20-6-2023 (HONG KONG) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has announced a major leadership shake-up, with CEO Daniel Zhang planning to step down from his roles as both chairman and chief executive. Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s current executive vice chairman, will take on the chairman position effective Sept. 10, while Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall Group e-commerce businesses, will become CEO of the company and take over Zhang’s spot on Alibaba’s board of directors, also effective Sept. 10.
Zhang plans to stay at Alibaba and will continue to lead the company’s cloud intelligence group as both the chairman and CEO of that unit. Alibaba previously announced its plans to spin out the cloud business as part of a broader move to unlock value from its sprawling enterprise.
“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,” Zhang said in a statement. He noted that the emergence of generative AI has opened up exciting new opportunities that the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group is well-positioned to capture.
Zhang has been Alibaba’s chairman since 2019, when co-founder Jack Ma stepped down from that position. He has been the company’s CEO since 2015. Alibaba is undergoing a significant shake-up after having announced earlier this year that it plans to reorganize into six business units that would have the flexibility to raise funding and pursue initial public offerings if desired. The recent strategy is to have investors appreciate some of Alibaba’s units on their own.
In Hong Kong, shares of Alibaba fell 1.6%.
