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Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang steps down

By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted June 20, 2023

Alibaba has announced a significant leadership change, with Daniel Zhang stepping down as chairman and chief executive of the company.

Zhang said he would continue serving as the chief executive of Alibaba's cloud computing division.

Joseph Tsai, an Alibaba veteran and executive vice chairman will take over as chairman and join Alibaba's board of directors.

Eddie Yongming Wu, the CEO of Alibaba's e-commerce division and chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, will succeed Zhang as the chief executive.

He will continue to oversee these platforms while assuming the role of Alibaba's chief executive.

The transition will be effective from September 10.

This reshuffle follows Alibaba's recent decision to undergo a major restructuring, splitting itself into six divisions.

The e-commerce giant described it as the most significant overhaul in its 24-year history.

Each division was placed under the leadership of an independent chief executive, and Zhang also took on the additional title of CEO of Alibaba's cloud intelligence group.

With this latest change, Zhang will no longer hold the top leadership position at Alibaba, traditionally held by the company's founder, Jack Ma.

Instead, he will have a reduced role as a division head.

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Jack Ma faced public scrutiny after criticizing Chinese regulators in 2020 for stifling innovation at Ant Group, Alibaba's sister company in financial technology.

Following his remarks, Chinese officials halted the plans for Ant Group's initial public offering.

Joseph Tsai, who will now assume the leadership of Alibaba, first met Jack Ma in 1999 when Alibaba was still a free online portal.

He joined the company that same year and was pivotal in securing early investments from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank.

Tsai led Alibaba's highly successful initial public offering in New York in 2014, the largest in history.

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