Fred Katayama

Fred Katayama CC '82 J '?? is an award-winning anchor for Reuters Television based in New York. He anchors "Reuters Insider," “Reuters World Update,” “Reuters Industry Summits,” and “Reuters Technology Week.” In his career spanning print, television and new media, he has covered breaking news events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Kobe earthquake and the Enron collapse. He has interviewed political and business leaders, including former Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Noboru Takeshita of Japan, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Bill Gates of Microsoft. The tech show he anchors was a Webby Award honoree.

Katayama, a native of Los Angeles, earned a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies from Columbia, where he graduated magna cum laude. He earned a master of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with a concentration in business reporting.

Prior to Reuters, he worked as an anchor and correspondent at CNN Business News, the division of the CNN News Group that produces business news. He anchored “In the Game,” “Talking Stocks,” and “Business Asia.” He also covered breaking news stories for CNN’s Moneyline News Hour, the predecessor to “Lou Dobbs Tonight. In April 2000, Katayama's report on broadband technology was cited when Moneyline won a Maxwell Media Award. He received an honorable mention in 1997 from the Asian American Journalists Association for his special report on the Asian American campaign financing scandal.

Before joining CNN in 1995, Katayama was a business and general news reporter for CBS's Seattle affiliate, KIRO-TV. Prior to that, Katayama was a correspondent for four years at Japan Business Today, an NHK production that aired daily on CNBC. While reporting for NHK, he won the Asian American Journalists Association's national award in 1994 for a humorous piece on executives competing in the food industry.

Before beginning his career in television news, Katayama was a reporter for Fortune magazine in Tokyo and New York for seven years, where among other things, he penned a column on new products. He earned a citation in 1997 from the Overseas Press Club of America as part of a four-man team for a special report on Japan's economy. He began his career as a general assignment reporter for the Associated Press.

He most recently won an AAJA award for newsroom leadership in 2004. He serves on the board of directors of the Japan Society and the U.S.-Japan Council.