In a major change at the top of the company, China’s leading e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced on Tuesday that Daniel Zhang will relinquish his role as the company’s chairman and chief executive.
Mr. Zhang said he would continue to serve as chief executive officer of Alibaba’s cloud computing division. Alibaba veteran Joseph Tsai, who is the company’s executive vice chairman, will replace Mr. Zhang as chairman and as a member of Alibaba’s board of directors.
The company said the leader of Alibaba’s e-commerce division, Eddie Yongming Wu, would succeed Mr. Zhang as chief executive. Mr. Wu is currently the chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba’s e-commerce services, He will continue to lead both of those platforms as CEO of Alibaba.
The changes will be effective from September 10.
The reshuffle comes months after Alibaba said it would split itself into six divisions it called “most significantoverhaul in its 24-year history. As part of the change, each division came under the leadership of an independent chief executive, and Mr. Zhang assumed the additional position of chief executive officer of Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group.
With the latest change, Mr. Zhang will no longer be Alibaba’s top leader, a role long held by the company’s founder Jack Ma, instead taking a smaller role as a division head.
Mr Ma was forced out of the public eye in 2020 after criticizing Chinese regulators for stifling innovation at Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial technology sister company. Following his remarks, Chinese authorities suspended plans for Ant Group to sell stock in an initial public offering.
This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.
