Jack Ma from Alibaba will resign in a year, the hand stick to CEO Zhang

BEIJING (Reuters) – Jack Ma, the charismatic co-founder of the largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, will step down as president in one year to focus on philanthropy and education.

Ma, who turned 54 on Monday, has long announced his intention to step back, insisting that Alibaba's management should be relatively young and that his retirement should not affect the company's operations.

But it is still extremely rare that a founder of a large transformative technological company, especially a business with cult status like Ma, is retiring so early.

"Only Bill Gates did the same thing. No other technology founder in the world has just resigned like that at the top, "said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Shanghai-based Hurun report, which publishes an influential list of China's richest people every year.

Hoogewerf added that in China, Ma was an unparalleled figure, with friends ranging from movie stars to billionaire bosses, though he often explodes them. "He is the great, he is the one who gathers them together."

On September 10, 2019, Ma will step down as chairman of the board and will end his current term on Alibaba's board of directors after the company's annual general meeting in 2020, the company said. He relinquished the role of General Manager in 2013.

Zhang, 46, has been CEO since 2015 after being chief operating officer and is known as the key architect of Alibaba's "Singles Day", the November 11 event that became the biggest event of the year. online sales to the world. Zhang, a former accountant, will also continue as CEO.

"Under his leadership, Alibaba has grown steadily and sustainably for 13 consecutive quarters … Starting Alibaba's torch pass process to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time," Ma said. in a letter from the company.

Ma, a former English teacher with no technical background, co-founded Alibaba in 1999 with 17 other people and became one of China's richest people with a net worth of $ 36.6 billion, according to Forbes.

The company, founded at a time when the industry was still dominated by state-owned enterprises and where entrepreneurship was considered a risky career, now has more than 66,000 full-time employees and a market value some $ 420 billion.

"He gave a human face to technology and brought China to the world stage, not as a public company," said Duncan Clark, general manager of Beijing's technical council and author of "Alibaba." : The House. "

POP ROUTINES AND KUNG FU

He is also known for his quirky personality and donned wigs and costumes to perform highly choreographed pop routines during corporate events. Last year, he played alongside Chinese action star Jet Li in a short film of kung fu.

In Monday's letter, Ma said he had been planning to leave for the past 10 years and had already said he wanted the company to last 102 years, choosing a specific number to motivate employees.

After his resignation, he will continue to supervise management under the "Alibaba Partnership", a group of 36 company directors.

The group has the capacity to appoint the majority of directors to the board of directors of the company and currently five of the eleven Alibaba members have been appointed by the partnership.

Other members include Eric Jing, head of Alibaba's payment subsidiary, Ant Financial. [ANTFIN.UL]Joe Tsai, Executive Vice President of Alibaba, Simon Hu, Head of Alibaba Cloud, and Lucy Peng, who leads Alibaba's business in Southeast Asia.

Since the transfer of the role of CEO, Ma, who is married and has three children, has focused on Alibaba's philanthropy and international promotion at trade and political events.

In 2014, he co-founded, along with co-founder Joe Tsai, an environmental and health charitable trust, which is funded by stock options that they own and which represent approximately 2% of Alibaba's share capital. 'time.

Last year, Ma invested 300 million yuan ($ 45 million) in a rural education project in China. He has also created a scholarship program in Newcastle, Australia.

Ma, which holds about 6% of Alibaba's share capital and also controls Ant Financial, is pulling out of a tougher time for Chinese companies as sales growth in China's eastern megacities is showing signs of slowing down.

Alibaba saw sales of its e-commerce rise 61 percent in the last quarter, but its investments were limited by massive investments in the fight to maintain its dominant position in e-commerce and payments.

The company, which is fighting its rival Tencent Holdings Ltd for pole position in the food retail market, recently said it would merge units, including Ele.me and Koubei, and raise funds for the combined activities.

Alibaba has also invested in sports content, microchips and face recognition technologies and is positioning itself as a serious player in cloud computing.

($ 1 = 6.8526 Chinese yuan)