China-based e-commerce and internet conglomerate Alibaba has made chief financial officer Maggie Wu (pictured) head of its strategic acquisitions and investments unit, Alibaba Innovation Ventures, CNBC reported yesterday.
Wu replaces Joe Tsai, co-founder and executive vice-president of Alibaba, who will continue to provide support for Alibaba’s strategic investment operations. Wu joined the company in 2007 as chief financial officer of its business-to-business e-commerce platform.
The decision marks the first major reshuffle since Alibaba co-founder and chairman Jack Ma announced in September 2018 that he would step down from the latter position within a year, to be replaced by CEO Daniel Zhang.
Tsai had led Alibaba Innovation Ventures together with managing partner Ethan Ying Xie, who took 11th place in this year’s GCV Powerlist. Alibaba has also disclosed that it is spinning off its supermarket division, Freshippo, and plans to merge its enterprise software arm, DingTalk, with cloud computing subsidiary Alibaba Cloud.
Alibaba began ramping up investments when Xie joined the company in 2013. Its portfolio includes purchases of, or investments in Southeast Asian e-commerce unicorns Lazada and Tokopedia, brick-and-mortar retailers Easyhome, Sun Art and InTime, technology developers such as Magic Leap and app-based service providers like Ofo and Ele.me.
– Image courtesy of Alibaba
