#42 CNBC's Seema Mody 📈
Their FIRST South Asian on-air personality
Morning Trailblazers! I’m Simi Shah, and every other week, I dive deep into the journey of a trailblazing South Asian leader. Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Apple, and Spotify.
Hot of the Pod 🚀 Seema Mody, CNBC Global Markets Reporter
You’ve probably seen her on T.V. 📺… for today’s episode, I sat down with Seema Mody, CNBC Global Markets Reporter.
A leading business journalist, Seema is CNBC’s FIRST South Asian on-air personality. She joined the network in 2011 and currently focuses on the intersection of foreign policy and Wall Street, as well as the travel industry. She also hosts European Close, a daily segment that keeps U.S. investors informed about European markets.
Seema has appeared on several other CNBC shows including Street Signs, Closing Bell, and The Kudlow Report. In 2014, she spent a year in London, co-anchoring Worldwide Exchange, CNBC’s truly only international program, as well as other live reports for CNBC Europe. Her journey in journalism actually kicks off with CNBC-TV18 in Mumbai, India, where she covered the country’s economy and co-anchored programs like Power Breakfast and After the Bell. Her reporting to date spans COVID-19, biotechnology, Brexit, Indian elections, and much more. Beyond the newsroom, Seema is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the prominent American think tank. A graduate of the University of Washington, Seema initially began her career at Accenture. More on her story below:
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CNBC is the leader in business news — often breaking stories that meaningfully impact global markets. Being a reporter for them seems exciting, but also intense and pretty involved. Can you walk us through a day in the life?
It’s exciting. I wake up around 5am or earlier, checking my phone, reaching out to sources in the industry I cover. I'm also talking to our team in the morning because news usually breaks around 5:30 or 6AM. That's when press releases will start to go out. There's news that happened overnight that often can have a sizable impact on the performance of financial markets. So getting up to speed as to where Asia markets closed, where Europe is trading, can inform your reporting on which stocks or sectors could be moving in your area of focus once the markets open here in the U.S. So yeah, as a journalist, you don't sleep a lot.
But I think over time, as you grow your rolodex of individuals, you become much more aware and can anticipate the news. That's the goal, right? Good journalists predict what could be news tomorrow. And it’s humbling when you're able to do so because it doesn't happen every day. You're always on your feet, often in the studio or traveling. A few weeks ago, I was in Sheboygan, Wisconsin reporting on the housing shortage which was fun. Getting out of New York is so important as a journalist. You have to speak to folks across the nation, across the world because you have to understand who your audience is and also hear their stories. Especially right now. We're in a tough moment. The more people you can speak to, to get their stories, to hear what they're experiencing, the better.
Unlike other correspondents, you kickstarted your career in India at CNBC-TV18. You eventually returned to New York, but also spent time at CNBC Europe based out of London. Can you elaborate on these experiences?
After I was in India, I got an opportunity to work in New York as a full time correspondent with CNBC. But I still had that burning desire to work overseas. I think once you work at a foreign bureau, it's hard to leave because it's such an exciting environment. I always made my interest known internally about my love for foreign affairs and being overseas. So when the opportunity presented itself to work as a European correspondent with CNBC in London and also-co anchor our only truly international show, Worldwide Exchange, I really jumped at the opportunity. London is one of the most special cities in the world — extremely cosmopolitan, but more importantly, the news content is extremely diverse. Here in the U.S., we only cover international affairs when it's a crisis. In London, the front page is what's happening in Nigeria, Russia, the U.K. elections and the latest news in India. It's so geographically diverse, that it makes it really exciting to be there. and you learn a lot. So I love that experience and then came back to New York over time.
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