Richard Quest

Richard Austin Quest (born 9 March 1962) is a British journalist, non-practising barrister, and television anchor who serves as CNN International's leading business correspondent and host of the weekday program Quest Means Business, broadcast live from New York ahead of the NYSE closing bell. Quest holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds, where he qualified as a barrister before entering journalism with the BBC as its North America business correspondent, covering Wall Street for over a decade. He joined CNN in the early 1990s and has reported on pivotal financial events, including market crashes and corporate scandals, establishing a reputation for energetic on-air delivery. In April 2008, Quest was arrested in Central Park by New York police on misdemeanor charges of methamphetamine possession and loitering for sexual activity, after being found disheveled with the drug in his pocket and a rope tied around his neck and genitals; the drug charge was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal upon completing six months of counseling, while the loitering charge was dismissed.

Richard Quest was born Richard Austin Quest on March 9, 1962, in Liverpool, England, into a Jewish family of Sephardic descent. He has a twin sister, Caroline Quest, who later became Managing Director of Innovation and Enterprise at Queen Mary, University of London.

Quest spent part of his early years in Liverpool before the family relocated to Leeds in northern England, where he grew up in a stable urban environment typical of mid-20th-century British working- and middle-class Jewish communities. The move aligned with regional economic shifts in post-war Britain, though specific family motivations for the relocation remain undocumented in public records.

Details on Quest's parents and extended family are sparse in verifiable sources, with no confirmed records of their professions or direct influences on his formative worldview beyond the cultural context of a Jewish household in industrial northern England. This early stability in Leeds provided a foundation marked by community ties and educational access, as evidenced by his attendance at the local state comprehensive Roundhay School.