Jonathan Lu or Lu Zhaoxi (; born 1969) is an honorary partner of Alibaba Group. From 2013 to 2015, Lu served as Alibaba's CEO. He was succeeded by Daniel Zhang.

Biography

Early life and education

When Lu was in highschool, he wanted to be an architect. However, according to his statements, he forgot to complete a page on his Gaokao Exam and ended up getting a degree in hotel management from

Guangzhou University Guangzhou University (GU; ) is a state university in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, China. The university is made up of two campuses. The major campus is located in Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center (HEMC, geographically called X ...

. After graduation, he worked as a receptionist at a

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Career

According to his public statements, before being tapped to become CEO, Lu worked at Alibaba for 13 years, including stints with the business-to-business division (alibaba.com),

Taobao.com Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba ...

, and

Yun OS AliOS (formerly YunOS and Aliyun OS) is a Linux distribution developed by Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of Mainland Chinese company Alibaba Group. It is designed for smart cars and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and it had been used as a mob ...

. In 2013, Jack Ma selected Lu as his successor as CEO. During his tenure as CEO, Lu oversaw Alibaba's $21.8 billion

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. At the end of his tenure, Alibaba was doing well, beating market expectations, but there were rumors that

Jack Ma Jack Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. In addition, he co-founded Yunfen ...

, Alibaba's founder, no longer trusted Lu's ability to run the company. In 2015, Lu was the first senior manager to be named an "Honorary Partner", effectively retiring. , Lu has a net worth of 1.1 billion US Dollars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Jonathan 1969 births Alibaba Group people Guangzhou University alumni Chinese chief executives Businesspeople from Guangzhou Chinese computer businesspeople Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Billionaires from Guangdong