Alibaba is replacing Daniel Zhang as chairman and CEO. Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman and a co-founder, will become chairman while Eddie Wu, chairman of e-commerce at Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall businesses and co-founder, will take over as CEO.
Both appointments will take effect in September 2023. Zhang will continue as chairman and CEO of Alibaba’s cloud unit.
This is the second time Alibaba has undergone a significant change in executive leadership in several years after Co-founder Jack Ma stepped down in 2019. It also comes months after the company announced its largest restructuring in 24 years.
In March 2023, the Chinese retail giant announced splitting into units: cloud, e-commerce, logistics, media, and entertainment. Each unit is overseen by its own CEO and board directors, and most of them can pursue separate listings or fundraisings.
“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 transition, given the importance of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as it progresses toward 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, Alibaba’s CEO since 2015.
“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.”
“Daniel has made exceptional contributions to the development of Alibaba Group since joining the company in 2007, and he demonstrated extraordinary leadership in navigating unprecedented uncertainties affecting our business over the past few years. We believe there is no better leader than Daniel to steer Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group into the next chapter of its journey and future growth,” said Tsai.
“As chief technology officer of key businesses, including Taobao and Alipay, during Alibaba’s critical phases of development, Eddie was instrumental in architecting our technology platforms and guiding our strategic direction. He led the creation of our proprietary monetization platform on Taobao and Tmall and drove the launch of the Mobile Taobao App to propel our company to the mobile-first era. I look forward to working with Eddie to spark our next growth phase through technology and innovation,” said Tsai.
“I am grateful for the trust of the Alibaba Group board of directors and am honored to succeed Daniel as Alibaba’s CEO,” said Wu, who, in addition to taking on the role of CEO, will continue to serve as Chairman of wholly-owned subsidiary Taobao and Tmall Group. “Over the past 24 years, Alibaba has consistently innovated through evolution and breakthroughs from within, and each transformation has catalyzed new growth. While our current transformation brings a new corporate organizational and governance structure, Alibaba’s mission remains unchanged. We will continue to enable individuals and businesses to benefit from the digital economy and serve our customers with unique value proposition supported by innovation and our leading technology.”
