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Alibaba Group announces chairman, CEO changes

Alibaba Group announced that Joseph Tsai, currently executive vice chairman, will succeed Daniel Zhang as chairman of the company, while Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, will succeed Zhang as chief executive officer, replacing Zhang on the firm’s board.

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The Chinese e-commerce giant said Zhang will continue to lead Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as its chairman and chief executive officer, according to a press release.

An Alibaba veteran, Wu is one of Alibaba co-founders, a member of the Alibaba Partnership and chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group since May, 2023. He was technology director of Alibaba at the company’s inception in 1999, before serving as chief technology officer of Alipay from December 2004, and business director of its monetization platform, Alimama, in November 2005, before being promoted to its general manager in December 2007.

From September 2014 to September 2019, Wu was special assistant to Alibaba Group’s board chairman.  In August 2015, he founded Vision Plus Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in advanced technologies, enterprise services and digital healthcare.

In September 2008, he became chief technology officer of Taobao , and in October 2011 he took on the role of head of Alibaba Group’s search, advertising and mobile business.  The executive served as director of Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited, a company listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, from April 2015 to October 2021 and chairman of Alibaba Health from April 2015 to March 2020.

“It has been an incredible honor and privilege to lead Alibaba Group as CEO over the past eight years and Chairman over the past four years. This is the right time for me to make a transition, given the importance of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as it progresses towards a full spin-off. I look forward to working closely with Joe and Eddie in the coming months to ensure a seamless transition,” said Zhang.

“Looking ahead, I am committed to strengthening Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group’s market leadership by making cloud computing and artificial intelligence more accessible for businesses of all sizes and industries as they continue their digital transformation. The emergence of generative AI has also opened up exciting new opportunities that Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group is well-positioned to capture.”