Alibaba Group rejigs management; Eddie Wu takes over as CEO

Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group has reshuffled the top management and has appointed Eddie Wu as the new chief executive officer (CEO). Wu will replace Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang, who served in the position for nearly eight years.

Wu—one of the co-founders of Alibaba—was the Chief Technology Officer of key businesses, including Taobao and Alipay. He was the chief architect of Alibaba’s technology platforms and served as general manager of Alimama, Alibaba’s proprietary monetisation platform on Taobao and Tmall. Wu also spearheaded the launch of the Mobile Taobao app, which heralded the company’s successful transition to the mobile-first era, Alibaba said.

He will continue to oversee Taobao and Tmall Group as its Chairman in addition to the role of the CEO.

The Alibaba Group board of directors approved Zhang’s plan to transition from the role of Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group. Joseph C. Tsai, who is the current Executive Vice Chairman, will succeed Zhang as Chairman.

Zhang will now look after Alibaba's cloud unit Cloud Intelligence Group as the CEO, the company said in a statement.

“Daniel has made exceptional contributions to the development of Alibaba Group since joining the company in 2007, and he demonstrated extraordinary leadership in navigating unprecedented uncertainties affecting our business over the past few years. We believe there is no better leader than Daniel to steer Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group into the next chapter of its journey and future growth,” said Chairman Tsai.

The changes and appointments will take effect on September 10, 2023.

The reshuffle comes shortly after Alibaba Group said it will split into six different groups, each with its own boards and CEOs.

Alibaba's China-facing ecommerce division, which includes the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, will stay wholly owned by Alibaba, but the other five units will be spun off, the company said earlier this year. It aimed to complete the public listing of its cloud business within the next 12 months, Reuters reported.

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