Alibaba’s Ma sets a time limit
• In September 2019, co-founder will pass position of chair to CEO Daniel Zhang, to concentrate on philanthropy
Jack Ma, the charismatic co-founder of China’s largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba Group, will step down as chairman in a year’s time to concentrate on philanthropy and education.
Jack Ma, the charismatic cofounder of China’s largest ecommerce firm, Alibaba Group, will step down as chair in a year’s time to concentrate on philanthropy and education, passing on the reins to a trusted lieutenant, Daniel Zhang.
Ma, who turned 54 on Monday, has long flagged plans to step back, insisting Alibaba management should be relatively young. His retirement is not expected to affect the running of the company.
But it is still extremely rare for a founder of a big and transformative technology firm, especially one with a cult-like status like Ma, to retire so early.
“There’s only Bill Gates who has done the same. No other tech founder in the world has just resigned like that at the top,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Shanghai-based founder of the Hurun Report, which publishes an annual influential list of China’s richest people.
Hoogewerf added that in China Ma is a figure like no other, with friends ranging from movie stars to billionaire moguls, though he often outshines them all.
Ma will give up his role as chair on September 10 2019 and will complete his term on Alibaba’s board after the annual general meeting in 2020, the company said. He relinquished the role of CEO in 2013.
Zhang, 46, has been CEO since 2015 after serving as COO and is known as a key architect of Alibaba’s “Singles Day”, the November 11 event that has become the world’s largest online shopping event.
Zhang, a former accountant, will continue as CEO.
“Under his stewardship, Alibaba has seen consistent and sustainable growth for 13 consecutive quarters ... Starting the process of passing the Alibaba torch to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time,” Ma said in a letter released by the company.
Ma co-founded Alibaba in 1999 with 17 others and has become one of China’s richest people with a net worth of $36.6bn, says Forbes. The company was founded at a time when the industry was dominated by state-owned firms and entrepreneurship was seen as a risky career path. It has grown to have more than 66,000 fulltime employees and a market value of $420bn.
“He put a human face on technology, and took China onto the global stage, not as a stateowned enterprise, crucially,” said Duncan Clark, MD at Beijing tech advisory BDA and the author of
Ma is also known for his eccentric personality and has donned wigs and costumes to perform highly choreographed
pop routines at company events. Last year he starred alongside Chinese action star Jet Li in a short kung fu film.
In the letter on Monday, Ma said he has been planning his exit for 10 years and has previously said he wants the company to last 102 years.
After he steps down, he will continue to mentor management as part of the “Alibaba
Partnership”, a 36-member group of core managers. The group has the ability to nominate the majority of directors on the board, and five of Alibaba’s 11 board members have been nominated by the partnership.
Other members include Eric Jing, chief of Alibaba payment affiliate Ant Financial; Joe Tsai, executive vice-chairman of Alibaba; Simon Hu, chief of Alibaba Cloud; and Lucy Peng, who heads Alibaba’s Southeast Asia business.
Since handing over the CEO role, Ma, who is married with three children, has concentrated on philanthropy and promoting Alibaba internationally at business and political events.
In 2014 he and Tsai set up a charitable trust focusing on the environment and health, funded by share options they own that represented about 2% of Alibaba’s equity at the time.
RURAL EDUCATION
Last year Ma invested 300-million yuan ($45m) in a rural education project in China. He has also established a scholarship programme in Australia.
Ma, who owns roughly 6% of Alibaba’s stock and also controls Ant Financial, is stepping back amid more challenging times for Chinese technology companies as sales growth in China’s eastern megacities shows signs of slowing.
Sales at Alibaba’s e-commerce business expanded 61% in the latest reported quarter, but its profit margins have been squeezed by big-ticket investments as it battles to maintain its dominant position in e-commerce and payments.