Alibaba’s New Chief Makes More Management Changes

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. disclosed a string of leadership changes Thursday, marking continued restructuring at the Chinese e-commerce giant after Daniel Zhang took the helm as executive chairman from founder Jack Ma in September.

After the shuffle, leaders of Alibaba’s technology, retail and wholesale businesses will have broader scopes of power. Before Zhang took the torch from Ma in September, he had already launched a series structural adjustment within the group.

In an internal memo released Thursday, Zhang said Jiang Fan, president of Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall e-commerce platforms, will also oversee Alibaba’s advertising unit Alimama. Alimama’s president Zhang Yifen will report to Jiang rather than directly to Daniel Zhang.

Jiang, 34, is Alibaba’s youngest senior executive and is widely seen as one of the company’s future leaders.

Combining the leadership of Alimama and Alibaba’s core retail platforms aims to promote innovation under a unified strategy for consumer and business products and to better build Alimama’s advertising platform, Daniel Zhang said in the memo.

Eric Jing is resigning as chief executive officer of Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Financial, to be succeeded by Simon Hu, overseeing digital payment platform Alipay and digital finance.

Ant Financial named President Hu Xiaoming as its new CEO, replacing Eric Jing, the unit said in a statement. Hu already succeeded Jing in March as chairman of Mybank, an online lender backed by Ant Financial.

Hu, now in his 40s, became Ant Financial’s president in November 2018 after three years at the helm of cloud computing unit Alibaba Cloud. Under Hu’s leadership, Alibaba Cloud transformed itself from a technology-focused enterprise into a more commercialized entity.

Before joining Alibaba in 2005, Hu worked for more than 10 years at several financial institutions, including China Construction Bank and China Everbright Bank.

Jing will remain as executive chairman of Ant Financial and focus on the company’s global business, Daniel Zhang said.

At the same time, Ant Financial Chief Technology Officer Cheng Li will replace Jeff Zhang as CTO of Alibaba, according to the internal memo. Cheng will also work with Taobao President Jiang to lead Alibaba’s search and advertising technology unit.

Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com)