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Alibaba Group Holding Limited

e-commerceFounded 1999
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: September 2026

Leadership History

Alibaba: CEO History

4 leaders · 1999 to present

Who is the CEO of Alibaba?

Eddie Wu is the CEO of Alibaba, in the role since 2023. The first chief executive was Jack Ma, from 1999.

Current CEO
Eddie Wu (since 2023)
First CEO
Jack Ma (1999)
Leaders documented
4
Founded
1999
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Eddie Wu (Wu Yongming)Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group2023Present3
Daniel Zhang (Zhang Yong)Former CEO and Chairman, Alibaba Group201520238
Jonathan LuChief Executive Officer201320152
Jack MaFounder and Chief Executive Officer1999201314
Who was CEO of Alibaba before Eddie Wu (Wu Yongming)?
Daniel Zhang (Zhang Yong) was CEO of Alibaba from 2015 to 2023, before Eddie Wu (Wu Yongming) took over in 2023.

Company Overview

Alibaba is the leader of Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing. Often lazily compared to Amazon, Alibaba is actually fundamentally different: they don't generally own their own inventory. Instead, they operate large digital marketplaces (like Taobao and Tmall) that connect hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers directly with merchants and factories. Beyond retail, Alibaba is a sprawling tech empire encompassing cloud infrastructure, digital media, logistics, and historically, a deep connection to the fintech giant Ant Group. The company is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.

Eddie Wu (Wu Yongming)

Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group

2023 – Present

3 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Wu is one of Alibaba's 18 original co-founders alongside Jack Ma in 1999 and spent over two decades as a core engineer and product executive at the company, including leading Taobao and Tmall, before Jack Ma personally recommended him to the board as Daniel Zhang's successor. His defining decision as CEO has been narrowing Alibaba's sprawling post-restructuring business units back down to two overriding priorities -- core e-commerce and AI-driven cloud infrastructure -- reversing predecessor Zhang's plan to spin off and separately list most business units.

Legacy

Eddie Wu was appointed CEO of Alibaba Group in September 2023, succeeding Daniel Zhang who had led the company since 2015. Wu is a long-tenured Alibaba executive who previously served as CEO of Taobao and Tmall and as head of Alibaba's platform governance function giving him deep knowledge of the core commerce business that remains Alibaba's revenue foundation. Under Wu's leadership, Alibaba has accelerated its focus on artificial intelligence integration across all business units and refined the restructuring strategy to emphasize two strategic priorities above all others: e-commerce reinvigoration through better consumer and merchant experiences, and cloud infrastructure expansion as the delivery vehicle for Alibaba's AI ambitions. Wu has also authorized the continuation of the $25 billion share buyback program as a capital allocation mechanism and has been more selective in international investment commitments.

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Daniel Zhang (Zhang Yong)

Former CEO and Chairman, Alibaba Group

2015 – 2023

8 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Zhang, a Shanghai University of Finance and Economics graduate who had worked at Arthur Andersen and PwC before serving as CFO of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, joined Alibaba in August 2007 as CFO of Taobao Marketplace and rose through finance and Taobao/Tmall leadership before becoming CEO and later chairman, succeeding Jack Ma in both roles. His defining decision was announcing Alibaba's 2023 restructuring into six largely independent business units -- intended to unlock value through separate IPOs, including one for Alibaba Cloud that he was set to personally lead -- a plan he abandoned when he stepped down entirely after the Cloud IPO was shelved amid US chip-export restrictions.

Legacy

Daniel Zhang served as Alibaba's CEO from 2015 to 2023, overseeing the company's growth from a primarily domestic e-commerce platform into a diversified technology conglomerate with global ambitions. Zhang was the architect of the Singles' Day shopping festival while at Taobao, transforming it from a minor promotional event into the world's largest shopping day with gross merchandise volumes exceeding hundreds of billions of yuan annually. During his tenure as CEO, Alibaba's revenues grew from approximately $14.3 billion (103 billion yuan) in fiscal year 2016 to over $121 billion (868 billion yuan) in fiscal year 2023. Zhang stepped down from both CEO and Chairman roles in September 2023 following the announcement that the proposed IPO of Alibaba Cloud which he had been designated to lead after Alibaba's restructuring would be shelved.

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Jonathan Lu

Chief Executive Officer

2013 – 2015

2 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Lu succeeded Jack Ma as chief executive in May 2013 and led Alibaba through its 2014 New York listing.

Legacy

The $25 billion offering was the largest IPO to that date. Daniel Zhang succeeded him in May 2015.

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Jack Ma

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

1999 – 2013

14 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Jack Ma founded Alibaba in Hangzhou in 1999 and led the launches of Taobao, Alipay and Tmall.

Legacy

He stepped down as chief executive in May 2013 and remained executive chairman until 2019.

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Challenges & Strategic Context

The biggest risks are Chinese regulation, geopolitical pressure, competition from discount and social commerce, cloud pricing pressure, VIE structure concerns, and heavy AI capital spending.

Alibaba CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who were the notable chief executive officers in Alibaba's corporate history?

Alibaba's CEOs include founder Jack Ma (1999 to 2013), Jonathan Lu (2013 to 2015), Daniel Zhang (2015 to 2023), and Eddie Wu (appointed September 2023 to lead the company's AI-focused restructuring).

What major structural initiatives did Daniel Zhang implement during his tenure as CEO?

Daniel Zhang created the 11.11 Singles' Day shopping festival in 2009, led Alibaba's pivot to mobile shopping, orchestrated the New Retail strategy (Freshippo/Hema), and designed the initial '1+6+N' corporate group restructuring.

When and why did Jack Ma step down from official executive roles at Alibaba?

Jack Ma stepped down as CEO in May 2013 to focus on corporate culture and philanthropy, later retiring as Executive Chairman on September 10, 2019, handing the chairmanship to Daniel Zhang while remaining a lifetime partner in the Alibaba Partnership.

What is Eddie Wu's background and strategic focus as Alibaba's current CEO?

Eddie Wu, one of Alibaba's 18 original founding members and former Chief Technology Officer, was appointed CEO in September 2023 with a focused mandate to drive technical leadership, cloud computing expansion, and AI-native commerce integration.

Who is Joseph C. Tsai and what is his role as Chairman of Alibaba Group?

Joseph C. Tsai (Joe Tsai), an original founding member and former Executive Vice Chairman, became Chairman of the Board of Directors in September 2023, overseeing corporate governance, international capital markets, and strategic partnerships.

What is the Alibaba Partnership (Lakeside Partners) governance structure?

Established in 2010, the Alibaba Partnership is a self-perpetuating committee of core senior executives and technical leaders authorized to nominate a simple majority of the company's Board of Directors, ensuring long-term mission continuity.

Who led Alibaba Cloud prior to Eddie Wu taking direct personal oversight of the cloud division?

Daniel Zhang briefly served as Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence in 2023 following the departure of Jeff Jianfeng Zhang, before Eddie Wu assumed direct leadership of the cloud unit in September 2023.

How has leadership succession at Alibaba maintained continuity across business units?

Alibaba maintains a deep talent bench developed through internal rotation programs and the Alibaba Partnership, promoting technical veterans (like Jiang Fan in International Commerce and Trudy Dai in Commerce) to head core units.

Who runs Alibaba?

Eddie Wu took over as CEO in a massive leadership reshuffle, following the long tenure of Daniel Zhang and the controversial step-down of founder Jack Ma.

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Explore Alibaba

Core profile pages, founders and related research hubs for this company.

Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.