Alibaba’s founders — How, when and where they met

Ma recently announced his retirement after leading Alibaba Group from its humble beginnings to becoming an e-commerce giant worth US$420 billion (RM1.74 trillion) today.

Ma is the face of Alibaba. However, there are 17 other individuals who co-founded the e-commerce giant. But who are they? iPrice Group has embarked on a research to uncover the 18 founding members of Alibaba.

Jack Ma

Ma was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, China. In 1988, he successfully earned his degree in English from Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute.

Eventually, he ventured into business and founded China Yellow Pages, the first Internet company in the country. Ma is the chief executive officer and chairman of Alibaba. At age 54, Ma announced his retirement as chairman in one year to concentrate on his philanthropy and education, passing his position to Daniel Zhang.

Jin Jianhang Jianhang was from Fudan Journalism School and has worked at numerous Chinese media such as Zhejiang Daily and International Business Daily. As a journalist, he had frequent run-ins with Ma and eventually built connections. In 1999, when Ma started Alibaba, Jianhang went with him.

Joseph Tsai

Tsai has an undergraduate degree in economics and East Asian studies and a law degree. Prior to meeting Ma, Tsai was a banker earning about US$700,000 a year. Today, Tsai is the vice-executive chairman and co-founder of Alibaba.

Lucy Peng

Similar to Ma, Peng began her career as a teacher at the Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. She married Sun Tongyu, in 1997 and quit teaching in 1999 to join her husband at Alibaba as a founding member.

She was recently assigned as the CEO of Lazada.

Cathy Zhang

Zhang first met Ma at the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute. Soon after graduation, they got married. She was in Alibaba’s management team and now dedicates her time raising a family with Ma.

Eddie Wu

Wu graduated with a computer science degree from the Zhejiang University of Technology in 1996 and later joined China Yellow Pages where he became acquainted with Jack Ma.

Wu joined Ma in building Alibaba as its first programmer.

James Sheng

Sheng began learning traditional art at an early age. He turned to commercial art and started his career as a designer.

He was acquainted with Jack Ma when the former’s company was hired to design China Yellow Pages’ website.

Lou Wensheng

Lou and Ma attended the same university, Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute.

Lou eventually became one of Ma’s closest supporters.

Simon Xie

Xie obtained his degree in financial management from the Shenyang University of Technology. In 1996, he met Ma at China Yellow Pages. He first followed Ma to work at MOFTEC and later joined Alibaba.

Jin Yuanying

Jin was Ma’s student in Hangzhou Dianzi University and later was encouraged to join Alibaba Group.

Shi Yufeng

In 1999, Shi worked at Central Weather Bureau. Interestingly, he’s also skilled in information technology, which came in handy later as he joined Alibaba.