Jack Ma is Alibaba’s lead founder and, since May 2013, its executive chairman. From the founding in 1999 until May 2013, Jack served as chairman and chief executive officer. He is also the founder of the Zhejiang-based Jack Ma Foundation. Jack currently serves on the board of SoftBank Corp., a Japanese corporation listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He is also a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, chairman of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, as well as chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club. In January 2016, he was named a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocate by the United Nations. In September 2016, he was named special adviser of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business, which holds the rank of assistant secretary-general of the United Nations. Ma graduated from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute with a major in English language education.
