China

Obama’s Brother Runs Internet Company in China

UPDATE: Thanks to readers of this blog I have compiled a profile of Mark Ndsandjo, complete with photos. I would very much like to meet him to do a video, so if you know him, let me know!

Barack Obama has a half-brother living in Shenzhen who runs an Internet company that helps Chinese companies export to the US.

The company, called Worldnexus, assists Chinese companies set up websites for foreign customers. Their motto: “Good Communication is Good Business”.

Boilerplate says Worldnexus is registered with the Shenzhen city government and under the Chinese name 天下(TIAN XIA).

Mark’s name has been removed from the site, but I pulled the below image from the Google cache.
This is the text next to his name: 2005.05.01 －Mark Ndesandjo 晋升为WorldNEXUS公司的总经理.

Michael Sheridan of the Sunday Times wrote about the brother and company this weekend:

Mark Ndesandjo is the son of Barack Obama’s late father and his third wife, an American woman named Ruth Nidesand who runs the up-market Maduri kindergarten in Nairobi.

Obama, however, refers to him simply as “my brother” and says he was the only uncontested heir after their father, a Kenyan, died in a car crash in 1982.

Sheridan writes that Ndesandjo lives in Nanshan district of Shenzhen and has a long-term girlfriend in her 20s who is from landlocked Henan province. Ndesandjo has a degree from Brown University, a masters in physics from Stanford and an MBA from Emory, Sheridan writes.

Mark is one of Barack Obama senior’s eight children by four different women. Here is an Obama family tree showing the relationship.

There are, however, some questions about his Internet-based company, Sheridan writes.

Chinese officials said there are unanswered questions about his internet-based company, Worldnexus Ltd. It has provided corporate communications and website design to Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets, of which the United States is the biggest.

Worldnexus is not registered to conduct business in Shenzhen and officials at the city’s commercial administration bureau said this raised potential issues of taxation and compliance with the law by its customers.

Ndesandjo’s reply to an interview request: “Thanks for your interest. However I am not giving interviews at this time.”

It will not play well in Peoria that Obama’s half-brother is working to promote cheap Chinese exports into the United States, Sheridan muses.

Anybody know him or the company?

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Technorati Tags: China, Mark Ndesandjo, Obama, World Nexus