Chinese tech giant, Alibaba on Tuesday revealed that it is undergoing a massive reshuffling as it is replacing Daniel Zhang as chairman and CEO.
The company said that Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman and a co-founder of Alibaba (BABA), will succeed Zhang as chairman, CNN reports.
While Eddie Wu, chairman of e-commerce unit Taobao and Tmall Group, will succeed Zhang as chief executive officer.
Both appointments will take effect in September, and Zhang will continue to serve as the chairman and CEO of Alibaba’s cloud unit.
Interestingly, This is the second time Alibaba has undergone a major change in executive leadership in a few years after co-founder Jack Ma stepped away in 2019.
This development comes just months after the company announced its biggest restructuring in 24 years.
Part of the change from the company in March was that it was splitting into six separate units, including cloud, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment as each unit is now overseen by its own CEO and board directors, and most of them can pursue separate listings or fundraisings.
Zhang who has been Alibaba CEO since 2015 in the announcement said, “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.”
He further stated that the emergence of generative AI has opened up “exciting new opportunities” for the company’s cloud business.
Wu, also a co-founder of Alibaba, served as the technology director at the company’s inception in 1999.
“While our current transformation brings in a new corporate organizational and governance structure, Alibaba’s mission remains unchanged,” he said.
