Jack Ma stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman in the present day, handing the position over to the corporate’s present CEO Daniel Zhang. The transition was introduced a yr in the past.
Ma will proceed serving on Alibaba’s board till its annual basic shareholders’ assembly subsequent yr. He additionally stays a lifetime companion of Alibaba Partnership, a gaggle drawn from the senior administration ranks of Alibaba Group corporations and associates that has the correct to appoint (and in some conditions, appoint) as much as easy majority of its board.
Ma stated in final yr’s announcement that he plans for his departure from Alibaba Group to be very gradual: “The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba.”
Ma left Alibaba’s CEO place in 2013 and was succeeded first by Jonathan Lu. In 2015 Lu was changed by Zhang, the corporate’s former COO. As its CEO and now its chairman, Zhang has taken Alibaba’s reins because it copes with a slowdown in China’s e-commerce market after a decade of explosive progress. The on-line retail panorama additionally now contains new gamers like Pinduoduo, which have gained a bonus by specializing in smaller cities, necessary progress markets for Internet corporations.
One fascinating reality concerning the day Ma selected for his retirement as chairman is that it’s Teachers’ Day in China. Ma is a former English trainer who continues to be nicknamed “Teacher Ma” and has stated that he plans to commit time to schooling philanthropy.
