Wendi Deng Murdoch

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Wendi Deng Murdoch
邓文迪
Wendi Murdoch 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG
Murdoch at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
Born Deng Wenge (邓文革)
(1968-12-08) December 8, 1968 (age 44)[1]
Jinan, Shandong, People's Republic of China
Residence New York City
Beverly Hills, California
Nationality American
Ethnicity Chinese
Occupation Businesswoman
Spouse(s) Jake Cherry (m. 1990–1993)
Rupert Murdoch (m. 1999–present)
Children Grace Murdoch (born 2001)
Chloe Murdoch (born 2003)

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.

In 1988, Deng 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] Murdoch's debut in the media came with Fox TV. She was offered an internship at Star TV, Hong Kong, part of News Corporation.

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Early life and education [edit]

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 in high school, Murdoch's 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 [edit]

Upon graduation from Yale, she began searching for a job, and met Bruce Churchill via a mutual friend. At that time, Churchill 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] Wendi Deng 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 was a director for the holding company that licensed the MySpace brand and technology to MySpace China and chief of strategy for MySpace's China operation, prior to the company's sale to Specific Media in June, 2011.[11][12] Previously Murdoch had been a junior executive at News Corp'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.[13] 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.[14][15]

Personal life [edit]

Husband Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng in 2011

In 1987 Deng met an American businessman and his wife, Jake and Joyce Cherry, who had temporarily relocated to China to help build a refrigerator factory. Deng asked the couple for tutoring lessons in English, which Joyce eventually provided. In 1988, she abandoned her medical studies and traveled to the United States to study, with the Cherrys sponsoring Deng’s student visa. Upon her arrival to the United States, Deng briefly lived with Jake and Joyce Cherry and attended university. Joyce Cherry discovered her husband Jake was having an affair with Deng, who was 30 years his junior, and demanded she leave the house. Jake Cherry soon followed and moved in with her,[8] and the two married in 1990.[7] Deng 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 Deng had with David Wolf, a man closer to her age.[7] Nonetheless, she had been able to secure 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,[16] less than three weeks after his divorce from ex-wife Anna Maria Torv Murdoch Mann was finalized.

Deng and Rupert Murdoch live in Manhattan with their two daughters.[17][18]

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. May-Bowles was sentenced to serve a six-week sentence at Wandsworth Prison in London.[19]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Lewis, Hilary. "Happy Belated Birthday, Wendi Deng!". Business Insider. 
  2. ^ a b Yale School of Management – Board of Advisors. Accessed December 2, 2012.
  3. ^ Ellis, Eric (June 2007). "Wendi Deng Murdoch – A Life". The Monthly. pp. 28–40. 
  4. ^ Behind Wendi Deng’s billion-dollar spike
  5. ^ Jonathan Watts (20 July 2011). "Wendi Deng hailed in China for defending Rupert Murdoch". The Guardian. 
  6. ^ "Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Wendi Wields Influence at NewsCorp". The Wall Street Journal. November 2, 2000. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  7. ^ a b c d e Leonard, Tom (November 2, 2000). "How Murdoch's wife won her ticket to America". The Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved September 5, 2010. 
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Steve Fishman (September 11, 2005). "The Boy Who Wouldn't Be King". New York. New York Media. p. 5. Retrieved September 5, 2010. 
  9. ^ a b "Wendi Deng: Heiress Apparent?". The Asia Magazine. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  10. ^ Lippman, John. "Rupert Murdoch's Wife Wendi Wields Influence at News Corp.". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 5, 2010. 
  11. ^ . June 29, 2011 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-06-29/news-corp-calls-quits-on-myspace-with-specific-media-sale.html. Retrieved January 22, 2013.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ^ a b "Wendi Murdoch to work with MySpace". China Economic Review. July 4, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2010. 
  13. ^ "Who is Wendi Murdoch?". The Guardian (London). November 5, 2000. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
  14. ^ Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Fox Searchlight Pictures. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
  15. ^ "Interview of Wendi Deng Murdoch for Swan Flower and the Secret Fan". The Charlie Rose Show. August 25, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2011. 
  16. ^ "NNDb.com". NNDb.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
  17. ^ Stephen Foley (4 September 2008). "Murdoch unmasked: Meeting a media mogul". The Independent. 
  18. ^ "Rupert Murdoch & Wendi Deng's Daughters (PHOTOS)". International Business Times. July 2011. 
  19. ^ "CC Murdoch pie thrower reportedly blogging from prison". CNN. August 16, 2011. 

External links [edit]

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