Daniel Zhang Yong () is a Chinese business executive who was the

executive chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Alibaba Group Alibaba Group Holding Limited, branded as Alibaba (), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in E-commerce in China, e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzho ...

. Before becoming Alibaba's chief, Zhang was best known for his roles as CEO of

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

and president of Tmall (owned by Alibaba). While running Tmall, Zhang created the

Singles' Day Singles' Day () or Double 11 () is an unofficial Chinese holiday for people who are not in a relationship. The date, 11 November (11/11), was chosen because the numeral 1 resembles a bare stick (), Chinese Internet slang for an unmarried man. ...

shopping holiday, an annual Chinese sales event with gross sales reaching four times higher than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. In 2020, Zhang was included on ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''s list of 100 most influential people in the world.

Early life and education

Zhang was born in Shanghai in 1972. He studied finance at

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics The Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) is a public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, finance and economics university located in Shanghai, China. The university is affiliated with the ...

Career

After graduation, he worked for

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London. It was one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

, just before its bankruptcy due to trader

Nick Leeson Nicholas William Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorised and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest existing merchant bank ...

. 1995–2002, he worked for one of the former "Big Five" accounting firms

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...

which collapsed due to the

Enron scandal The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron, Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in October 2001, which led to the dissolution of its accounting ...

. He then worked for

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a Multinational corporation, multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Fo ...

for two years starting in 2002. Zhang first joined

(an Alibaba subsidiary) in 2007 as its

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

. The following year he became the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of Taobao. In 2011, Zhang was promoted to president of Tmall, a business-to-consumer shopping spinoff from Taobao. It was during his time running Tmall that Zhang launched the

shopping event. In 2013, Zhang was promoted to chief operating officer of Alibaba Group, and eventually succeeded Jonathan Lu as the CEO in 2015. On September 10, 2018,

Jack Ma Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964), or more commonly referred as Jack Ma, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and co-founder of Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. As of May 2025, Ma's ne ...

announced that Zhang would also take over as executive chairman, effective in one year on September 10, 2019. Alibaba employees pick nicknames for themselves when they first join the company. Daniel Zhang's nickname is "Free and Unfettered Person" (). On September 10, 2023, Daniel Zhang stepped down as CEO and chairman, and Eddie Wu replaced him as the new CEO and Joseph Tsai replaced him as the new chairman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Daniel 1972 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Alibaba Group people Businesspeople from Shanghai Chinese chief financial officers Chinese chief executives Chinese computer businesspeople PwC people Shanghai University of Finance and Economics alumni Shanda people