Chinese e-retailer Alibaba names new CEO

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Mar 12, 2013

The Chinese e-retailing giant has named Lu Zhaoxi, previously vice-president of the company, as CEO. He will take over from Jack Ma who is leaving the company after founding it 14 years ago.

Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999. Six years later, he sold 43% of the company to Yahoo for one billion dollars. In 2012, Jack Ma bought back Yahoo’s stake in the company for 7 billion euros, putting an end to ongoing tensions with the American giant.

Though the founder is taking a step back from the company, he will remain chairman of the board in order to influence the future strategy of the company.

To fill the position of CEO is the current vice-president Lu Zhaoxi who created the company’s online payment business, Alipay. He will be the head of China’s biggest e-commerce company with a catalogue of 800 million products and 500 million users.