Daniel Zhang to succeed Jack Ma as Alibaba chairman next year

Chinese conglomerate Alibaba has officially announced that Daniel Zhang, CEO will succeed Jack Ma as chairman of the board, starting September 10, 2019. Meanwhile, Jack Ma will continue as executive chairman at Alibaba over the next 12 months and will stay on the Alibaba board of directors until the 2020 annual shareholders meeting. Moreover, Ma is planning to focus on philanthropy, education and also said to pursue new dreams. Ma stepped down as CEO in 2013, handing the position over to Jonathan Lu. Then Lu was replaced in 2015 by Zhang, Alibaba’s former COO. Jack Ma, a former English teacher, co-founded Alibaba in 1999 and has a net worth of $36.6 billion, according to Forbes. Alibaba was initially started as an e-commerce website and later expanded into other business areas including cloud computing and digital payments. Jack Ma in a letter penned: Today, as we mark the 19th anniversary of Alibaba, I am excited to share some news with you: with the approval of our board of directors, one year from today on September 10, 2019 which also falls on Alibaba's 20th anniversary, Group CEO Daniel Zhang will succeed me as chairman of the board of Alibaba Group. While remaining as executive chairman in the next ...