- Wendi Deng Murdoch
-
Wendi Deng Murdoch
邓文迪
in New York City (April 2010)Born Deng Wenge
December 8, 1968 [1]
Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of ChinaNationality American Ethnicity Chinese Occupation Businesswoman Spouse Jake Cherry (m. 1990–1993)
Rupert Murdoch (m. 1999–present)Children 2 Wendi Deng Murdoch (simplified Chinese: 邓文迪; traditional Chinese: 鄧文迪; pinyin: Dèng Wéndí; born December 8, 1968) is a Chinese-born American businesswoman. She is the third wife of News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and is leading her husband's Chinese media investments.
In 1988 she was sponsored by an American family for a student visa. She attended Cal State Northridge for economics and completed her master's degree in business at the Yale School of Management, where she currently serves on the board of advisors.[2] Her debut in the media came with Fox TV. She was offered an internship at Star TV, Hong Kong, part of News Corporation.
Contents
Early life and education
Wendi Deng Murdoch was born in Jinan, Shandong and raised in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Her birth name was Deng Wenge (邓文革),[3] which means "Cultural Revolution".[4] She changed it in her teens when a more open and international mood took hold.[5] Murdoch is the third of four children (three daughters, one son) born to engineers.[6] Murdoch attended Xuzhou First Secondary School and Xuzhou No. 1 Middle School. She developed a strong interest in playing volleyball. While Murdoch was in high school, her father relocated to Hangzhou, where he worked at the People's Machinery Works; she and her family remained behind for a short while. In 1985, when she was 16 years old, Murdoch enrolled in Guangzhou Medical College.[7]
In 1987, Murdoch met an American businessman and his wife, Jake and Joyce Cherry,[8] who had temporarily relocated to China and helped build a refrigerator factory.[8] Murdoch studied English with Joyce.[8] In 1988, Murdoch abandoned her medical studies and travelled to the United States to study, with Jake and Joyce Cherry sponsoring her student visa.[8] Murdoch enrolled at California State University, Northridge, where she studied economics and was among the top 1% of students.[8][9]
Murdoch received a bachelor's degree in economics from California State University at Northridge and an MBA from the Yale School of Management where she currently serves on the board of advisors.[2]
Career
Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser, Wendi Deng and husband Rupert Murdoch with MySpace co-founders at the 2006 Oxfam/MySpace Rock for Darfur event
Upon graduation from Yale, she began searching for a job, and met Bruce Campbell via a mutual friend; Campbell at the time oversaw finance and corporate development at the Fox TV branch in Los Angeles. He subsequently offered Murdoch an internship at News Corp subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong, which developed into a full-time junior executive position. Though a junior employee,[10] Murdoch took a role in working to plan Star TV's operations in Hong Kong and China, and helped to build up Chinese distribution for Star's "Channel V" music channel. Additionally, she investigated interactive TV opportunities for News Digital Systems.
Murdoch has recently become a director for the holding company that licenses the MySpace brand and technology to MySpace China, her first formal involvement in the media business since she left her job as a junior executive at the company's Star TV in Hong Kong in 1999. Murdoch has led her husband's Chinese internet investments totalling between $35 million and $45m. She has led the way in forming business links with China for high-speed video and internet access.[11] She is now chief of strategy for MySpace’s China operation.[12]
In 2011, Murdoch made her producer debut with the release of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a movie about two footbound children in ancient China.[13][14]
Personal life
Husband Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng in 2011Upon her arrival to the United States, Murdoch briefly lived with Jake and Joyce Cherry and attended university. Joyce Cherry suspected her husband was having an affair with Murdoch (30 years his junior) and demanded she leave the house. Jake Cherry soon followed and moved in with her.[8] The two married in 1990.[7] Murdoch and Cherry's marriage lasted 2 years and 7 months before they were legally divorced,[8] but he would later explain they only stayed together for 4 or 5 months,[7] after which he learned of the affair Murdoch had with David Wolf, a man closer to her age.[7] She had obtained a green card through her marriage to Cherry.[7][8]
In 1997, she met Rupert Murdoch at a company party in Hong Kong.[9] They married in 1999,[15] less than three weeks after his divorce from ex-wife Anna Maria Torv Murdoch Mann was finalized.[15] Wendi and Rupert Murdoch live in Manhattan with their two daughters: Grace Helen (born 2001) and Chloe (born 2003).[16][17]
She counter-attacked Jonathan May-Bowles who pied her husband during a highly publicized testimony before a British parliamentary committee in connection with the News International phone hacking scandal. Her actions gained her press attention and this wikipedia article was part of a report at CNN. May-Bowles was sentenced to serve a six-week sentence at Wandsworth Prison in London. The Murdoch media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.[18]
References
- ^ Lewis, Hilary. "Happy Belated Birthday, Wendi Deng!". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/12/happy-belated-birthday-wendi-deng.
- ^ a b mba.yale.edu/why/advisors/index.shtml.
- ^ Ellis, Eric (June 2007). "Wendi Deng Murdoch – A Life". The Monthly: pp. 28–40. http://www.ericellis.com/wendideng.htm.
- ^ Behind Wendi Deng’s billion-dollar spike
- ^ Wendi Deng hailed in China for defending Rupert Murdoch
- ^ "Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Wendi Wields Influence at NewsCorp.". The Wall Street Journal. November 2, 2000. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Leonard, Tom (November 2, 2000). "How Murdoch's wife won her ticket to America". The Daily Telegraph (UK). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/1372878/How-Murdochs-wife-won-her-ticket-to-America.html. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Boy Who Wouldn't Be King". New York Media. http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/features/14302/index5.html. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ a b "Wendi Deng: Heiress Apparent?". The Asia Magazine. http://www.theasiamag.com/people/wendi-deng-heiress-apparent. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
- ^ Lippman, John. "Rupert Murdoch's Wife Wendi Wields Influence at News Corp.". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB973040597961471219.html. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ "Who is Wendi Murdoch?". The Guardian (London). November 5, 2000. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2000/nov/05/theobserver.observerbusiness8. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
- ^ "Wendi Murdoch to work with MySpace". China Economic Review. July 4, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20080519234912/http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/it/2007/07/04/wendi-murdoch-to-work-with-myspace/. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Fox Searchlight Pictures. Retrieved Septempber 14, 2011.
- ^ Interview of Wendi Murdoch for Swan Flower and the Secret Fan The Charlie Rose Show. August 25, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
- ^ a b "NNDb.com". NNDb.com. http://www.nndb.com/people/420/000023351/. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
- ^ "Murdoch unmasked: Meeting a media mogul". Independent. June 2007.
- ^ "Rupert Murdoch & Wendi Deng's Daughters [PHOTOS"]. International Business Times. July 2011.
- ^ CC Murdoch pie thrower reportedly blogging from prison, CNN, August 16th, 2011
External links
- "Spiked!". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. May 7, 2007. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1916646.htm. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- "Stain Removal". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. August 27, 2007. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2016916.htm. Retrieved September 5, 2010. (discusses the WikiScanner data in the editing of this Wikipedia article on Wendi Deng)
- (Chinese) 邓文迪 at Baidu Baike and 邓文迪 at Hudong
- (Chinese) Chinese MySpace page, photos and blog
- Adams, William Lee. "Wendi Deng: The Life and Times of Mrs. Rupert Murdoch." TIME.
Categories:- 1968 births
- Living people
- Yale School of Management alumni
- California State University, Northridge alumni
- American people of Chinese descent
- American women in business
- Chinese emigrants to the United States
- Murdoch family
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- People from Xuzhou
- Myspace
- News Corporation
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
