Ma Yun, the man better known to the world as Jack Ma (the richest man in China), will "do a Bill Gates" when he retires and devote the rest of his life to philanthropy. He also plans to go back to his first love, teaching.
The Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, who will turn 54 on Sept. 10, has confirmed his original plan to devote his life after retirement to taking charge of the Jack Ma Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 2014 and based in Zhejiang Province. He previously said he wants to retire early, a lesson he learned from his idol Bill Gates who said he waited too long before retiring.
Ma is now preparing for a future divorced from the day-to-day grind of the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the company he co-founded and turned into China's version of Amazon.com. Alibaba reported a net income of $9.79 billion in the first quarter of the year and has a market value of more than $400 billion. Jack Ma is worth some $40 billion.
Ma revealed he's dedicating more and more of his time and fortune to philanthropy. The aim of the Jack Ma Foundation is to promote human development in harmony with both society and the environment. It said its mission is to work towards a world of bluer skies, cleaner water, healthier communities, and more open thinking.
The foundation intends to awaken social consciousness and responsibility to cultivate an innovative and sustainable model for a better world in areas such as education, the environment, public health and personnel development.
Education is important to Ma, a former English teacher who graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. As such, his foundation focuses heavily on education. The foundation's program has three core parts: the "Jack Ma Rural Teacher Initiative;" the "Jack Ma Rural Headmaster Initiative" and an "Education Network Platform" for all educators and students in China,
He says Bill Gates, the retired billionaire founder of Microsoft Corporation, helped inspire him into philanthropy. Gates and his wife founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in 2000, the largest private foundation in the United States with $50.7 billion in assets.
BMGF's global aims are to healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in the U.S., to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.
Ma said there are lot of things he can learn from Bill Gates. While admitting he can never be as rich as Gates (who's worth $95 billion), "one thing I can do better is to retire earlier."
He said that some day and soon, "I'll go back to teaching." He noted that this is something he thinks he can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba.
He didn't say when he'd retire, however.Ma Yun, the man better known to the world as Jack Ma (the richest man in China), will "do a Bill Gates" when he retires and devote the rest of his life to philanthropy. He also plans to go back to his first love, teaching.
The Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, who will turn 54 on Sept. 10, has confirmed his original plan to devote his life after retirement to taking charge of the Jack Ma Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 2014 and based in Zhejiang Province. He previously said he wants to retire early, a lesson he learned from his idol Bill Gates who said he waited too long before retiring.
Ma is now preparing for a future divorced from the day-to-day grind of the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the company he co-founded and turned into China's version of Amazon.com. Alibaba reported a net income of $9.79 billion in the first quarter of the year and has a market value of more than $400 billion. Jack Ma is worth some $40 billion.
Ma revealed he's dedicating more and more of his time and fortune to philanthropy. The aim of the Jack Ma Foundation is to promote human development in harmony with both society and the environment. It said its mission is to work towards a world of bluer skies, cleaner water, healthier communities, and more open thinking.
The foundation intends to awaken social consciousness and responsibility to cultivate an innovative and sustainable model for a better world in areas such as education, the environment, public health and personnel development.
Education is important to Ma, a former English teacher who graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. As such, his foundation focuses heavily on education. The foundation's program has three core parts: the "Jack Ma Rural Teacher Initiative;" the "Jack Ma Rural Headmaster Initiative" and an "Education Network Platform" for all educators and students in China,
He says Bill Gates, the retired billionaire founder of Microsoft Corporation, helped inspire him into philanthropy. Gates and his wife founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in 2000, the largest private foundation in the United States with $50.7 billion in assets.
BMGF's global aims are to healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in the U.S., to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.
Ma said there are lot of things he can learn from Bill Gates. While admitting he can never be as rich as Gates (who's worth $95 billion), "one thing I can do better is to retire earlier."
He said that some day and soon, "I'll go back to teaching." He noted that this is something he thinks he can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba.
He didn't say when he'd retire, however.
