Alibaba Co-founder Jack Ma Is Exiting The Company, Puts Forward A Succession Plan
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has confirmed Jack Ma’s plan to step down as chairman—He will be replaced by current CEO Daniel Zhang in September next year. Rumours of the retirement of the 54-year-old Ma surfaced late last week in Chinese business media and were all but confirmed by Ma in an interview with The New York Times . The move failed to shake the company’s stock, as Alibaba is one of the rarer Chinese companies to have made clear succession plans and to have already shared significant responsibilities with professional management. Ma ceased to be CEO in 2013. Ma, who co-founded the company 19 years ago and has become China’s best-known businessman, will ensure an orderly handover. He will continue on the board of directors until 2020. And he remains a lifetime member of the 36-member Alibaba Partnership, which nominates company directors. In its less than two decades of existence, Alibaba has transformed many Chinese industries, and helped propel the ...