Simon Li Succeeds Shuster as Times Foreign Editor

Simon Li, a 10-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times who directed the paper’s coverage of the Persian Gulf War, has been named foreign editor, Shelby Coffey III, editor of The Times, announced Monday.

The 47-year-old Li will replace Alvin Shuster, who had headed The Times’ foreign coverage since 1983. Shuster, a veteran journalist who spent 30 years with the New York Times before moving to the Los Angeles Times in 1977, will retire Dec. 31.

“Alvin Shuster is the consummate foreign editor: eloquent, urbane, knowledgeable and thoroughly professional,” Coffey said.

“He has built and led a remarkably impressive foreign staff for the L.A. Times, and, as his deputy, Simon Li has had a strong hand in that.” Coffey noted that the coverage of the 1991 Gulf War “received considerable praise” and predicted that Li “will continue that strong leadership for the paper’s foreign coverage in the years ahead.”

Shuster, who will be 65 in January, will continue a relationship with The Times as a senior consulting editor.

The Times’ foreign editor oversees a staff of 30 correspondents, who report the news worldwide from bureaus in 22 countries. In addition to the paper’s daily dispatches of news and analysis, the foreign desk produces the weekly section World Report.

Li, a descendant of a prominent Hong Kong family, was born in London and educated at Oxford University. He began his journalistic career in 1965 as a reporter for the Hong Kong Standard, and in 1970 he received a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The following year, he joined the Philadelphia Inquirer, serving for 13 years as an editor on the foreign, national, opinion, city and business desks.

In 1984, Li came to The Times, where he worked as assistant business news editor before joining the foreign desk in 1986. He has been the second-in-command to the foreign editor since 1990.