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Hong Kong (CNN Business) - Jack Ma, the billionaire who introduced e-commerce in China, will officially resign as CEO of Alibaba on Tuesday. He will celebrate his retirement with a big party at a stadium in the company's hometown, Hangzhou.
After two decades transforming Alibaba into a $ 460 billion business, Ma is now engaged in full-time philanthropy. He started the Jack Ma Foundation in 2014 and has cited the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as an inspiration for his charitable efforts.
- How did Jack Ma go from being an English teacher to a technology billionaire?
"Jack has been pointing out for some time his interests in philanthropy, the environment, women's empowerment, education and development," said Duncan Clark, author of "Alibaba: The House Jack Ma Built."
Jack ma
The anxious teacher
"Before I turn 70, I can do something in other fields, in areas like education," Ma said at an Alibaba event last September.
Ma announced his intention to resign a year ago. Even after moving away from senior management and the Alibaba board of directors, it is expected that it will continue shaping the company's future through its lifetime membership in Alibaba Partnership, a group of 36 people who can nominate the majority of the directors of the board. It also retains a 6.22% stake in the company. Alibaba's executive president, Daniel Zhang, will also assume the role of Ma's president.
A member of the Communist Party, Ma is the most famous businessman in China and, with a fortune of nearly 40 billion dollars, the richest man in the country.
But he is also a former English teacher, and has often talked about his passion for education. The same date Ma chose to formally resign, on September 10, is Teacher's Day in China, "so there is some message there," Clark said. It is also Ma's 55th birthday.
Ma referred to his previous career to explain why he quit his company.
"Teachers always want their students to overcome them, so what we must do ... for me and for the company is to let younger and more talented people assume leadership roles," Ma said last September.
Last year, Ma talked about the challenges for the future of education at the World Economic Forum and warned that "if we don't change the way we teach, 30 years later we will be in trouble."
The current approach to knowledge-based teaching "will fail our children" that can never compete with machines, said Ma. He added that children should be taught "soft skills" as independent thinking, values and teamwork.
In 2017, Ma's foundation promised $ 45 million over 10 years to help discover and cultivate future teaching talent in rural China.
Ma has also taken his teaching beyond China to other emerging markets, according to Clark.
The technology mogul has been "sharing his perspectives and business experience in places like Africa," said Clark, where he has established a $ 10 million business award. Ma also funded wildlife protection initiatives and developed good relationships with African leaders such as Paul Kagame in Rwanda.
I support women
Since 2015, Ma and Alibaba have organized a biennial conference in China on women and entrepreneurship. The events have attracted names like Arianna Huffington and Vera Wang. This year's conference included a video message from Rihanna.
"Women have always played an integral role in Alibaba since its establishment two decades ago," Ma said at the conference last month, according to a report published by the Alizila company news site.
Ma said that gender equality is one of the most important issues in the 21st century and said that "if you want your business to succeed, it is essential to appoint enough women leaders."
Almost half of Alibaba's senior management team are women.
Go 'on high'
Ma was honored by the Chinese government last November as one of the 100 people who had made "outstanding contributions" to China's economic transformation over the past four decades. The event was reported by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, which highlighted Ma as a member.
The revelation came amid growing concern over the greater control exercised by the Communist Party under President Xi Jinping over China's private sector.
Ma is moving away from Alibaba at a relatively young age. He said in the past that he wants to retire before Bill Gates, who resigned as president of Microsoft in 2014, at the age of 58.
Some people have linked the timing of Ma's decision to the growing restrictions of the Chinese government on Internet companies. But Ma denied that Beijing forced him out when he spoke at the Alibaba event last September.
"I received rumors from outside China, saying: 'It's because the government wants to take you down.' No one can [expel you], if you don't want to leave, right? Because I know it's not about politics or government, ”said Ma.
However, some observers say that Ma had flown too close to the sun, and that leaving Alibaba is partly due to self-preservation. The charity projects that Ma has indicated that he is interested in carrying out in the retreat have the additional benefit that they are unlikely to cause waves with China's leadership.
The final chapter of Clark's book on Ma was titled "Icon or Icarus."
“He is interested in securing his legacy. It is not completely leaving the company. But this movement is a smart way to go high, ”said Clark.
“To avoid being Icarus, you must… not only avoid flying too close to the sun, but also avoid crashing into the waves. Therefore, you must be ambitious. In philanthropy, education and the environment, it still has a lot of room for maneuver. Areas where the government will be tolerant, if not encouraging, ”said Clark.
AlibabaJack Ma