Mark Ndesandjo is featured on the Shenzhen Daily’s March 11, 2004 issue. File photo
Wang Yuanyuan
AMERICAN Mark Ndesandjo, who lives in Shenzhen, has hit the world spotlight with his half brother Barack Obama running for U.S. president.
Ndesandjo, who has been living in Shenzhen for more than six years, is engaged in trade, exporting Chinese products to the United States and has a long-term girlfriend from Henan Province.
Ndesandjo was mentioned by his half brother in the senator’s 1995 memoir. He was mentioned again by the New York Times in March and the Sunday Times, the London-based newspaper, again Sunday.
According to the Sunday Times, Ndesandjo is now working as a senior consultant and is reportedly the boss of an Internet-based company, Worldnexus Ltd., in Nanshan District.
It provides advice on corporate communications and Web site designs to Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking countries.
The company was not trading at the moment and he hoped to restart the business next year, the Sunday Times said.
However, a Chinese man who gave his name as David Sui and claimed to be a long-term friend of Ndesandjo’s, refused to reveal any information about Mark when contacted by the Shenzhen Daily yesterday.
“Mark told me that it was a sensitive time for him because of the U.S. election. To avoid having any influence he will not accept any interviews before the election,” Sui said yesterday.
Ndesandjo was not happy with inaccurate stories about him and his relationship with Obama carried by some overseas media recently, but he would not comment on those reports until after the election, Sui said.
“Mark is really a nice person, passionate with his work and charities. He speaks good Chinese and is very easy to work with. I am so sorry for what those newspapers said about him,” he said.
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Ndesandjo’s mobile phone went unanswered when the reporter tried to contact him yesterday.
The Shenzhen Daily first wrote about Ndesandjo’s life in Shenzhen in a March 11, 2004 report. The story “More than just donating” talked about his charity activities for orphans at the Shenzhen Social Welfare Center.
When he first came to Shenzhen from Florida in 2002, he started collecting VCRs, DVDs and pianos from his classmates in an executive MBA program in Atlanta and donated them to the center, the report said.
Apart from donations, he also spent much time teaching the orphans piano and organized a charity concert given by expatriates for the orphans.
Ndesandjo is the son of Obama’s late father and his third wife named Ruth Nidesand. He grew up with his mother and later changed his surname to his mother’s. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a master’s degree in physics from Stanford and an MBA from Emory.