Zhang to Replace Jack Ma as Alibaba’s Chairman in One Year

Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce has made an announcement that its Co-founder Jack Ma will step down as chairman in September 2019.

Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s current chief executive will take over the chairman’s position, while Ma will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors until the company’s annual general meeting in 2020.

In 2013, Ma, 54, stepped down as the chief executive. Earlier, Zhang was the CTO before serving as the chief executive’s position in 2015. He is one of the masterminds behind Alibaba’s Nov.11 event, world’s largest online shopping event- “Singles Day”.

According to the company, Zhang will retain the Chief Executive title.

According to Forbes, Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba, is one of the wealthiest people in China with a net worth of $36.6 B. The company’s market value is around $420 B and has more than 66,000 full-time employees.

In 2017, Ma invested $45 M in a rural education project in China. He also started a scholarship program in Australia.

“Mr. Zhang, who has been with Alibaba for eleven years, had demonstrated "superb talent" since taking over as chief executive,” said Jack Ma, president, and co-founder of Alibaba.

During its peak time in IPO in 2014, Alibaba was listed in York as the world’s biggest IPO of shares. At the end of March this year, the company was reported revenues of $39.9bn for the fiscal year.