Jack Ma (Real name Ma Yun) was born September 10, 1964. He is best known for being the founder of Alibaba.com, an e-commerce platform for business to business/consumer transactions.
Early college
Jack Ma holds both a Bachelor's from Hangzhou Normal University and an MBA from Cheung Kong University. However, college was not always easy for him. He failed his first 2 college entrance exams and was only able to start college upon passing his 3rd attempt of the entrance exam. He graduated university in 1988 and began applying for jobs. Unfortunately, he was rejected by all 30 jobs he applied for.
Starting in technology and what spurred his interest in technology
His initial interest in the internet happened with a trip to the US in 1995. The trip was made as part of a business he was currently running. While in the US, he searched online for "Beer" and found no Chinese beers. Through this, he was inspired to found an internet company for China. It was a website design company called "China Yellow Pages". Against odds, the company was successful, and had made $800,000 USD within 3 years.
The start of Alibaba, his career
In 1999, Jack Ma started Alibaba in his apartment through an investment from 18 friends who he had convinced were investing in a success. It was his intent to create a marketplace in China business to sell products online. The company won foreign investment of $25 million in 1999 and 2000. Through success of the company, Ma was able to start up many other new companies such as Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama, and Lynx. Through the success of Taoboa Marketplace, Jack Ma and Alibaba Group received a $1 Billion investment from Yahoo in 2005. This was followed 8 years later with the company's $150-billion IPO. The company's IPO was the largest for any US-listed company in the history of the NYSE(New York Stock Exchange).
Even though Jack Ma is very busy being CEO, he still finds time to create laughter and celebrate with all those who are part of his company. As part of the company's 18th birthday, he performed numerous songs as Michael Jackson and danced with several other Alibaba Group employees as part of this production.
Personal Life and Family and Philanthropic efforts
Ma met his wife Zhang Ying while they were both studying at Hangzhou Normal University. They married soon after graduating in the last 1980s. They have a son and a daughter. His hobbies include reading, playing poker, meditating, and practicing tai chi. His love and practice of Tai Chi has spurred him to team with with Actor Jet Li to spread awareness about it.
Jack Ma has a big interest in environmentalism and currently sits on the board of The Nature Conservancy. He is the first Chinese citizen to serve on the board. He also was very key in securing funding for a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.
Awards and Accomplishments
Even though being the richest man in China and possessing net worth of $25 billion is accomplishment enough, Jack ma was received many awards and accomplished many things throughout his career and life. He has been recognized multiple times as Businessperson of the year from China Central Television, Businessweek, Forbes China, and Asian Award. Forbes magazine has named him as the 30th most powerful person in the world in 2014. He was also honored by Forbes Asia for Philanthropic contributions to disaster relief and poverty.
Views
Jack Ma's views can be summed up with two words, environmentalism and entrepreneurship. On the environmentalism front, he has made many statements not only personally but with his company. In 2007, due to worldwide criticism of the practice of shark killing, Ma's family stated they would no longer purchase or consume shark fin soup. And in 2009, the Alibaba Group added shark fin products to it's list of prohibited items to sell through the marketplace. This movement was just a start for Ma with environmentalism. As of May 2010, Ma announced to his shareholders that Alibaba Group would set aside 0.3% of it's annual revenue towards environmental protection projects such as water and air quality improvement. In 2015, Ma purchased an almost 30,000-acre property in China to be used as conservation lands.
Jack Ma is all about entrepreneurship. His story not only tells us this about him but his actions do as well. He is very often invited to lecture at Universities about his life, company, and successes. Some of the past universities has been the Wharton School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and Peking University. He is very vocal about people getting out and starting businesses and working hard as he did. One such instance where he did this was at the annual shareholders meeting in May 2009 for Alibaba.com. His words, so soon after the recession, were very encouraging. He stated "great fortunes of the world were made by people who saw opportunities that others didn't".
Jack Ma
Jack Ma (Real name Ma Yun) was born September 10, 1964. He is best known for being the founder of Alibaba.com, an e-commerce platform for business to business/consumer transactions.
Early college
Jack Ma holds both a Bachelor's from Hangzhou Normal University and an MBA from Cheung Kong University. However, college was not always easy for him. He failed his first 2 college entrance exams and was only able to start college upon passing his 3rd attempt of the entrance exam. He graduated university in 1988 and began applying for jobs. Unfortunately, he was rejected by all 30 jobs he applied for.Starting in technology and what spurred his interest in technology
His initial interest in the internet happened with a trip to the US in 1995. The trip was made as part of a business he was currently running. While in the US, he searched online for "Beer" and found no Chinese beers. Through this, he was inspired to found an internet company for China. It was a website design company called "China Yellow Pages". Against odds, the company was successful, and had made $800,000 USD within 3 years.The start of Alibaba, his career
In 1999, Jack Ma started Alibaba in his apartment through an investment from 18 friends who he had convinced were investing in a success. It was his intent to create a marketplace in China business to sell products online. The company won foreign investment of $25 million in 1999 and 2000. Through success of the company, Ma was able to start up many other new companies such as Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama, and Lynx. Through the success of Taoboa Marketplace, Jack Ma and Alibaba Group received a $1 Billion investment from Yahoo in 2005. This was followed 8 years later with the company's $150-billion IPO. The company's IPO was the largest for any US-listed company in the history of the NYSE(New York Stock Exchange).Even though Jack Ma is very busy being CEO, he still finds time to create laughter and celebrate with all those who are part of his company. As part of the company's 18th birthday, he performed numerous songs as Michael Jackson and danced with several other Alibaba Group employees as part of this production.
Personal Life and Family and Philanthropic efforts
Ma met his wife Zhang Ying while they were both studying at Hangzhou Normal University. They married soon after graduating in the last 1980s. They have a son and a daughter. His hobbies include reading, playing poker, meditating, and practicing tai chi. His love and practice of Tai Chi has spurred him to team with with Actor Jet Li to spread awareness about it.
Jack Ma has a big interest in environmentalism and currently sits on the board of The Nature Conservancy. He is the first Chinese citizen to serve on the board. He also was very key in securing funding for a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.
Awards and Accomplishments
Even though being the richest man in China and possessing net worth of $25 billion is accomplishment enough, Jack ma was received many awards and accomplished many things throughout his career and life. He has been recognized multiple times as Businessperson of the year from China Central Television, Businessweek, Forbes China, and Asian Award. Forbes magazine has named him as the 30th most powerful person in the world in 2014. He was also honored by Forbes Asia for Philanthropic contributions to disaster relief and poverty.Views
Jack Ma's views can be summed up with two words, environmentalism and entrepreneurship. On the environmentalism front, he has made many statements not only personally but with his company. In 2007, due to worldwide criticism of the practice of shark killing, Ma's family stated they would no longer purchase or consume shark fin soup. And in 2009, the Alibaba Group added shark fin products to it's list of prohibited items to sell through the marketplace. This movement was just a start for Ma with environmentalism. As of May 2010, Ma announced to his shareholders that Alibaba Group would set aside 0.3% of it's annual revenue towards environmental protection projects such as water and air quality improvement. In 2015, Ma purchased an almost 30,000-acre property in China to be used as conservation lands.Jack Ma is all about entrepreneurship. His story not only tells us this about him but his actions do as well. He is very often invited to lecture at Universities about his life, company, and successes. Some of the past universities has been the Wharton School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and Peking University. He is very vocal about people getting out and starting businesses and working hard as he did. One such instance where he did this was at the annual shareholders meeting in May 2009 for Alibaba.com. His words, so soon after the recession, were very encouraging. He stated "great fortunes of the world were made by people who saw opportunities that others didn't".
References
Editors, TheFamousPeople.com. September 19, 2017. "Jack Ma Biography". https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/jack-ma-6221.php
Wikipedia. Jack Ma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma. Sourced September 29,2017.
Stone, Madeline, D'Onfron, Jillian. October 2, 2014. "The Inspiring Life Story of Alibaba Founder Jack Ma, Now the Richest Man in China".
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inspiring-life-story-of-alibaba-founder-jack-ma-2014-10?op=1/#ck-ma-aka-ma-yun-was-born-on-october-15-1964-in-hangzhou-located-in-the-southeastern-part-of-china-he-has-an-older-brother-and-a-younger-sister-he-and-his-siblings-grew-up-at-a-time-when-communist-china-was-increasingly-isolated-from-the-west-and-his-family-didnt-have-much-money-when-they-were-young-1
Jalloh, Mohamed. August 25, 2015. "Jack Ma Biography". http://www.investopedia.com/university/jack-ma-biography/