September 10, 2018 – Alibaba is heralding the end of the Jack Ma era. A former English teacher who helped found Alibaba two decades ago, Ma outlined plans to hand the executive chairman role to Daniel Zhang, a finance veteran who has presided over an ambitious expansion and won over investors in three years as CEO.
Ma will officially pass the baton in exactly 12 months’ time, on his 55th birthday, but remain on the board until 2020. He now intends to focus on philanthropy and education but also pursue unspecified “new dreams,” he said in a statement today.
China’s richest man has become synonymous with turning the company that started in his Hangzhou apartment into a global e-commerce giant with burgeoning cloud computing and package delivery businesses.
Ma’s 46-year-old successor has pushed Alibaba deeper into the wallets of Chinese consumers as it bought and transformed brick-and-mortar outlets: a so-called “New Retail” vision that’s cost billions of dollars and took it into the realm of physical stores.
“Starting the process of passing the Alibaba torch to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time, because I know from working with them that they are ready,” Ma said in the statement. “Since he took over as CEO, he has demonstrated his superb talent, business acumen and determined leadership.”
The succession plan will unite Alibaba’s two biggest roles for the first time since Ma gave up his CEO title in 2013 to focus on being chairman and groom lieutenants, including Zhang, a Shanghai-educated certified accountant.
Zhang joined Taobao in 2007 as CFO of the consumer-to-consumer marketplace. He pioneered the company’s push into getting established brands to sell to customers and is credited with helping turn Singles’ Day into a Chinese shopping bonanza.
Zhang’s appointment may come as a surprise to those accustomed to tracking Ma’s other high-profile lieutenants, such as Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai. The CEO has proven a capable hand and Alibaba’s stock has surged 87% over his tenure and now has a market value of about $420bn, bigger than arch-foe and WeChat operator Tencent.