Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang step down from Tmall, Taobao as the company continues management reshuffle

Alibaba Group Holding chairman and chief executive Daniel Zhang has stepped down as legal representative of entities behind Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, following one of the company’s biggest management reshuffle started from December 2021.

Trudy Dai Shan, one of Alibaba’s 18 founding members, has replaced Daniel Zhang as chairwomen and legal representative at Zhejiang Tmall Technology Co., Ltd and Taobao (China) Software Co.,Ltd,  according to Chinese business data and investigation platform Tianyancha.

Prior to her new role, Dai held various senior positions in Alibaba including the president of Alibaba’s industrial e-commerce operation from January 2017 to December 2021, overseeing Alibaba.com, 1688.com, AliExpress and bargain marketplace Taobao Deals

Dai also served as Alibaba’s chief customer officer from 2014 to 2017.

Jiang Fan, who is currently in charge of leading Alibaba’s overseas e-commerce operations, has also stepped aside as legal representative, chairman and general manager of Zhejiang Taobao Network Co and Zhejiang Tmall Network Co.

In December 2021, Alibaba has undergone a round of management reshuffle to implement “diversified management”, which was mentioned by Daniel Zhang in an internal letter.

At the time, Dai was appointed to head Alibaba’s China digital commerce unit, she quickly made a key move in the role by reorganizing the back-end operation of Taobao and Tmall. Toby Xu, the deputy chief financial officer who joined the company in July 2018, has succeed Maggie Wu as the company’s CFO effective on April 1.

In her 15 years career of Alibaba, Maggie Wu has helped lead three company public listings as CFO: Alibaba.com on the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX) in 2007, Alibaba Group Holding on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.

The management reshuffle come as the company is dealing with economic and a new regulatory environment in China.

 Alibaba booked a 10 percent revenue increase in October-December 2021 to 242.6 billion yuan ($37.3 billion), marking the first time quarterly sales growth has fallen below 20%.