SHANGHAI/NEW YORK -- Two decades after launching his company in an apartment with 17 colleagues and students, the English teacher-turned-entrepreneur Jack Ma Yun has stepped down as chairman of Alibaba Group Holding after building an empire worth $460 billion and reshaping China's consumer landscape through technological innovation.
Ma announced his retirement on Sept. 10 during Alibaba's 20th anniversary celebration at a stadium in its home city of Hangzhou. Speaking before roughly 60,000 attendees, Ma said he had been preparing for this moment for a decade, including finding a successor.
