Alibaba Co-founder & Chairman Jack Ma To Step Down In 2019

Alibaba co-founder and chairman Jack Ma will step down as executive chairman of the e-commerce giant exactly during the same time next year. His retirement will coincide with his 55th birthday.

The company has already announced Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang as Jack’s successor, who will helm Asia’s most valuable company next. Ma is staying on in his post for the next twelve years to ensure a smooth transition before handing over his role to Zhang. He will, however, remain on the board until Alibaba’s annual meeting of shareholders in 2020.

“While remaining as executive chairman in the next 12 months, I will work closely with Daniel to ensure a smooth and successful transition,” Ma said in an official statement, reported News18.com. “Thereafter, I will stay on the Alibaba board of directors until our annual shareholders meeting in 2020.”

Ma, a former English teacher, started Alibaba.com two decades ago in 1999 as a business-to-business marketplace along with 17 co-founders. He has become synonymous with turning the company that started in his Hangzhou apartment into a global e-commerce giant. The company has since moved beyond e-commerce into cloud computing, digital payments, healthcare, Hollywood movies, and backing startups companies in China.

In his letter addressed to Alibaba’s customers, employees and shareholders, Ma appreciated Daniel’s work and noted that he has demonstrated superb talent, business acumen, and determined leadership, since the time he took over the CEO’s responsibilities in 2013.

During an interview with Bloomberg TV last week, Ma said that he plans to shift his focus to philanthropy and education.

“I think some day, and soon, I’ll go back to teaching. This is something I think I can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba,” he said.

Ma revealed that he has even created a foundation in his own name following in footsteps of billionaire Bill Gates.

“I’ve prepared a Jack Ma Foundation,” he said. “All these things that I’ve been preparing for 10 years. There’s a lot of things I can learn from Bill Gates. I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do better is to retire earlier.”