a CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
anchor and reporter based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He anchors Quest Means Business. In addition to anchoring the five-times-weekly business program, Quest hosts the monthly program Business Traveller. He formerly anchored the monthly show Quest and the daily show CNN Today which was geared towards morning audiences in Europe.
Early life
Quest is a native of LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, UK, having been born and partly raised there. He was educated at the state comprehensive Roundhay School
Roundhay School
Roundhay School is a specialist Technology College and Language College in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-Admissions:...
in Leeds, followed by Airedale and Wharfedale College and University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, where he studied law, taking his degree in 1983 (Law LLB Hons.), and was called to the Bar
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
. He had already gained broadcast experience when he spent the 1983–84 academic year at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. As news director for campus radio station WRVU
WRVU
WRVU is a college radio station broadcasting a Variety radio format; though it originally broadcast on 91.1 FM, the station now broadcasts over an HD Radio subchannel and streams to internet radio listeners. Licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, USA, the station serves Vanderbilt University...
, he built the reporting staff from scratch.
Journalism career
Quest then became a trainee journalist at the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1985, joining their financial section in 1987, and moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1989 to become their North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
business correspondent.
Quest later worked for the BBC from the USA as part of their then fledgling BBC News 24
BBC News 24
BBC News is the BBC's 24-hour rolling news television network in the United Kingdom. The channel launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 17:30 as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic television channels, becoming the first competitor to Sky News, which had been running since 1989...
channel. He was their business correspondent reporting on, and discussing the world stock market in a regular segment entitled World Business Report usually aired between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. (GMT), a programme that he presented alongside Paddy O'Connell
Paddy O'Connell
Guy Patrick Bennett O'Connell , known as Paddy O'Connell, is an English television and radio presenter, working mainly for the BBC....
. He was also an occasional presenter on the BBC's early morning Business Breakfast
Business Breakfast
Business Breakfast is a business programme which aired on BBC One from September 4, 1989 to September 29, 2000.-Breakfast News:Breakfast News was a daily news programme which aired between 6:00am and 7:00am, directly preceding Breakfast News between January 4, 1993 and September 29, 2000...
programme.
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
banknotes and coins on 1 January 2002 and the last official commercial flight of Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
. He has also headed up CNN’s coverage of several events involving the British Royal Family.
Personal life
On 18 April 2008, Quest was arrested at 3:40am in Central ParkCentral Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and charged with loitering
Loitering
Loitering is the act of remaining in a particular public place for a protracted time. Under certain circumstances, it is illegal in various jurisdictions.-Prohibition and history:Loitering may be prohibited by local governments in several countries...
and criminal possession of a controlled substance
Controlled substance
A controlled substance is generally a drug or chemical whose manufacture, possession, or use are regulated by a government. This may include illegal drugs and prescription medications ....
: crystal methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
. The police also found a rope around his neck, tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot. Quest agreed to undergo 6 months of drug counseling, resulting to "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal" of the misdemeanor charges. He was released by the Manhattan Criminal Court with no bail after having been incarcerated.
Quest identifies himself as gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and is Jewish.
His twin sister Caroline is Managing Director of Innovation and Enterprise at Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.