Jack Ma, the founder of the largest Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Group is reportedly stepping down from the position of executive chairman of the company from Monday, marking the end of an era.
However, one of the richest men in China, Jack Ma has stated that he will remain on Alibaba’s board of directors. The primary motive of stepping down from his position is that he has planned to pursue philanthropy in education. “I love education,” he said.
Ma planned to retire and is willing to dedicate more of his time and fortune to philanthropy with the creation of a foundation in his own name focused on education, following in the footsteps of billionaire Bill Gates.
“There’s a lot of things I can learn from Bill Gates,” Jack Ma said. “I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do better is to retire earlier. 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 added.
Jack Ma will be turning 54 on Monday which also is a declared holiday in China known as Teacher’s Day. The net personal wealth of the billionaire is more than $40 billion, making him the third richest person in China.
The move related to his early life as he began his professional life teaching English at a university in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. He started Alibaba from his flat in Hangzhou with some of his friends. This retirement makes Ma one of the first founders among a generation of prominent Chinese internet entrepreneurs to step down from their companies.
Alibaba is seen as one of the companies with the deepest ranks of management talent among China’s biggest companies.
“You’ll know very soon. I’ve prepared a Jack Ma Foundation,” Ma said. “All these things that I’ve been preparing for 10 years.”
During his tenure at Alibaba, he has taken the company to great heights and made it the largest and the most popular e-commerce giant in China. Not only in China but he and his company are known for their work all across the globe.