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Alibaba's Jack Ma, China's Richest Man, To Retire From Company He Co-Founded (nytimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the beginning-of-an-era dept.

According to The New York Times, Alibaba's co-founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, is stepping down from the Chinese e-commerce giant on Monday (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source) to pursue philanthropy in education. From the report: A former English teacher, Mr. Ma started Alibaba in 1999 and built it into one of the world's most consequential e-commerce and digital payments companies, transforming how Chinese people shop and pay for things. That fueled his net worth to more than $40 billion, making him China's richest man. He is revered by many Chinese, some of whom have put his portrait in their homes to worship in the same way that they worship the God of Wealth.

In an interview, Mr. Ma said his retirement is not the end of an era but "the beginning of an era." He said he would be spending more of his time and fortune focused on education. "I love education," he said. Mr. Ma will remain on Alibaba's board of directors and continue to mentor the company's management. Mr. Ma turns 54 on Monday, which is also a holiday in China known as Teacher's Day. The retirement makes Mr. Ma one of the first founders among a generation of prominent Chinese internet entrepreneurs to step down from their companies.

10 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. A courageous move by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many people are capable of retiring like Xinshng Ma, at the top of his game, at 54 without injury, disease, or corporate coup?

    Like our vaunted sports heroes, too many corporate demigods stay too long; stagnating, afraid to leave the comforts of the present to move on to the next adventure.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:A courageous move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I guess any anti-China conspiracy theory sounds plausible to Americans.

      The fact is Jack Ma has been talking about wanting to go back to teaching for years already. It is no secret he mentioned many times he wanted to teach how to run business and his own business started out as a kind of experiment to actually implement the theory he taught in school.

      That didn’t tarnish the fact he is not sidetracked by all the money he has made.

  2. Re:Please advise on job boards/sites. by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    Lucky bastard!

    That's the equivalent of pulling down a cool $185 a week in West Virginia...

    Champagne wishes and caviar dreams

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. wtf God of Wealth? by magarity · · Score: 2

    There is no "God of Weath". You may be confused about "fat, laughing Buddha" who is often depicted with plenty of money but that's just because he's associated with success and happiness.

    1. Re:wtf God of Wealth? by mentil · · Score: 1

      Lakshmi, Hindu god of wealth. There is a Hindu minority in China.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:wtf God of Wealth? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Buddha was a skinny martial artist. Fat god is Hotei

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Tech Economy by mentil · · Score: 1

    Ma was lucky to get in on the leading edge of a major new industry (electronic retail), just like the other ultra-rich (oil, computer software, internet services.) How many more of these 'major new industries' will be created in the future, before we've turned over every major technological stone which can be uncovered? Eventually we're going to reach a point where we've discovered every major field that will exist, and there will be no hidden wellspring of techno-economic growth just over the horizon; the scary thing is that we will never realize it, it will ALWAYS be believed to be 'just over the horizon'. We have to plan for such a future, no matter how many people insist there will be another 'just over the horizon', otherwise we'll have no path forward if there's ever a drought of new tech.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re: Tech Economy by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Not a problem. When technology stops advancing, we'll just rewrite everything in Rust and Haskell, that'll do it for a while.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. Following Wozniak's example by drnb · · Score: 4, Informative

    He's following the example of Steve Wozniak of Apple fame who left Apple and became a school teacher.

  6. He already steppded down by phalse+phace · · Score: 2

    This isn't really that big of a deal since he's stepping down as Executive Chairman. He already stepped down as CEO in 2013.

    The CEO is more important than the Executive Chairman since the CEO plays an active day-to-day role in the company's operations.

    Ma wasn't really involved in the company's operations while as chairman.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-jack-ma-to-step-down-as-executive-chairman-1536381356

    Mr. Ma started a leadership transition five years ago, when he stepped down as chief executive. Alibaba’s chief executive is Daniel Zhang and the executive vice chairman is Joe Tsai.

    Since stepping down, the charismatic technology billionaire has spent much of his time at Alibaba’s Hangzhou campus receiving visiting dignitaries or traveling the world to speak out on causes he believes in.