Waking Up Kindness

With a new focus on philanthropy, Jack Ma builds on a substantial base

- JUSTIN DOEBELE

People say I am one of the richest people in China, but I don’t think it is my money,” says Jack Ma. “It is money that people have entrusted to you, and you want to spend it in a better, smarter way.” Ma is explaining his new focus, philanthropy, in an exclusive interview with Forbes Asia in October. Having spent the last two decades building Alibaba Group, the Hangzhou, China-based internet giant, Ma announced just over a year ago he would step aside and give his executive chairman title to Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang.

“I will devote more time and effort to education, philanthropy and the environment,” he wrote in an open letter to shareholders (and the world). It was a transition that Ma had planned for a decade. “When Alibaba had its 10-year anniversary, on that day I started to think I should prepare for my retirement. That day, I decided on the day of the 20-year anniversary, September 10, 2019, will be the day I leave,” he said during the Forbes Global CEO Conference held in Singapore in October, just after receiving the Malcolm S Forbes Lifetime Achievement award.

Now, having turned 55, Ma is entering a new chapter in his career— but one in which he has considerable experience. Alibaba, for example, has long had CSR programmes. In 2006, Alibaba launched its first organized philanthropy to help underprivileged mothers in China, dubbed the model mother programme.

To date, some 20,000 mothers have got free training and funding to become online entrepreneurs.