The CEO role will be handed over to Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group, while Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will take over Zhang as chairman.
"The idea or expectation that one person could manage the business' crown jewel Cloud and at the same time manage the entire Alibaba Group is an unreasonable expectation."
"It would be inappropriate for me to continue serving as chairman and CEO of both companies at the same time during the spin-off process."
Alibaba thanked Zhang for his "extraordinary leadership in navigating unprecedented uncertainties affecting the company's business over the past few years."
Wu, who co-founded Alibaba alongside Ma and Tsai over two decades ago, will continue to concurrently serve as chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba said.
Persons:
Zhang, Joseph Tsai, Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, Eddie Yongming Wu, Alibaba's, Daniel, Brian Wong, Jack Ma, Joe, Eddie, Eric Chen, Wu, Ma, Tsai, Alipay, Jacob Cooke, Cooke, China's, J, Michael Evans, Abinaya, Brenda Goh, Scott Murdoch, Anne Marie Roantree, Josh Ye, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christopher Cushing
Organizations:
Alibaba, HK, Tmall, Reuters, Cloud Intelligence Group, Analysts, Alibaba Health, Technologies, Thomson
Locations:
SHANGHAI, China, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Japan, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Tokyo, Taobao, Bengaluru, Sydney