Patti Waldmeir is a contributing columnist based in Chicago. From 1980 to 2020, she was a correspondent for the FT based in London, Washington, Johannesburg and Shanghai. Patti started her career covering the continent of Africa and went on to become US Editor of the Financial Times. She spent a decade as US legal columnist before moving to Shanghai to cover China for the FT for 8 years.
Patti graduated from the University of Michigan and was awarded a Marshall scholarship which allowed her to obtain an MA from the University of Cambridge in the UK.