Jack Ma

Jack Ma or Ma Yun(Chinese: 马云; born September 10, 1964) is a Chinese business magnate and philanthropist. He is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of successful Internet-based businesses. He is the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes. As of November 2014, he is the richest man in China (Hong Kong not included) and 18th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $24.1 billion, according to Forbes.

Early life

Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. His parents were traditional musician-storytellers. At an early age, Ma developed a desire to learn English, so he rode his bicycle each morning to a nearby hotel to converse with foreigners. He would guide them around the city for free to practice and improve his English. He did this for nine years. He became pen pals with one of these foreigners, and she nicknamed him "Jack", because his real Chinese name was too difficult to pronounce.

Later in his youth, and although he failed the university entrance exam three times, Ma attended Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (currently known as Hangzhou Normal University) and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in English. While at school, Ma was elected student chairman. He became a lecturer in English and International Trade at the Hangzhou Dianzi University and later enrolled at Beijing-based Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), graduating in 2006.

Jack

Jack may refer to:

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World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss nonprofit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva. Recognized by the Swiss authorities as the international institution for public-private cooperation, its mission is cited as "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas".

The Forum is best known for its annual winter meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland. The meeting brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals, and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world. Often this location alone is used to identify meetings, participation, and participants with such phrases as, "a Davos panel" and "a Davos Man".

Alibaba Group

Coordinates: 30°11′31.12″N 120°11′9.79″E / 30.1919778°N 120.1860528°E / 30.1919778; 120.1860528

Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals. It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. The group began in 1999 when Jack Ma founded the website Alibaba.com, a business-to-business portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. In 2012, two of Alibaba's portals handled 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in sales. Suppliers from other countries are supported (with more stringent checks than for Chinese companies), but the company primarily operates in the People's Republic of China (PRC). At closing time on the date of its initial public offering (IPO), 19 September 2014, Alibaba's market value was US$231 billion. However, the stock has traded down and market cap was about $212 billion at the end of December 2015.

Chairman

The chairman or chairwoman, or simply the chair, sometimes known as chairperson, is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officer's duties often include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world and its spokesperson. In some organizations, this position is also called president (or other title), in others, where a board appoints a president (or other title), the two different terms are used for distinctly different positions.

Terminology

Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, and convenor. The chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker.

The term chair is sometimes used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. It is commonly used today, and has been used as a substitute for chairman since the middle of the 17th century, with its earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dated 1658-9, only four years after the first citation for chairman.