Jack Ma
Jack Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder ofAlibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. In addition, Ma is also the co-founder ofYunfeng Capital, a Chinese private equity firm. As of June 2023, with a net worth of $34.5 billion, Ma is the fourth-wealthiest person in China (after Zhong Shanshan, Zhang Yiming and Ma Huateng), as well as the 39th wealthiest person in the world, ranked byBloomberg Billionaires Index.
Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Ma earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English upon graduating fromHangzhou Normal Universityin 1988. He became an English lecturer and international trade lecturer at Hangzhou Dianzi University following graduation. Later taking an interest in the emergence of the internet business, he established his first business in 1994, only to end up forming a second company after learning more about the internet and the commercial business possibilities that could be potentially exploited from its emerging growth. From 1998 to 1999, he led an information technology company founded by the Chinese government, later leaving it to start the Alibaba Group with his colleagues in 1999. The company was initially founded as B2B e-commerce marketplace website, yet the company later expanded into a wide range of industry domains across the Chinese economy, including e-commerce, high-technology, and online payment solutions.
In 2017, Ma was ranked second in the annual "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" list by Fortune. He has widely been considered as an informal global ambassador in Chinese business circles and has continued to remain an influential figure in the Chinese business community and scene of startup companies. In September 2018, he announced that he wouldretire from Alibabaand pursue educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes.
In 2019, Forbes Magazine named Ma in its list of "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy" for his humanitarian and philanthropic work supporting underprivileged communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. In April 2021, Jack Ma ranked 26th in the "2021 Forbes Global Rich List" with a fortune of $48.4 billion USD.
